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  Wed, August 24, 2011


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Dutch take over top spot in FIFA rankings
By SPORTS NETWORK


ZURICH -- For the first time in over a year, there has been a change at the top of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men's World Rankings as the Netherlands took over the top spot from Spain on Wednesday.

Spain's defeat against Italy in a friendly cost the 2010 World Cup champions the top spot, while Germany remained in third after a win over Brazil (6th, down 2), which dropped the South American side two places.

England (4th, up 2) benefited from Brazil's defeat while Uruguay (5th, no change) is now the highest-ranked team in South America.

Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Croatia make up the rest of the top 10 respectively.

Canada moved up three spots to rank 102nd in the world, sandwiched between the Middle East's Bahrain and Oman.

Mexico (20th, no change) remains the highest-ranked team in the CONCACAF region, while the United States (28th, up 2) moved up slightly to close the gap a bit.

Among the biggest movers inside the top 50 are Russia (13th, up 5), Nigeria (38th, up 5) and Algeria (46th, up 6), while Korea Republic (33rd, down 5), Czech Republic (42nd, down 4) and Venezuela (44th, down 4) dropped the most.

The next edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men's World Rankings will be released on Sept. 21.













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