FIFA Confederation Rankings Comparison (Oct 2010)

Comparing the six FIFA Confederations by averaging the top 10 and top 5 ranked teams of each region.

Average Rank of the Top Ten Teams in each FIFA Confederation

8.0 - Europe
32.0 - Africa
37.8 - South America
68.1 - Asia
70.5 - CONCACAF
164.7 - Oceania

Average Rank of the Top Five Teams in each FIFA Confederation

4.2 - Europe
10.6 - South America
22.8 - Africa
44.6 - Asia
46.4 - CONCACAF
139.0 - Oceania

Top Ranked Team in Each FIFA Confederation

1 - Spain (Europe)
3 - Brazil (South America)
11 - Egypt (Africa)
21 - Australia (Asia)
25 - USA (CONCACAF)
51 - New Zealand (Oceania)

10th Ranked Team in Each Confederation

15 - Slovenia (Europe)
47 - Guinea (Africa)
96 - Oman (Asia)
100 - Bolivia (South America)
107 - Barbados (CONCACAF)
203 - American Samoa (Oceania)

Pictures: Australian A-League Stadiums

The Stadiums of Australia's A-League.  As you can see from the photos, many of the stadiums are multi-purpose sports facilities.

EnergyAustralia Stadium - Newcastle Jets
Capacity: 26,164

AAMI Park - Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart
Capacity: 30,050

Bluetongue Stadium - Central Coast Mariners
Capacity: 20,119

Dairy Farmers Stadium - North Queensland Fury
Capacity: 26,500

Etihad Stadium - Melbourne Victory
Capacity: 56,347

Hindmarsh Stadium - Adelaide United
Capacity: 17,000

nib Stadium - Perth Glory
Capacity: 20,500

Skilled Park - Gold Coast United
Capacity: 27,400

Suncorp Stadium - Brisbane Roar
Capacity: 52,500

Sydney Football Stadium - Sydney FC
Capacity: 45,500

Westpac Stadium - Wellington Phoenix
Capacity: 36,000

All photos from Wikimedia Commons.  

Spanish La Liga: Club Nationality Breakdown

The squads of the teams in Spain's La Liga broken down by Confederation. Spanish players and players from the rest of Europe are listed separately. The numbers were compiled using the squads listed at soccerway.com.


Real Madrid
14 - Spain
8 - Europe
6 - South America
1 - Africa

Villarreal
19 - Spain
5 - South America
1 - Europe
1 - CONCACAF

Barcelona
18 - Spain
6 - South America
1 - CONCACAF
1 - Africa
1 - Europe

Valencia
15 - Spain
8 - Europe
3 - South America

Espanyol
24 - Spain
7 - South America
3 - Europe
1 - Africa

Sevilla
15 - Spain
6 - South America
5 - Europe
5 - Africa

Getafe
22 - Spain
5 - South America
1 - Europe
1 - Africa

Atletico Madrid
15 - Spain
8 - South America
3 - Europe

Mallorca
19 - Spain
5 - South America
4 - Europe
1 - Africa

Athletic Bilbao
33 - Spain

Real Sociedad
24 - Spain
2 - South America
2 - Europe

Osasuna
18 - Spain
3 - Europe
2 - South America
2 - Asia

Hercules
15 - Spain
7 - Europe
3 - South America
1 - Africa

Levante
23 - Spain
4 - South America

Sporting de Gijon
28 - Spain
2 - Europe
2 - South America

Almeria
10 - Spain
10 - South America
3 - Africa
2 - Europe

Malaga
20 - Spain
6 - South America
6 - Europe
3 - Africa

Racing Santander
16 - Spain
4 - Europe
3 - South America
2 - Africa

Deportivo la Coruna
25 - Spain
5 - South America
3 - Europe
2 - Africa
1 - CONCACAF

Real Zaragoza
16 - Spain
8 - Europe
6 - South America
1 - Africa

MLS 2010 Regular Season League Leaders

The final MLS 2010 League Leaders in a variety of statistics.

