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“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you're not, pretend you are.” – Muhammad Ali

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Lesotho moves up Fifa rankings

Lesotho has moved up three spots to 168th place in Fifa’s world rankings. The latest figures were released yesterday and Likuena have move up despite not playing an international match for 16 months.

Lesotho’s last match was a 1-0 win over Mauritius in the Cosafa Senior Challenge in October 2009. This is because the national team was disbanded last February when the Lesotho Football Association said it would focus instead on rebuilding for the future.

As a result Lesotho is not taking part in the ongoing 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers. At the time Likuena were disbanded they were ranked 149th globally, their highest position since August 2007 when Lesotho was rated 143rd in the world.

The last time Likuena won a competitive international match was a 3-1 Afcon qualifier win over Niger on March 25 2007 at the Setsoto Stadium. In the last 32 international matches Lesotho has lost 16 and won eight.
The form of the national under-20 team however has been a source of hope. The Makoanyane XI will be one of eight teams at this year’s Caf African Youth Championship.

The top three in Fifa table has not changed. World champions Spain stay in first place followed by Netherlands and Germany. In fourth place is Argentina which has leapfrogged Brazil to become the highest placed team from South America. Argentina moved up the rankings thanks to a 2-1 victory over Portugal on February 9 while Brazil were beaten 1-0 by France on the same night.

The other change in the top 10 sees Croatia move ahead of Portugal into 8th place. Elsewhere Serbia edged into the top 20 while Jamaica are the biggest movers into the top 50, climbing 11 places up to 48th in the world.

Lesotho’s all-time Fifa ranking came in December 2003 when Likuena were ranked 120th in the world.

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