Are Spain the Best Team in the World Now?

July 2nd, 2008 | by: Daryl |

FIFA says… yes. The latest FIFA World rankings were released today, and a month of World Cup qualifying and a little tournament called Euro 2008 has produced quite a shake up.

Former leaders Argentina have slipped to sixth place, while Brazil have slipped from second to fourth.

The new world order sees Euro 2008 champs Spain sitting on top, Italy moving up from third to second (huh?) and Germany in third. In fact all the successful Euro 2008 countries have made leaps up the table. Croatia are up to 7th, the Netherlands up to 5th. And somehow Scotland moved up one place to 16th despite taking the summer off.

Euro nations who’ve slipped include Greece (down from 8th to 18th) and France (down from 7th to 10th.) But the big losers are, predictably, England. Their non-involvement in Euro 2008 has seen the team fall out of the top 10 (they were 9th) all the way to 15th. Ouchy.

Top 20 below:

1. (4) Spain
2. (3) Italy
3. (5) Germany
4. (2) Brazil
5. (10) Netherlands
6. (1) Argentina
7. (15) Croatia
8. (6) Czech Republic
9. (11) Portugal
10. (7) France
11. (24) Russia
12. (12) Romania
13. (13) Cameroon
14. (20) Turkey
15. (9) England
16. (17) Scotland
17. (18) Bulgaria
18. (8) Greece
19. (14) Mexico
20 (16) Ghana

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Ted

No.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Ted, why not? And who is?
john

I don’t have a problem with Spain as number one. Germany, Brazil and Italy are always in there somewhere top 5, justifiable. Just a quick glance at their records will confirm this.

Argentina is too high at 6 (have they won something recently and I missed it?) and Turkey is too low.
Anthony

Wasn’t Austria at 93 or something at the beginning of the Euros? Now they’re at 105. I would’ve guessed a little bump up for them.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Argentina made it to the final of Copa America 2007, which I imagine is worth a lot of points.
http://redbulls.theoffside.com Dave Martinez

daryl – no.

Argentina is #1 hands down. Italy is overrated. France is old. England is in transition. Brazil is lost without Kaka.

Spain is a contender, but one trophy in a billion years does not the best team make.
http://redbulls.theoffside.com Dave Martinez

Fifa rankings are so ridiculous anyway.
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

FIFA rankings are silly. Based on current play, Brazil is WAY overrated. If they keep playing like they are right now, they’re not even guaranteed a World Cup slot.

But does anybody really expect them to keep playing like they are now?
Martin

I would say, yes, Spain is the best team right now.

I would by no means say that just winning the Euro 2008 makes you the best team in the world. But the way Spain won it this year at least makes them the best in Europe (being able to win both ugly and beautifully, and just.. dominating).

Couple that with the state of the other confederations:
CONCACAF, Asia, and Oceania can’t produce any “greatest in the world” candidates yet. Africa has a couple of great national teams (Ghana, Egypt, Nigeria come to mind) but I nothing I’ve seen would prove them to be better than Europe’s finest.

As for South America, Brazil and Argentina have just not been impressive the last few months. (We are talking NOW.) They have both been just getting by in qualifiers, and haven’t looked like cohesive teams for a while. Look at their play in Belo Horizonte as an example. Paraguay leads the CONMEBOL ranking tables, so THEY could be argued to be the best.

But based on what we know now, Spain seems like the best bet at being.. err.. the best national team right now.
AJ

Brazil lost to Paraguay and drew with Argentina. While Argentina had 2 draws in their last two games. Yet they’re the ones that slip down so hard? And don’t get me started with Italy @ #2. Just wrong in so many ways.
Nolan

How did Argentina slip more than Brazil? Brazil might not even qualify for the World Cup!
Martin

In the end, these rankings are only based on numbers. People act like these changes are the result of mostly the last month’s happenings. Last month’s action only accounts for little over 2% of the points!

Think of the things that stopped counting (such as the last Euro, thus Greece’s fall) and think of the things that still count!

Boo-hoo-hoo how is Brazil still so far up? Well.. and call me crazy… it might be the fact that they have a Confederations Cup AND a Copa America title in the past four years, in spite of their WC2010 qualifying mediocrity.
http://www.forzafutbol.com elisa

Look I love the way Argentina plays and they have quality players, but they keep bottling it when the going gets rough. Spain won the EC people, so well deserved. Fifa finally getting something right.
http://galatasaray.theoffside.com Musab

The Turks rose pretty well, let’s just hope they continue…..
http://redbulls.theoffside.com Dave Martinez

EC does not the best team make.