Goals
18 - Chris Wondolowski (SJ)

Game Winning Goals
9 - Chris Wondolowski (SJ)

Hat Tricks
2 - Chris Wondolowski (SJ)

Multi-Goal Games
4 - Edson Buddle (LA)
4 - Dwayne De Rosario (TOR)

Consecutive Games with Goals
5 - Omar Cummings (COL)
5 - Dwayne De Rosario (TOR)

Own Goals
2 - Jair Benitez (DAL)

Consecutive Games with a Goal/Assist
9 - Fredy Montero (SEA)

Assists
16 - Landon Donovan (LA)

Game Winning Assists
5 - Bobby Convey (SJ)
5 - Landon Donovan (LA)
5 - David Ferreira (DAL)

Consecutive Games with Assists
4 - Patrick Nyarko (CHI)

Shots
98 - Juan Pablo Angel (NY)

Shots on Goal
48 - Sebastien Le Toux (PHI)

Saves
108 - Stefan Frei (TOR)

Saves %
78.9% - Kevin Hartman (DAL)

Longest Shutout Streak
567 min - Nick Rimando (RSL)

GAA
0.62 - Kevin Hartman (DAL)

Shutouts
14 - Nick Rimando (RSL)

Fouls Committed
52 - Conor Casey (COL)

Fouls Suffered
84 - David Ferreira (DAL)

Minutes Played
2700 - Drew Moor (COL)
2700 - Tim Ream (NY)

Videos: Real Road Trip Episodes 1-4

A four episode series from MLS featuring Real Salt Lake traveling around the CONCACAF region in recent months.

Chart: Premier League Top Team Evolution - 2001-2010

A chart showing the final league positions of the seven Premier League teams that have never been relegated from the PL. From the 2000/2001 season to the 2009/2010 season.

Videos: Soccer Video Game Evolution since 1980

Gameplay footage of a few of my favorite soccer video games from the past three decades.  It's always a debate, but for a very long time I was a ISS/PES/Winning Eleven player.  In the last 2 years I've switched to the EA FIFA games.  I really enjoyed the gameplay of FIFA 10 and the EA 2010 World Cup game but I'm not a fan of FIFA 11 so this might be the year I go back to WE.   Ah Choices....  Anybody have an absolute favorite that I didn't list?


Starting things off...
An amazing Intellivision Commercial featuring the 'Incredible Realism' of Intellivision Soccer (1980)



Atari Soccer (1980)


NES Soccer (1985)


Sensible Soccer - Amiga (1992)


International Superstar Soccer '98 - Nintendo 64 (1998)


PES 5 / Winning Eleven 9 - PS2 (2005)


2010 FIFA World Cup - PS3/Xbox360 (2010)

FIFA Rankings: Biggest Movers October 2010

Nations that have moved +/- 10 or more spots in the top 100 of the October FIFA world rankings.  Nations in red are at their highest ever FIFA ranking.

Rank +/-	Nation	Current Rank	Recent Results
+54	Niger	100	W: EGY
+45	Armenia	60	W: AND, W: SVK
+34	Guinea	47	W: NGA
+26	Libya	81	W: ZAM
+22	Guyana	98	W: SUR, W: ANT
+18	Morocco	77	W: TAN
+15	Russia	10	W: MKD, W: IRL
+14	Georgia	75	D: LVA, W: MLT
+14	Montenegro	26	D: ENG, W: SUI
+13	Belarus	42	W: ALB, D: LUX
+13	Iraq	94	W: QAT, L: IRN
+12	Austria	49	D: BEL, W: AZE
+11	Azerbaijan	91	W: TUR, L: AUT
+11	Bulgaria	43	W: KSA, W: WAL
+11	Tunisia	45	W: TOG
+11	Pahama	59	W: PER, W: SLV
+11	Estonia	74	L: SVN, W: SRB
-50	Bolivia	100	L: VEN
-45	Cyprus	88	L: DEN, L: NOR
-22	Finland	86	L: HUN
-20	Israel	56	L: GRE, L: CRO
-20	Wales	104	L: SUI, L: BUL
-13	Costa Rica	66	W: SLV, L: PER
-11	Syria	105	L: CHN, L: KUW
-11	Gambia	102	L: BFA
-10	Scotland	57	L: ESP, L: CZE
-10	Iceland	110	L: POR

Premier League: Tallest and Shortest Players - 2010/2011

The tallest and shortest players currently in the English Premier League (10/11 season).

