April: Canada makes 48-point jump in ranking

Canada made the biggest jump amongst all CONCACAF teams in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Canada jumped 48 points and nine spots on the latest ranking, released on Wednesday 13 April 2011. Canada moved up to seventh within CONCACAF and 75th overall on the global ranking.



The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings looks at each country’s international results from the last four years. The ranking takes into account the result, the importance of the match, the strength of the opponent, the regional strength, the time period, and the number of matches per year. Matches played more than a year ago are valued 50% of matches played in the last year (matches played more than two years ago are valued at 30% while matches played more than three years ago are valued at 20%).



Canada made its big jump thanks to an impressive 1:0 victory over Belarus on 29 March 2011. Belarus had been ranked 37th, but fell to 53rd after a pair of losses in late March (0:1 to Albania and 0:1 to Canada).



USA, Mexico and Honduras remain the top-3 nations in CONCACAF, with Costa Rica now back in the fourth spot in the confederation. Jamaica, Panama, Canada, Cuba, El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago round out the CONCACAF top-10.



On the overall global ranking, Spain and Netherlands remain first and second, positions they have held since last summer’s 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ championship final. The world’s top-5 also includes Brazil (back up to third place), Germany and Argentina.



CONCACAF

22 1 USA 855

26 2 Mexico 818

43 3 Honduras 597

55 4 Costa Rica 540

64 5 Jamaica 522

68 6 Panama 488

75 7 Canada 439

82 8 Cuba 411

87 9 El Salvador 388

94 10 Trinidad and Tobago 344