Big Movers of 2010
Australia were the biggest movers in the top 10 having won the Asian Cup with 3rd place Japan moving into 3rd in the world behind Germany and USA who kept their places at the top of the rankings.
Puerto Rico pounded Antigua and Barbuda 8-0 and exceeded expectations in their narrow 4-3 defeat to Cuba in World Cup qualifiers in Trinidad and Tobago to continue their sharp rise in the rankings.
Chile defeated hosts Ecuador 3-1 in the South American championships where they finished 3rd.
Estonia were 3-0 winners in Croatia and had home wins against Northern Ireland 2-1 and Serbia 1-0 in World Cup qualifiers.
Equatorial Guinea topped their group after beating Ghana 3-1 in South Africa where they knocked their hosts out at the semi-final stage 3-1 in extra time to reach the final and finish runners up to Nigeria in the African championships.
Colombia beat Paraguay 3-0, turned Uruguay over 8-0 and defeated Argentina 1-0 in Ecuador on their way to finishing 2nd in the South American championships.
El Salvador won friendly matches 3-1 and 3-0 away to Honduras.
Angola were shocked 2-1 in Namibia and could only draw the return match 1-1 which resulted in their elimination at the preliminary round of the World Cup qualifiers.
Azerbaijan who lost a friendly 3-1 in Georgia were battered 11-0 in Belgium before being annihilated 15-0 in Wales in World Cup qualifiers.
Ethiopia failed at the preliminary round of the World Cup qualifiers after an embarrassing 3-1 loss at home to Tanzania and only managing a 1-1 draw in the away match.
Sierra Leone suffered a shock 3-2 defeat in Guinea and failed to get past the preliminary round of the World Cup qualifiers after a 1-1 draw in their return match.
Vanuatu finished bottom of their group in the Oceania championships in New Zealand where they were taken apart 5-1 by Tahiti and lost 2-0 to the Cook Islands.
The most surprising result was Tanzania's 3-1 triumph in Ethiopia followed by Guinea's 2-1 win in Mali in World Cup qualifiers.
The highest score of the year was Jordan's 20-0 destruction of Iraq while Palestine pulverised Qatar 18-0 in a friendly tournament in Bahrain and India buried Bhutan by the same humiliating result in Bangladesh.
The 8 new teams that joined the rankings were Guyana in at 46th followed by Barbados, Anguilla, Guadeloupe, St Kitts & Nevis, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka who moved into 160th place.
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