Tallest Field Players
6'7½" - 202cm - Nikola Zigic (Birmingham City)
6'6"    - 198cm - Peter Crouch (Tottenham)
6'6"    - 198cm - Zat Knight (Bolton)
6'4½" - 194cm - Marouane Fellaini (Everton)
6'4½" - 194cm - Brede Hangeland (Fulham)
6'4½" - 194cm - Chris Smalling (Manchester United)
6'4"    - 193cm - John Carew (Aston Villa)
6'4"    - 193cm - James Collins (Aston Villa)
6'4"    - 193cm - Franco Di Santo (Wigan Athletic)
6'4"    - 193cm - Sylvain Distin (Everton)
6'4"    - 193cm - Greg Halford (Wolves)
6'4"    - 193cm - Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Liverpool)
6'4"    - 193cm - Jonas Olsson (West Bromwich Albion)
6'4"    - 193cm - Christopher Samba (Blackburn)
6'4"    - 193cm - Mamady Sidibe (Stoke City)
6'4"    - 193cm - Michael Turner (Sunderland)
6'4"    - 193cm - Jelle Van Damme (Wolves)
6'4"    - 193cm - Mike Williamson (Newcastle United)

Tallest Goalkeepers
6'5½" - 197cm - Edwin Van der Sar (Manchester United)
6'5½" - 197cm - Pascal Zuberbuhler (Fulham)
6'5"    - 196cm - Asmir Begovic (Stoke City)
6'5"    - 196cm - Petr Cech (Chelsea)
6'5"    - 196cm - Wayne Hennessey (Wolves)
6'5"    - 196cm - Thomas Sorensen (Stoke City)
6'5"    - 196cm - Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal)
6'4½" - 194cm - Ali Al Habsi (Wigan Athletic)
6'4½" - 194cm - Adam Bogdan (Bolton)
6'4½" - 194cm - Mark Schwarzer (Fulham)


Shortest Players
5'5"    - 165cm - Aaron Lennon (Tottenham)
5'5½" - 166cm - Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City)
5'6"    - 168cm - Steed Malbranque (Sunderland)
5'6"    - 168cm - Daniel Pacheco (Liverpool)
5'6"    - 168cm - Paul Scholes (Manchester United)
5'6"    - 168cm - Jay Spearing (Liverpool)
5'6"    - 168cm - Carlos Tevez (Manchester City)
5'6½" - 169cm - Jermain Defoe (Tottenham)
5'7"    - 170cm - Leighton Baines (Everton)
5'7"    - 170cm - Barry Bannan (Aston Villa)
5'7"    - 170cm - Matthew Jarvis (Wolves)
5'7"    - 170cm - Alan Judge (Blackburn)
5'7"    - 170cm - Martin Olsson (Blackburn)
5'7"    - 170cm - Kevin Phillips (Birmingham)
5'7"    - 170cm - Andy Reid (Sunderland)
5'7"    - 170cm - Wayne Routledge (Newcastle)
5'7"    - 170cm - Freddie Sears (West Ham United)
5'7"    - 170cm - David Silva (Manchester City)
5'7"    - 170cm - David Vaughan (Blackpool)
5'7"    - 170cm - Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)


Stats compiled from premierleague.com

Map: Chinese National Team Birthplaces

I don't really remember why but I randomly became curious about the Chinese National Team the other day. One of the things I wondered was if the Chinese players were born all over such a large country or in a more concentrated area near the large cities.

All of the China PR players are unsurprisingly from the eastern part of China, but I was surprised that nearly half of the 51 players called up in the last year were born in just three cities: Dalian (11), Tianjin (8), and Wuhan (5). I was expecting more Beijing (4) and Shanghai (4) born players and a bigger variety of cities in general.

This map shows the birthplaces of the 51 players called up to the China PR National Team in the last year.



View Chinese National Team Birthplace Map in a larger map

Players in Top 5 European Leagues from Nations Ranked 100+

Players from national teams FIFA ranked 100 or higher in the top leagues of England, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain


ENGLAND

BARBADOS (121)
Emmerson Boyce (Wigan)

CONGO (117)
Christopher Samba (Blackburn)

CONGO DR (132)
Herita Ilunga (West Ham)

GRENADA (128)
Jason Roberts (Blackburn)

ICELAND (100)
Gretar Steinsson (Bolton)
Eidur Gudjohnsen (Stoke City)

ZIMBABWE (118)
Benjani Mwaruwari (Blackburn)



FRANCE

ARMENIA (105)
Apoula Edel (Paris Saint-Germain)

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (172)
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (Montpellier)
Manasse Enza-Yamissi (Sochaux)

