Vietnam ties Philippines in latest FIFA rankings

Ivan Saldajeno (file photo)
By Ivan Saldajeno

The Philippine Azkals slipped three spots in the latest FIFA rankings and ended up in a tie with Vietnam as Southeast Asia's top football countries.

The Azkals, who did not play last month, fell to 132nd place from 129th in the previous update.

Vietnam moved up one spot to join the Philippines and Aruba, which also lost three notches, in a three-way logjam for 132nd spot. All three nations scored 221 points each.

Both the Philippines and Vietnam are now tied for 17th place in the AFC rankings.

Meanwhile, Germany and Argentina remained first and second in the latest rankings, even as Portugal took solo seventh.

The reigning World Cup champion garnered 1,729 points, while the runner-up followed with 1,534.

Portugal, on the other hand, broke loose of a tie with France as the latter slip one spot to eighth place, only adding eight points to the total points it amassed last month. The Portuguese squad added 29 points from last month's point total.

Uruguay and Spain switched places to round up the Top 10. Uruguay moved up to ninth place, while Spain dropped to tenth.

Iran remained as the top Asian football nation, even moving up by ten spots in the global rankings to be at 41st place overall.

South Korea, on the other hand, overtook Japan in second place as the earlier moved up by 15 and the latter slipped one spot to 54th and 55th places respectively in the overall ranking.

African nations gained distinctions of the biggest rise and fall in the latest FIFA rankings.

Equatorial Guinea made a huge jump as it went up by 69 places to 49th spot from 118th. Libya, on the other hand, fell 35 notches to 113th place from 78th last month.