Blog

Super Eagles remain Africa’s second best beat France

Posted by Akin Osunlaja WebLagosian on June 4, 2009 at 8:11pm
Despite beating France, the 1998 World Cup winners in a friendly game on Tuesday night in Saint Etienne, Nigeria’s Super Eagles retained their 30th position on the global scale of the FIFA ranking released yesterday. Nigeria however remains Africa’s second best behind Cameroon. Ghana’s Black Stars are third while Cote D’Ivoire is fourth with Egypt fifth. In the sixth place is Gabon while Burkina Faso moved up to the seventh. Nigeria’s rival in the World Cup Group 2 Tunisia is eighth with Guinea and Mali completing the African top ten placement. A jump-up of six places in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will help the morale of the team, who are chasing a first-ever place at the FIFA World Cup™ finals which next year is being hosted in neighbouring South Africa. After holding Nigeria to a draw in their opening tie of the final group phase in March, Mozambique's Mambas are brimming with confidence as they prepare for two matches on the road in June - first away against Tunisia on 6 June and then onto Kenya for a meeting in Nairobi on 20 June. Mozambique are now in 80th place in the world standings, edging ever closer to their best-ever position of 66th, set some 12 years ago. The team are now well ahead of their average position of 104 and showing steady progress with each passing month. Indeed, Mozambique won the award in 2007 as the Best Mover in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, ahead of Norway and New Caledonia. June will be a watershed month as the two away trips present a real examination of the extent of their potential. Mozambique have been flirting with African football's superpowers in recent years but the jury is still out on whether they have the credentials to join the elite ranks. European champions Spain continue to lead the way in the June edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, and they still hold a comfortable lead at the top. Within the top ten, there is movement directly behind the Iberians, however, as the Netherlands have overtaken Germany and reclaimed second place in the Ranking for the first time since October 2005. Other teams to have traded places are Italy (4th, up 1) and Brazil (5th, down 1), as well as England (6th, up 1) and Argentina (7th, down 1). The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 1 July 2009.
Tags: Africa’s, Eagles, France, Super, beat, best, remain, second
E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Follow

You need to be a member of 9jabook Africa's Ist Social Network to add comments!

Join 9jabook Africa's Ist Social Network

Latest Blog Posts

Most Popular Blog Posts

Blog Topics by Tags

  • in (506)
  • to (479)
  • of (339)
  • ! (213)
  • as (166)
  • is (157)
  • a (156)

Monthly Archives