CONGO (117)
Delvin Ndinga (Auxerre)
Chris Malonga (Monaco)
Oscar Ewolo (Brest)
Albin Ebondo (St. Etienne)

CONGO DR (132)
Larrys Mabiala (Nice)
Jires Kembo-Ekoko (Rennes)
Dieumerci Mbokani (Monaco)
Cédric Mongongou (Monaco)
Joël Sami (Nancy)

KENYA (114)
Dennis Oliech (Auxerre)

NIGER (154)
Ouwo Moussa Maazou (Bordeaux)



GERMANY

CONGO DR (132)
Cedric Makiadi (Freiburg)

ICELAND (100)
Gylfi Sigurdsson (Hoffenheim)

LEBANON (151)
Yousef Mohammed (1. FC Köln)

NAMIBIA (116)
Collin Benjamin (Hamburg)



ITALY

KENYA (114)
McDonald Mariga (Inter Milan)

SIERRA LEONE (132)
Rodney Strasser (AC Milan)



SPAIN

HAITI (123)
Yves Hadley Desmarets (Deportivo La Coruña)

Castrol Index: Top EPL Players from each Confederation (Oct 2010)

The top Premier League players from each world region based on the recently released October Castrol Index rankings.  I expanded this list to the top 10 from the top 5 in the previous list I posted in September. 


Overall Castrol Rank - Player (Club: Country)


AFRICA
4 - Didier Drogba (Chelsea: Cote d'Ivoire)
64 - Marouane Chamakh (Arsenal: Morocco)
90 - Yaya Toure (Manchester City: Cote d'Ivoire)
119 - Alex Song (Arsenal: Cameroon)
153 - John Obi Mikel (Chelsea: Nigeria)
158 - Steven Pienaar (Everton: South Africa)
216 - Christopher Samba (Blackburn: Congo)
227 - Michael Essien (Chelsea: Ghana)
258 - Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City: Togo)
369 - El Hadji Diouf (Blackburn: Senegal)

ASIA
103 - Tim Cahill (Everton: Australia)
107 - Mark Schwarzer (Fulham: Australia)
411 - Chung-Yong Lee (Bolton Wanderers: South Korea)
884 - Ji-Sung Park (Manchester United: South Korea)
1090 - Brett Emerton (Blackburn: Australia)
1315 - Vince Grella (Blackburn: Australia)
1651 - Ali Al-Habsi (Wigan Athletic: Oman)

CONCACAF
21 - Marcus Hahnemann (Wolves: USA)
107 - Clint Dempsey (Fulham: USA)
137 - Brad Friedel (Aston Villa: USA)
410 - Tim Howard (Everton: USA)
429 - Kenwyne Jones (Stoke City: Trinidad & Tobago)
541 - Wilson Palacios (Tottenham: Honduras)
559 - Ricardo Fuller (Stoke City: Jamaica)
865 - Hendry Thomas (Wigan: Honduras)
886 - Maynor Figueroa (Wigan: Honduras)
906 - Emmerson Boyce (Wigan: Barbados)

OCEANIA
310 - Ryan Nelsen (Blackburn: New Zealand)
2039 - Winston Reid (West Ham: New Zealand)

SOUTH AMERICA
12 - Alex (Chelsea: Brazil)
23 - Carlos Tevez (Manchester City: Argentina)
34 - Heurelho Gomes (Tottenham: Brazil)
43 - Antonio Valencia (Manchester United: Ecuador)
248 - Hugo Rodallega (Wigan: Colombia)
305 - Maxi Rodriguez (Liverpool: Argentina)
320 - Lucas Leiva (Liverpool: Brazil)
436 - Denilson (Arsenal: Brazil)
450 - Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City: Argentina)
1079 - Rafael da Silva (Manchester United: Brazil)

UK
5 - Wayne Rooney (Manchester United: England)
7 - Frank Lampard (Chelsea: England)
18 - Jermain Defoe (Tottenham: England)
37 - John Terry (Chelsea: England)
40 - Craig Gordon (Sunderland: Scotland)
66 - Ashley Cole (Chelsea: England)
72 - Joe Hart (Manchester City: England)
77 - Paul Scholes (Manchester United: England)
78 - Gareth Bale (Tottenham: Wales)
93 - Darren Fletcher (Manchester United: Scotland)

Europe (non-UK)
9 - Florent Malouda (Chelsea: France)
15 - Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal: Russia)
19 - Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea: France)
21 - Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal: Spain)
26 - Pepe Reina (Liverpool: Spain)
27 - Nani (Manchester United: Portugal)
40 - Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United: Bulgaria)
44 - David Silva (Manchester City: Spain)
54 - Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United: Netherlands)
59 - Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United: Serbia)

Euro 2012 Qualifying Upsets

Euro 2012 Qualifying Round upset wins and draws by nations at least 25 places lower in the FIFA rankings at the time of the game. I'll update this post as the games are played.





