Azkals stay put in latest FIFA ranking

With that said, the Azkals remain as the second best team in Southeast Asia behind Vietnam (102nd overall) and 21st in the entire Asian continent. (Photo from the Azkals’ Facebook page)

MANILA — The Philippine Azkals remained in their previous FIFA ranking, the latest update released on Thursday show.

The Azkals stayed at the 115th spot as most of the non-participants in the recently held FIFA World Cup opted to take time off from international football.

With that said, the Azkals remain as the second best team in Southeast Asia behind Vietnam (102nd overall) and 21st in the entire Asian continent.

The huge shuffle ranking happened among the teams who competed in the World Cup.

France, which won it all, jumped six places to the number one spot in the world ranking.

Belgium, despite finishing third in the tournament, moved up to second in the world, dropping Brazil, which had a quarterfinal exit, to third overall.

Croatia, the other finalist, moved up by 16 notches to number four overall.

Uruguay moved nine places to fifth overall, while England, anchoring on a dream semifinal run in the tournament, is now at number six, six places up from last month’s ranking.

Germany, the erstwhile champion only to be eliminated after the group stages, fell 14 spots to 15th overall.

Iran, which barely missed the playoff cut in a World Cup group that included Spain and Portugal, overtook Australia as the top team in Asia, jumping five spots to 32nd overall.

Australia slipped seven spots to 43rd overall.

Japan, the only Asian team that made the World Cup playoffs, overtook South Korea in third place in the Asian rankings, going up by six spots to 55th overall. South Korea, which despite missing the Round of 16 played spoiler by shutting down Germany’s last hopes of making past the group stages, remained in 57th place.