Big Movers of 1998
The United States of America overtook China at the top, having beaten them twice on home soil and drawn with them in China.
Taiwan were the biggest climbers having progressed from their Asian Games group in Thailand annihilating India 13-1 on their way and only losing to North Korea on penalties in the semi final.
Scotland reached the play-offs in the World Cup qualifiers on goals scored ahead of the Czech Republic whom they drew 1-1 home and away after trashing Lithuania 17-0 in Glasgow.
Cost Rica finished 3rd in CONCACAF in Canada with a 4-0 victory over Guatemala having beaten Trinidad & Tobago 3-1 and Haiti 2-1 in group matches.
Mexico reached the final of CONCACAF losing only by a single goal to hosts Canada having got the better of Costa Rica 3-2, hammered Haiti 7-1 and even smashed 8 past Guatemala without reply in the semi final.
Ghana thumped Guinea 11-0 in the qualifying tournament to reach the finals of the African championships where they cruised past South Africa 4-0 in the group stage ending up 2nd in Africa only behind Nigeria.
Chile moved down the most after losing 1-0 to newcomers Peru and 5-1 to Colombia in the South American championships in Argentina.
India moved down after losing heavily 13-1 to Taiwan and 16-0 to China in the Asian Games in Bangkok.
South Africa could only manage a 1-1 home friendly against Morocco and fell 4-0 to Ghana in the African championships.
Venezuela finished bottom of their South America championship group in Argentina.
Bosnia & Herzegovina lost 5-0 away to Israel and were hammered at home to Hungary 9-0 in World Cup qualifiers.
Lithuania who were smashed 17-0 in Scotland lost 3-0 in Estonia to finish bottom of their qualifying group for the World Cup.
The biggest shock of the year was Mexico's 8-0 CONCACAF semi-final thumping of Guatemala in Canada.
With women's football becoming more and more popular, 18 countries joined the rankings resulting in many countries moving several places down. The newcomers were Guatemala, Costa Rica, Haiti, Colombia, Uruguay, Cameroon, Peru, Paraguay, Morocco, El Salvador, DR Congo, Israel, Honduras, Venezuela, Egypt, Martinique and finally in last place Fiji.
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