Upset Wins

89 - Armenia (105) 3:1 Slovakia (16)
81 - Azerbaijan (102) 1:0 Turkey (21)

70 - Serbia (15) 1:3 Estonia (85)

57 - France (21) 0:1 Belarus (78)
40 - Slovenia (19) 0:1 Northern Ireland (59)
38 - Moldova (89) 2:0 Finland (51)
30 - Bulgaria (43) 0:1 Montenegro (73)


Upset Draws

98 - Greece (12) 1:1 Georgia (110)
93 - Faroe Islands (138) 1:1 Northern Ireland (45)
75 - Luxembourg (130) 0:0 Belarus (55)
72 - Georgia (110) 0:0 Israel (38)
55 - Portugal (8) 4:4 Cyprus (63)
36 - Belarus (78) 0:0 Romania (42)
34 - England (6) 0:0 Montenegro (40)

32 - Northern Ireland (45) 0:0 Italy (13)

30 - Macedonia (66) 2:2 Armenia (96)
28 - Romania (42) 1:1 Albania (70)

Europe: FIFA Member Codes

These are the official three letter codes used by FIFA and UEFA as abbreviations for European countries in official competitions.

UEFA FIFA member codes

ALB - Albania
AND - Andorra
ARM - Armenia
AUT - Austria
AZE - Azerbaijan
BLR - Belarus
BEL - Belgium
BIH - Bosnia and Herzegovina
BUL - Bulgaria
CRO - Croatia
CYP - Cyprus
CZE - Czech Republic
DEN - Denmark
ENG - England
EST - Estonia
FRO - Faroe Islands
FIN - Finland
FRA - France
GEO - Georgia
GER - Germany
GRE - Greece
HUN - Hungary
ISL - Iceland
ISR - Israel
ITA - Italy
KAZ - Kazakhstan
LVA - Latvia
LIE - Liechtenstein
LTU - Lithuania
LUX - Luxembourg
MKD - Macedonia
MLT - Malta
MDA - Moldova
MNE - Montenegro
NED - Netherlands
NIR - Northern Ireland
NOR - Norway
POL - Poland
POR - Portugal
IRL - Republic of Ireland
ROU - Romania
RUS - Russia
SMR - San Marino
SCO - Scotland
SRB - Serbia
SVK - Slovakia
SVN - Slovenia
ESP - Spain
SWE - Sweden
SUI - Switzerland
TUR - Turkey
UKR - Ukraine
WAL - Wales

Obsolete European Country Codes

TCH - Czechoslovakia
DDR - East Germany
SCG - Serbia and Montenegro
URS - Soviet Union
FRG - West Germany
YUG - Yugoslavia

Videos: Game Winning Upset Goals from the Weekend

Wow, there were a few major upsets over the weekend including a couple of the biggest upsets ever in the international game.  These are videos of the game winning goals from the recent upset victories.  To put the Niger-Egypt game in perspective, in ranking terms it would be like Liechtenstein beating Portugal or England in Europe, or Bermuda beating USA or Mexico in CONCACAF, or Guam beating Australia or Japan in Asia.  Pretty crazy result for the Pharaohs.

NIGER (154) 1-0 EGYPT (9)
GW Goal: Ouwo Moussa Maazou (Bordeaux; France, loaned from CSKA Moscow)




A highlight video of the Game-Winning Nigerien goalscorer, Ouwo Moussa Maazou.



CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (172) 2-0 ALGERIA (35)
GW Goal: Audin Boutou (FC 105; Gabon)



ESTONIA (85) 3-1 SERBIA (15)
GW Goal: Konstantin Vassiljev (NK Nafta Lendava; Slovenia)




ARMENIA (105) 3-1 SLOVAKIA (16)
GW Goal: Gevorg Ghazaryan (Pyunik Yerevan; Armenia)