Back of the Net!

It’s interesting to see that England have improved their FIFA rankings considerably since Fabio Capello took over, and the most recent update shows them creeping up behind Portgual and sitting joint 10th (or 11th if you’re pedantic).

1    Spain        1657    0    Equal    14
2    Germany        1413    1    Up    77
3    Italy        1356    -1    Down    -9
4    Netherlands 1306    1    Up    48
5    Brazil        1286    -1    Down    6
6    Argentina    1181    1    Up    -19
7    Croatia        1158    -1    Down    -65
8    Russia        1079    1    Up    3
9    Czech Rep.    1062    -1    Down    -49
10    Portugal    1058    0    Equal    -17
10    England        1058    4    Up    76

With England announcing a pair of fixtures against Holland today (one for the international kick off of the 2009-2010 season on August 12th in Amsterdam, another in England in 2011) and awaiting confirmation of the venue for their February 12th friendly with Spain, the 2009 international calendar is almost complete.

When we find ourselves watching the Holland game, England will have just two World Cup qualifiers remaining - and should to all intents and purposes have qualified for the tournament.

Their improvement since Steve McClaren’s disastrous era as “manager” has been good enough to see them make the top 10 a top 11 - and there’s no reason why results between now and the 2010 World Cup shouldn’t see England push into the top 5.

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