October rankings

Somehow, the release of the October FIFA rankings last Wednesday escaped my attention. On the Canadian front, there wasn't a lot of activity, with a move up 3 spots to 51st, just off the first page.

The interesting stuff was going on at the top, with Italy falling out of 1st, being passed by rivals Argentina and Brazil. Here's the top 20:

1	Argentina	1533	1		82
2	Brazil	1459	1		15
3	Italy	1387	-2		-101
4	France	1271	2		51
5	Germany	1245	-1		-85
6	Spain	1226	1		48
7	Netherlands	1207	-2		-39
8	Portugal	1203	0		34
9	Czech Republic	1174	2		92
10	Croatia	1155	0		4
11	England	1137	-2		-28
12	Romania	1086	0		49
13	Scotland	1049	1		24
14	Greece	1034	1		94
15	Mexico	978	-2		-48
16	Russia	960	10		109
17	Uruguay	900	2		11
18	USA	886	0		-11
19	Nigeria	841	4		-26
20	Poland	837	-4		-89

Lots of action in the middle of the CONCACAF table, including big jumps from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, while Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica tumbled.

15	1	Mexico	978	-2		-48
18	2	USA	886	0		-11
51	3	Canada	596	3		49
55	4	Honduras	574	4		58
64	5	Cuba	485	7		43
65	6	Panama	483	1		13
66	7	Costa Rica	476	-10		-58
68	8	Haiti	469	15		62
73	9	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	428	24		70
78	10	Trinidad and Tobago	414	-14		-63
92	11	Guyana	362	11		25
93	12	Barbados	359	16		51
100	13	Guatemala	341	-12		-46
103	14	Jamaica	319	-7		-42
134	15	Bermuda	202	1		8
141	16	El Salvador	175	-4		-7
144	17	Suriname	160	-1		0
145	18	Antigua and Barbuda	156	-14		-59
148	19	Dominican Republic	143	-9		-32
156	20	St. Kitts and Nevis	107	-10		-39
161	21	Nicaragua	96	-3		0
163	22	St. Lucia	92	0		5
165	23	Grenada	90	-3		0
170	24	Bahamas	68	-2		0
180	25	British Virgin Islands	34	-1		1
181	26	Turks and Caicos Islands	32	0		0
183	27	Netherlands Antilles	30	-1		0
187	28	Dominica	21	-1		0
188	29	Cayman Islands	20	0		0
195	30	Puerto Rico	10	0		0
197	31	Anguilla	4	0		0
200	32	Belize	0	0		0
200	33	Aruba	0	0		0
200	34	US Virgin Islands	0	0		0
200	35	Montserrat	0	0		0

To be honest, I don't really understand how St. V & G jumped 24 spots, even though they haven't played a competitive match since May, but beyond the top 40 or so spots, the whole FIFA table is pretty suspect.

Canada's next opponent, South Africa, dropped 10 spots to 83, in the region that Canada inhabited a year ago.