Mighty Warriors slip in rankings

The Zimbabwe senior women’s soccer team beat their South African counterparts 30 in the annual Unity Day Challenge Cup on December 22, courtesy of goals from Rudo Neshamba, Rutendo Makore and Kudakwashe Basopo.
Zimbabwe, who are now preparing for the African Cup of Nations qualifiers which get underway next month, got US$10 000 for winning the trophy while South Africa, who won the inaugural Unity Day Challenge Cup match last year, received US$8 000.
And coach Rosemary Mugadza’s side was expected to climb up the Fifa women’s world rankings following their latest and convincing victory over the highly rated neighbours.
But according to the latest Fifa/CocaCola world women’s rankings, which were recently released by the Switzerland-based world soccer governing body, the Mighty Warriors have slid two places down the ladder to 103 in the world and 11th in Africa with 1 180 points.
Olympic Gamesbound Banyana Banyana have, meanwhile, gone up one place in the latest rankings but are still way off an elusive place in the top 50.
The South African women’s national side are up one place in the latest poll to 66th despite a 30 pasting from Zimbabwe in a friendly in Harare just before Christmas.
Unlike the men’s rankings, which are released monthly, the women’s ratings only come out every three months because there is a lot less international football played by the ladies.
Banyana, who are to compete in their first major international tournament next July at the London Games, are the fifth highest African side in the rankings behind Nigeria, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.
They are next due to play South Korea, New Zealand and Northern Ireland in a tournament in Cyprus in February as part of their preOlympic preparation.
South Africa have never broken into the top 50 in women’s football. Their highest ranking achieved is 54, in March 2009.
The USA continue in top spot in the rankings ahead of Germany and Japan, who won the Women’s World Cup in July but remain third.
A total of 149 matches have been played since the last Fifa/CocaCola women’s world ranking, of which 66 were Uefa women’s Eueo 2013 qualifiers.
USA remain at the top of the table but are under pressure from secondplaced Germany, who are only five points behind them.
World champions Japan can be happy to find themselves in third place, the highest rank they have ever achieved.
The Nadeshiko benefited from Brazil’s inconsistent performances: two draws against Canada (seventh, up two), narrow wins over Mexico (21st, up one) and Costa Rica (41st, up three) and a defeat by Denmark (12th, up two) not only leave them with a loss of 28 points and in fourth place, but see them slip out of the top three for the first time since June 2008.
The 31 away defeat suffered by former world champions Norway (12th, unchanged) at the hands of Northern Ireland (54th, up 10) in the women’s Euro 2013 qualifiers left its mark: while Norway remain unchanged in 12th place alongside Denmark, Northern Ireland climbed to 54th place, their highest position since the women’s world ranking was introduced in 2003.
Spain too saw an improvement in their ranking thanks to their strong performances in the Eueo qualifiers, moving up to 17th place at China’s expense, who continued to drop in December.
Besides Spain, several other teams reached their bestever position, namely Mexico (21st, up one), Scotland (22nd, up one), Colombia (28th, up one), Belarus (37th, up one), Wales (46th, up one), Papua New Guinea (52nd, up one), Northern Ireland (54th, up 10) and Cameroon (61st, up five). The current women’s world ranking includes 135 countries, the highest number since December 2007 when a new record was set with 150 teams. The next Fifa/CocaCola women’s world ranking will be published on March 16, 2012. – Sports Reporter/SuperSport.