The "underdogs" are moving up

World and European champions Spain remain unchallenged atop of this month’s FIFA/Coca- Cola World Ranking. La Roja’s having lost to England and draw with Costa Rica lost them

points, fortunatly for them their place on the global ladder remains unchanged. Just behind them, a shocking Germany is dangerously close to the second-placed Netherlands following their 3-0 victory in the match between the two sides. Right on their tale is Uruguay, who are continuing

to make progress due to their convincing 4-0 win over Chile in the South American Zone qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and a friendly defeat of Italy, which brought Cesare Prandelli's team's 13-game unbeaten run to an end. Within the top ten, England (5th, up 2) have climbed up the Ranking, as have Portugal (7th, up 1) and Croatia (8th, up 4) thanks to recent successes in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying. In the top 50, meanwhile, Czech Republic (33rd, up 14) and surprisingly Ecuador (42nd, up 10) have made the biggest jumps. The next three teams are currently in their highest-ever position since the launch of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking back in August 1993: Venezuela (39th, up 1), Cape Verde Islands (57th, up 9) and Antigua and Barbuda (83rd, up 7). What's even more shocking, Sao Tome e Príncipe (192nd, new) have been ranked for the first time in four years. In all, 131 international 'A' matches were played in the past month, of which 72 were Brazil 2014 preliminaries, eight were EURO 2012 qualifiers and the remaining 51 were friendlies. Seeing how much procress all these teams are making, even teams many of us never even heard of are doing, now really brings out the question will there soon be a new world leader?? Or better yet will an "underdog" win the world cup in 2014 over all the "strong teams"?? If all these "underdog" teams keeping jumping up 5, 10 up to 14 then Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Urguay better watch their backs. Did you guys notice that Brazil is not even in the top 5?....My point exactly!