Ronaldo, Neymar and his Brazilian squad have just bumped Portugal for the number 3 spot in the latest FIFA rankings. The 2014 World Cup host nation currently holds 1242 points, 58 points shy of tying with second placer Germany and 243 points behind the number one ranked football team of the world and defending EUFA and World Cup Champions, Spain.
The Brazilians are taking shape and have risen considerably in the world rankings. They were sitting on the sixth place just a month ago and have now moved passed 3 teams - Colombia, Uruguay and now Portugal - to clinch the 3rd FIFA ranking and become South-Americas highest place team. It should also be put in consideration that Brazil has won more points than any country this year with 801.78 points - nearly 200 points more than Spain. They would have been sitting at the number 1 spot if not for their 2013 point performance.
Portugal, after cashing in on bonus ranking points for their victory over Sweden in the previous World Cup play offs, are now in the number 4 spot while Argentina and Switzerland have each climbed two spots and are now ranked 5th and 6th respectively. Uruguay moved one spot down to 7th while Columbia went tumbling down the rankings from 5th to 8th.
2012 Euro Finalists Italy maintain their hold on the 9th spot while their World Cup group D rival England have clawed their way back to the top ten, clinching the 10th spot at the expense of Greece, who drop to 12th. Belgium move one spot up to 11th even though their recent 5-1 friendly win against Luxembourg was vetoed after coach Marc Wilmots utilized more than the allowed number of substitutes.
United States are now up one place to 13th, overtaking Chile, while the Netherlands and France sit on the 15th and 17th place respectively. Mexico move down one place to 20th. Algeria made a significant rise in the rankings, up by 3 spots to grab hold of 22nd spot and become the highest place team in the African side as Ivory Coast gave up 3 places, going down to the 23rd spot.
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