China dropped 18 places in the year-end world rankings announced by
the International Soccer Federation (FIFA) yesterday, from 54th at
the end of 2004 to 72nd place with 548 points, the same as Kuwait
and 8th in Asia.
Brazil topped the list for the fourth consecutive year with 840
points, followed by the Czech Republic, trailing 44 points, the
Netherlands and Argentina. Ghana won the "Best Mover" award by
growing up 27places since December 2004.
Japan moved up two places to 15th with 695 points to lead Asian
soccer, followed by Iran and South Korea in 19th and 29th positions
respectively.
Despite China's seemingly good performance this year, winning
the East Asian championship in August and East Asian Games in
November, it has failed to break its overall downward rankings
trend.
China gained its best-ever position, 54th, in 2001 thanks to its
performance at the World Cup Asian qualifiers, but the team lost
all 3 games at the 2002 World Cup (nil goal, -9 shots), dropping to
63rd.
The next year, playing only 8 games with 2 wins, 2 draws and 4
losses, China continued to fall, standing at 86th. In 2004, it only
lost two A-class games, returning to 54th, but two defeats were
more significant than the promotion: 3-1 down to Japan in the final
of the Asian Cup and a 1-0 loss to Kuwait in the 2006 World Cup
qualifier.
This year, regardless of a win at the non-A-class East Asian
Games, China, in their 9 primary games with a record of 2 wins, 3
draws and 4 losses, only beat Costa Rica and North Korea.
FIFA's standings are based on their analysis of countries'
results over eight years, weighted according to how recently
matches were played, opponents' strength and importance of each
match.
China will probably lose its seeded team identity at the 2010
World Cup qualifying games with its FIFA ranking continuing to
drop, which might lead to early clashes with regional powerhouses
like Japan and South Korea.
Rankings of five Asian countries 2001-2005
Year Japan Iran South Korea Saudi
Arabia China
2005
15 19
29
33
72
2004 17 20 22
28
54
2003
29 28
22
26 86
2002 22
33
20
38
63
2001 34
29
42
31 54
(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, December 20, 2005)
