World Cup 2010 Blog: “FIFA World Rankings: August 2010” plus 1 more

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FIFA World Rankings: August 2010 Posted: 15 Sep 2010 08:30 AM PDT There are some big movers and shakers this month, with 30 spot jumps being made like it’s a Sunday stroll in the park and further evidence that hanging onto past glories will get you absolutely nothin’ – what have you done for me lately? Italy and France continue their freefall to oblivion and Bolivia (no, really – they’re holding up the Top 50) and a couple of relatively recent solo acts, Slovakia and Montenegro, are shooting up the table, proving once and for all: sometimes, parting ways with old friends will help your FIFA/Coca-Cola standing. (And that’s really what it’s all about.) But very genuinely in the case of Montenegro, people may want to start taking note – whatever they’re doing is working (producing players like Stevan Jovetic and Mirko Vucinic is a start). They could very well become the next Slovenia, only with less than 700k population. And that with double September wins over Wales and Bulgaria in the qualifiers not yet counting for ranking purposes. Obviously starting from the bottom aids in the meteoric visual rise, but it makes this no less impressive. The August 2010 rankings:

Diego Maradona May Be Coming To A National Team Near You Posted: 15 Sep 2010 07:28 AM PDT Provided you live somewhere near the general region of Iberia, that is. With Carlos Quieroz unemployed and off to the sandy beaches of somewhere to ponder ways to behave like a polite, courteous human being, there’s a large hole atop the Portuguese national team just waiting to be filled – rather snappily, too, with qualifiers commenced again shortly. And wherever there is a large hole, you’re sure to find Diego Maradona lurking about, graciously offering his services to fill it. “It’s true [Maradona is interested]. Diego and I talked about it, and it is a project that attracts us. He is willing and has availability, but has not been contacted yet,” Alejandro Mancuso, one of Maradona’s assistants during his spell as Argentina coach, told the A Bola sports daily. The very obvious first thought is that Portugal is not Argentina – we bring the big facts here – and therefore they do not hold Diego in the same esteem, nor are they required to kowtow at his mere presence, ruling him out on things like common sense and basic footballing reasons. But then that’s not how football always works. Of course there are others, like Paulo Bento, seemingly the media favorite, as well as Javier Aguirre and Jose Pekerman, but it remains very plausible that Diego Maradona could be joining us as soon as October qualifiers, taking up a coaching seat as well as molding the still-impressionable mind of one Cristiano Ronaldo. God help us all.

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