FIFA RANKINGS - DO THEY MEAN ANYTHING?

JungleBoy

JungleBoy

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I have been wondering with South Africa ranked so poorly does that mean we don't stand a chance? Do these rankings even make sense? I mean Gabon, Israel, Bosnia, Nothern Ireland, Canada, Marcedonia all ranked way ahead of SA !?!?!?!?! I mean WTF ?
Are they seriously better or is the system skewed in favour of some confederations?


Rankings
 
I suspect we cannot beat any of the teams you list (maybe Canada we can squeeze a draw).
I think the ranks mean something in a general sense in terms of team strength...
 
Ask yourself when last did SA beat a good team.
Even in Confed we only manage to beat New Zealand. Though we played extremely well, a win is what counts.
 
Yeah flip, I wouldnt put any money on Bafana beating those teams.

The risk is too big.
 
Guys don't be so negative. I can guarantee you that we can draw against any team in the world. On any given day, we'll draw against the teams you mentioned and against all the teams outside the Fifa Top 10. On our day, we'll draw against all the in the Top 10.

However, draws don't get you anywhere, so we are screwed. Our team cannot score goals, but I will be supporting them in every way during the WC. We've got a tough draw, Mexico and Uruguay are really good teams. Suarez & Forlan worry me. But we may cause a shock or 2.
 
Hell, the teams out of the top 10 will murder us.

It is hard to be positive when you see Bafana play.

I will still be behind them 100% though.

Just being real.
 
Cantera said:
Hell, the teams out of the top 10 will murder us.

It is hard to be positive when you see Bafana play.

I will still be behind them 100% though.

Just being real.
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Did you watch the Confed cup? We weren't outclassed. Brazil had to pull out a free kick of pure magic to beat us.
 
hawker said:
Did you watch the Confed cup? We weren't outclassed. Brazil had to pull out a free kick of pure magic to beat us.
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Yes I did.

Brazil will be a trillion times stronger at the World Cup.
 
Look, let's get off the 'I hate Bafana, and they are **** and I will cheer for other teams crap for a bit', ok? As for the rankings, I think that the system is flawed, due to the confederation multiplier. Basically what it does is give European teams a bonus, no matter who they play. I know the idea is that Europe is the strongest continent, but the multiplier makes it hard for other countries to compete. That's why small European countries are ranked so highly. Europe has a large qualification process for tournements, were basically all teams play, at all stages. Compare with Africas 'mini-tournements', that act as knockout rounds. Thus European teams play more 'important' games, and get their points enhanced.
 
Cantera said:
Hell, the teams out of the top 10 will murder us.

It is hard to be positive when you see Bafana play.

I will still be behind them 100% though.

Just being real.
Click to expand...

Like Spain did yeah sure..
 
Not hating on Bafana, I will be supporting them 100000000000000000000000000000000000%

Just answering the topic, the reason why Bafana is so low on the rankings is because they are crap.
 
Bafana got ranked lower due to the fact of absence of playing international countries. (we were playing Brazilian teams remember). Yeah but the ranks sort of give you a picture-though not the complete picture :)
 
Cantera said:
Not hating on Bafana, I will be supporting them 100000000000000000000000000000000000%

Just answering the topic, the reason why Bafana is so low on the rankings is because they are crap.
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Say it like it is :D I like you
 
cr@zydude said:
Look, let's get off the 'I hate Bafana, and they are **** and I will cheer for other teams crap for a bit', ok? As for the rankings, I think that the system is flawed, due to the confederation multiplier. Basically what it does is give European teams a bonus, no matter who they play. I know the idea is that Europe is the strongest continent, but the multiplier makes it hard for other countries to compete. That's why small European countries are ranked so highly. Europe has a large qualification process for tournements, were basically all teams play, at all stages. Compare with Africas 'mini-tournements', that act as knockout rounds. Thus European teams play more 'important' games, and get their points enhanced.
Click to expand...

Dude, not saying we not supporting, but being realistic.
We do give teams a hard time, but we never win. We dont have the players who can score. Like against Brazil, it took a magic moment from Alves. Even against Spain, we played so well, but still never win.
Even if we dont win, i will be happy if we play well.
 
superskully said:
Dude, not saying we not supporting, but being realistic.
We do give teams a hard time, but we never win. We dont have the players who can score. Like against Brazil, it took a magic moment from Alves. Even against Spain, we played so well, but still never win.
Even if we dont win, i will be happy if we play well.
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+1

That is what I'm trying to say. We didn't play terribly, we just don't have the class to score goals against decent opposition on a regular basis.
 
cr@zydude said:
Look, let's get off the 'I hate Bafana, and they are **** and I will cheer for other teams crap for a bit', ok? As for the rankings, I think that the system is flawed, due to the confederation multiplier. Basically what it does is give European teams a bonus, no matter who they play. I know the idea is that Europe is the strongest continent, but the multiplier makes it hard for other countries to compete. That's why small European countries are ranked so highly. Europe has a large qualification process for tournements, were basically all teams play, at all stages. Compare with Africas 'mini-tournements', that act as knockout rounds. Thus European teams play more 'important' games, and get their points enhanced.
Click to expand...

I think you are confusing the european teams and the south american ones. In south america for the world cup q they have one pool with all teams playing each other twice and then the top 4 qualify with the 5 going to a play off vs asian/oceanian team. In europe there are 8/9 or something groups with the top 1 automaticly qualifying and the runner up going into a play off game vs another runner up. The european teams certainly don't play anywhere near the amount of qualifying games that a south american team plays.

On the confed cup I wouldn't read too much into it. Its basicly a glorified friendly tournament. Can guarantee you the super star players will be putting more effort into wc 2010 then they did at confed 2009.
 
People should not be fooled into thinking that Spain or Brazil played to their full potential at the Confed Cup.
 
stefan9 said:
I think you are confusing the european teams and the south american ones. In south america for the world cup q they have one pool with all teams playing each other twice and then the top 4 qualify with the 5 going to a play off vs asian/oceanian team. In europe there are 8/9 or something groups with the top 1 automaticly qualifying and the runner up going into a play off game vs another runner up. The european teams certainly don't play anywhere near the amount of qualifying games that a south american team plays.

On the confed cup I wouldn't read too much into it. Its basicly a glorified friendly tournament. Can guarantee you the super star players will be putting more effort into wc 2010 then they did at confed 2009.
Click to expand...


Europe has pools of about 8 teams, each teams plays every other twice, so that's 14 qualifiers.
 
Cantera said:
People should not be fooled into thinking that Spain or Brazil played to their full potential at the Confed Cup.
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You forgot to add Italy, they had a wonderful holiday in SA :)

Bafana Bafana is so great they managed to draw to North Korea! 105 in the world ;)

P.S they also only managed to draw with Faroe Islands :)

Perhaps they should target Papua New Guinea first... and work from there?
 
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