December: Canada ranked eighth in CONCACAF

Canada closed out the 2010 calendar year ranked eighth amongst CONCACAF nations on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Canada gained eight points, but remained eighth in the region despite moving up one place on the global ranking.



With multiple wins in their official continental matches in the Caribbean region, Jamaica and Cuba jumped by more than 100 points from November to December. Jamaica is now the third-ranked nation in CONCACAF while Cuba is the fifth-ranked nation within the region.



The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings looks at each country’s international results from the last four years. The ranking takes into account the result, the importance of the match, the strength of the opponent, the regional strength, the time period, and the number of matches per year. Matches played more than a year ago are valued 50% of matches played in the last year (matches played more than two years ago are valued at 30% while matches played more than three years ago are valued at 20%).



Within CONCACAF, USA and Mexico remain one and two while Honduras has dropped to fourth behind Jamaica (as a result of those Caribbean qualifiers). After Cuba, the top-5 are followed by Panama, Costa Rica, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti.



On the overall FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, there was one change to the top-5 group, with Germany sneaking ahead of Brazil. The top-five ranking is now Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Brazil and Argentina.



CONCACAF

18 1 USA 867

27 2 Mexico 795

58 3 Jamaica 522

59 4 Honduras 516

62 5 Cuba 512

64 6 Panama 501

69 7 Costa Rica 467

84 8 Canada 411

89 9 Trinidad and Tobago 373

90 10 Haiti 367