Sweden climbs FIFA world ranking

April 29th, 2010 | by: Daniel | Comments(1)

FIFA brings good tidings to the Swedish national team, in the pleaseant form of a slight rise in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. This past February, Sweden languished in 43rd place in the rankings, the lowest position the nation has occupied in its history. In claiming the 37th position, however, Sweden was able to leap past Slovakia (38) and Honduras (40), and closed the gap on local rivals Denmark (35) to only two points.

For most nations, improvements in the ranking have resulted from a ‘devaluation of past results’, however Sweden have been in a reasonably decent patch of form since losing to Italy in November. In their previous three matches, Sweden have beaten Oman, drawn Syria, and defeated a talented young Welsh national team. Goals have not come easy for the Swedes, though; they have yet to score more than a single goal since they scored 4 against a hapless Albania in October.

The coming months present further opportunity for Sweden to recover some lost prestige. The country that was once the 2nd best in the world will have a chance to prove themselves against an energetic and skillful Bosnia (a team that narrowly missed out on the World Cup finals), and face a tricky tie with a Belarus as well. These matches will also allow Erik Hamren to play some younger players who are just starting to leave their mark on the Allsvenskan.

Edin Dzeko has become one of the most coveted players in Europe

I’ll write a preview for the Bosnia match later, but if I had to be honest, I’m not expecting Hamren’s men to get too much from it. Bosnia are on the rise, and they have a young player in Edin Dzeko who is probably already one of the top 5 strikers in Europe. There are a lot of things to like about Bosnia; on the other hand, I have numerous apprehensions regarding Sweden. The recent friendly results haven’t been comprehensive by any means, and there are really no strikers in form for us; even Zlatan has been inconsistent for Barcelona. It would be interesting to see if Zlatan would come out of his (semi) retirement to play againt the country of his heritage, but I’m not sure if he would be wanted, in any case.