No way.

Argentina slipping to 6 in one month? Why? because they werent part of a major european tournament? Maybe they should switch continent.

And Brazil and Italy make me want to barf. There is no way, NO WAY, they should be so high up there, World Cup or not.
http://www.torlaune.de/ gomez

Yes Spain currently is the best team in the world. Not because of the FIFA rankings but because they won the Euro 2008 and have a series of 22 games without losing.
Momo

Spain deserves to be on top
http://libertadores.theoffside.com Mauro

Spain deserves to be on top because they won the biggest tournament of THIS summer. So for now, I have to argue that they deserve it.

However, Argentina slipping to 6th and Brazil dropping only two based on recent results is bull. Brazil play friendlies against crap teams and fail to stomp them yet Argentina play Mexico (and trounce them) and the US (the Americans earned a hard fought draw) and they slip 5 places?

Please FIFA, do us all a favor and stop favoring Brazil.
Peter45

absolutely.
Martin

I’m astonished how people still fail to grasp that this is just a numbers game. It’s impossible to favor one team over another because it’s JUST ABOUT THE NUMBERS. Brazil has two titles to Argentina’s… nothing. I believe Argentina is definitely the better team right now, but this ranking isn’t just about RIGHT NOW… it’s about the last FOUR years.

The somewhat frustrating thing is that we go through this every month! People flabbergasted how some country could have fallen or risen… The events of the last month are a few buckets of water to a swimming pool of results.

I say again: Brazil is helped by a Confederations Cup and a Copa America in the last four years. The fact that it’s still ranked just 5th goes to show they have sucked apart from those two results. Italy, for one, is going to have an immense advantage for the next two years because their winning the World Cup in 2006 counts until 2008.
Hawk

spain owns

.
McTalian

Yes.
john

No doubt Spain is the best team in the world1!, players from real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Liverpool, Arsenal… come on guys…they are young and good, sick of playing big games with their clubs.
You have to consider that Spain have a very strong league and when they finish, the national team just don’t, the national selection have matches to play and the players have no rest, phisycally and mentally tired and this is the way Spain went to the world cup many many times. They always have good and talented players, but what happened this year is that they were young, hungry and united and you can not stop that.
Right now they are the best football team in the world.
Thierry

John, Xavi, Iniesta and co had rest all the Year with Barça, Villa had rest all his carreer ( is a Baros like, Hero of one Euro) is for that reason there were better physically. Spain the best team of the World, well, at this moment, seeing the result, may be, on the players value probably not. The Spain group was easy. They still didn’t beat Italy or France in an open play game. You are technically the best when you are able to beat all the team you encounter. They are surely one of the best team at the moment but they need to beat big team several times to prove they are actually the best. Their defense didn’t look so great and a not exhausted team could easily break them, in my opinion.
Luis

Villa a Baros like, Hero of one Euro????????
Well, in his last four seasons:
2004/05 Real Zaragoza 15 goals
2005/06 Valencia 25 goals
2006/07 Valencia 16 goals
2007/08 Valencia 18 goals
And he achieved this numbers at spaniard League, not in french or croatian one.

The group wasn´t easy anyway, in my opinion it was the second more difficult group. There was Russia (which later eliminated the Nederlands), Sweeden (with players like Ibrahimovic and Ljunberj) and Greece (they are not the best, but they were former Euro champions, we like it or not).

Spain had a horrible Euro 2004 at Portugal and a bad 2006 World Cup at Germany, but the spaniard football has been absolutely the best in this Euro and probably the best I´ve seen in the last 2 or 3 major international tournaments. In adition Spain has won every single game at this Euro and have a series of 22 games without losing.

I think that FIFA rankings are quite silly, but I think that AT THIS MOMENT, there´s no doubt about the best national team.

Let´s see what Del Bosque does in substitution of Aragones…
http://n/a Evil Han

Well? We shall see? If the Spanards are able to win 2010 World Cup in SA or the relocation host to USA. 2010 World Cup in USA here we come!!!!
http://n/a Evil Han

Well? We shall see? If the Spanards can win 2010 World Cup in SA? Or relocate the tournament to USA baby!!
Greiff

From Germany:

Gomez, you said it best; succinct, substantial !
Karl

Yes, i think they are not
Danny

Of course they are. No doubts. Not only they were far away the best team in the harder competition in Austria, but they were also the best in the WC in Germany, but with bad luck.
Only Argentina can get to be close…
But Spain is the best also in Basket, Tennis, etc,etc..What an unbeliveble country!!