The new FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking has been released, and Costa Rica is the 21st best national football team in the world. Since the last ranking, Costa Rica has improved by six positions, which puts La Sele just below the national teams of Turkey and Hungary and one position above Austria.

 

Costa Rica will return to the qualifying rounds for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will be played in Russia, in a few weeks. La Sele will travel to Port Au Prince for the next match against the national team of Haiti.

 

Argentina, with 1,585 points, continues to lead the FIFA world rankings, which saw no changes in the top 10 after a month scarce with soccer. Spain maintains the eighth place with 1,165 points.

In the rankings, released on Thursday, Belgium continues in second place, followed by Colombia in third, Germany in fourth and then Chile, fifth.

Top ten FIFA ranking and point scores for August:

1. Argentina 1,585 points

2. Belgium 1,401

3. Colombia 1,331

4. Germany 1,319

5. Chile 1,316

6. Portugal 1,266

7. France 1,189

8. Spain 1,165

9. Brazil 1,156

10. Italy 1,155

 

According to FIFA, the basic logic of the ranking calculations is simple: any team that does well in world football wins points which enable it to climb the world ranking. A team’s total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months and the average number of points gained from matches older than 12 months (depreciates yearly).