OFC: The Solomon Islands were the only movers of the Oceania nations in the latest FIFA ranking released on 25 June. The Solomon Islands moved up on place to occupy the 150th spot, just one behind Melanesian rivals Fiji who dropped three spots to 149.
Australia and New Zealand retain their first and second rank in Oceania respectively but both countries lost ground from the May ranking. Australia are in danger of falling out of the top fifty dropping one spot to 50 while New Zealand dropped two spots to be three behind Australia on 53.
Tonga recorded the biggest drop, falling five places to 183. Samoa and Papua New Guinea stay as they were in May at 168 and 169 respectively, while Vanuatu lost ground, dropping down a single slot to 162. Tahiti dropped two places but is still ranked the highest of the island nations at 122. The Cook Islands fell two places to 188 while American Samoa remains on 202.
In the full FIFA rankings, world champion Brazil is still out on top in first place, but France is closing in fast from second place and their recent good showing at the FIFA Confederations Cup is continued all the way – and considering Brazil’s demise in the group stages, could see some surprises in one month’s time.
Spain, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, England, United States and the Czech Republic rounds out the top ten, in that order. It is interesting to note that the world’s fifth placed team Netherlands and tenth best Czech Republic, did not even qualify for last year’s FIFA World Cup in Korea/Japan.
The only full internationals played by Oceania nations over the past month was on 14 June when Solomon Islands played Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby (Solomon Islands won 5-3) and New Zealand’s three matches (all losses) to Japan, Colombia and France at the Confederations Cup in France.
For the full FIFA rankings for OFC, visit the FIFA website by clicking on this link:
http://www.fifa.com/en/rank/results,ofc.html