Italy are much, much better than Armenia so you'd expect them to win even if they played a total reserve side. Just as you would with England. England very rarely lose games or draw them with poor sides like Armenia yet everyone still goes on about how **** we are. Most top nations seem to get poor results now and then. I'm just giving it some perspective for next time we get an uninspiring draw away at some far-flung corner of Europe and everyone loses their minds. History doesn't come into it unless you think Leeds and Forest are better than City. I'm talking about right now. France and Portugal failed to qualify automatically, Italy drew with Armenia. We didn't do either of those things and as Macca said, our goals for and against have both been up there with the best in Europe. So right now we clearly aren't that bad. You're usually quite logical so I can't understand how you've arrived at this conclusion. Why do so many football fans think history affects the future? For what it's worth I think Italy are a good side but number of WC wins years ago means nothing. Even the 2006 one was an entire generation of players ago.
Fair play, it just goes to show how useless these rankings are; Italy were 4th, they play four games and remain unbeaten winning two and drawing two, so they drop out of the top 8. Switzerland were 14th, they play four games winning three and drawing 1 and thats enough to but them in the top 8.
It's ridiculous. Especially when teams like Colombia are in the top 7. They only get to play two decent sides outside of tournaments. I know they can't help being South-American but ffs how many European sides are better than them?
http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtools/prognosis.html Fifa ranking tool (and I don't mean Sepp Blatter)
I know its madness, but not entirely surprising when you have those idiots in charge. The only advantage to England is that being in the 2nd pot means we could draw Switzerland/Colombia and two teams from the lower pots which would give us a great chance of getting out of the groups.
10th. At least we aren't below Greece anymore! Using your tool, I've worked out that the top 20 should be: 1. Spain 1513 2. Germany 1311 3. Argentina 1266 4. Colombia 1178 5. Belgium 1175 6. Uruguay 1164 7. Switzerland 1138 8. Netherlands 1136 9. Italy 1136 10. England 1080 11. Brazil 1078 12. Chile 1051 13. USA 1040 14. Portugal 1036 15. Greece 983 16. Bosnia Herzegovina 925 17. Ivory Coast 917 18. Croatia 901 19. Russia 874 20. Ukraine 871 The top seeds will be the top 7 and Brazil.
I know for a FACT that if results go the right way in South America tonight then Italy are in the top seeds. So how am I wrong? They purely and simply have a different attitude to matches. We try and win every game, they're calculated and give it their all when it's logical and when nothing is at stake they don't.
Looks like Ukraine (871) will edge out France (870) for a playoff seeding by one point. Both have gone above Sweden. Seeds: Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Ukraine Others: France, Sweden, Romania, Iceland If I were the non-seeds, I'd be hoping to get Greece.
Hmm, all Italian press today said it depends on what happens tonight in South America. I assumed it was results, what else is it then?
OR they were referring to the rankings being published, which is still a mistake as they are revealed officially tomorrow. I have already posted what they will be above using FIFAs own calculator on their site, and Italy are joint 8th. The top 7 plus Brazil are in the top seeds.
They've cocked up big time there, as Uruguay beat Argentina 3-2, Colombia beat Paraguay 2-1, Chile beat Ecuador 2-1 and Peru vs Bolivia finished 1-1.
One minor caveat: Uruguay aren't there yet! Should they lose their playoff to Jordan (admittedly unlikely), then how would the Dutch and Italians be separated if they are indeed both on 1136 points?
