USA complete 5 years at the summit

Despite the many matches played, there are only a few changes in the latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking. USA still lead the way ahead of Germany and Japan, with Brazil, France and Sweden following closely behind. The only movement in the top ten sees England move up one place to tie with Canada in seventh thanks to their Cyprus Cup win. At the top of the table, Olympic champions USA have managed to widen their lead over arch-rivals Germany with a 2-0 victory in the Algarve Cup final in Portugal, and are now on an unbeaten run of 29 matches since their 1-0 group-stage defeat to Japan in last year’s edition of this long-running tournament. The US women have not relinquished top position in the world ranking for exactly five years – a record that will be hard to beat. Norway have also benefited from positive results at the Algarve Cup, particularly their 2-0 win over current world champions Japan, which sees them overtake Italy and move into 11th place while also strengthening their prospects of making it into the top ten. Meanwhile in the top 50, New Zealand (20th, up 1) and Scotland (21st, up 2) have managed to match their highest-ever position since the introduction of the Women’s World Ranking. While Panama (62nd), Cyprus (104th) and Belize (121st) have resumed playing matches after a long break and hence re-entered the ranking, nine teams (Uzbekistan, Fiji, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Suriname, American Samoa and Bermuda) have been inactive for a lengthy period and are no longer ranked. From: FiFa