Big Movers of 2005
Brazil remained at the top of the rankings after winning the Confederations' Cup in South Africa. Denmark moved into the top 10 and Turkey reached number 14 while Greek success from the previous year began to fade away.
Trinidad & Tobago qualified for the 2006 World Cup by beating Panama 2-0 at home, 1-0 away and getting the better of their Mexican visitors 2-1 before winning a play-off match 1-0 away to Bahrain.
Scotland had two great away wins in World Cup qualifiers; 2-1 in Norway and 3-0 in Slovenia.
North Korea achieved some good results for a lowly ranked team, winning 3-2 in Bahrain in a World Cup qualifier and defeating Japan 1-0 in a friendly played in South Korea.
Ghana enjoyed away wins beating South Africa 2-0 and cruising past Cape Verde 4-0 in World Cup qualifiers and also beat Saudi Arabia 3-1 away in a friendly.
Egypt won a friendly by a single goal away to South Korea and battered Bahrain 4-0 back on home soil where they also lashed Libya 4-1 in a World Cup qualifier.
Saudi Arabia qualified for the World Cup finishing top of their group having beaten South Korea 2-0 at home and 1-0 away. They also enjoyed 3-0 home wins against Kuwait and Uzbekistan.
Tunisia mauled Malawi 7-0 in a World Cup qualifier and put 2 past Australia in the Confederations' Cup in South Africa.
Honduras reached the semi-final of the Gold Cup where they narrowly lost to hosts and eventual winners USA after beating Colombia 2-1 in a group match and knocking Costa Rica out 3-2 in a quarter-final match.
Kuwait sank the most in the rankings after losing 3-0 in Saudi Arabia and being torn apart 4-0 at home to South Korea in World Cup qualifiers.
Libya had disappointing World Cup qualifiers with a goalless draw at home to Sudan and a 1-0 loss in Benin.
Bolivia had some poor results away from home in World Cup qualifiers losing 4-1 to Peru and Paraguay and going down 3-1 in Chile.
Slovenia moved down in the rankings after losing 3-0 at home to Scotland in a World Cup qualifier.
Oman had several disappointing results including a 3-1 loss to Syria in a friendly in Qatar.
Georgia had disappointing World Cup qualifiers at home losing 5-2 to Turkey and being held 0-0 by Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijan slipped down in the rankings especially after their World Cup qualifier in which they were poleaxed 8-0 in Poland.
Liberia were beaten 2-0 by Congo and thumped 5-0 by Zambia in World Cup qualifiers on home soil.
The biggest surprise was the 2-0 victory for Ghana in South Africa.
The highest score of the year was North Korea's 21-0 obliteration of Guam in the East Asian Championship in Taipei.
There were no new countries in the rankings.
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