Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: The Australian women’s national team have capped a near-perfect year, rising two places to reach an all-time high of fourth place in the newly released FIFA World Rankings on Friday.
The rise, which sees Alen Stajcic’s team leapfrog France and Canada, reflects an outstanding run of form which has included seven consecutive international wins, all against teams in the global top 15 at the time the matches were held.
Only the United States, Germany and England sit above the Australians, who reach heights unmatched by any Asian team since Japan climbed to third in the wake of their famous 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup triumph in Germany.
The current Japanese side, who will meet the Matildas in the group stage at April’s AFC Women’s Asian Cup, fell one place to ninth, while DPR Korea dropped out of the top ten after they also fell by a single positon to 11th.
Korea Republic, who will also meet Australia and Japan at Jordan 2018, climbed one place to 13th, while China PR’s four-match international losing streak contributed to their three-position drop to 16th.
Thailand (30th) remain narrowly ahead of Southeast Asian rivals Vietnam (32nd) after both nations fell by a single place, while Jordan remains 50th for the third consecutive rankings update.
Despite not playing any matches in the period since the last update, fellow AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers the Philippines climbed one position to 69th.