Nigeria’s Falcons end 2015 as Africa’s best team

Nigeria’s Falcons end 2015 as Africa’s best team

Taiwo Adelu

Though they are ranked number 37 in the world, Nigeria’s Super Falcons ended the year 2015 as the best female team in Africa.

In the latest ranking released by the world football governing body Friday, Falcons climbed one step in December’s ranking as against number 36 they were in the last ranking released in September this year.

On number two in Africa are Indomitable Lioness of Cameroon who are on number 47 in the world. Others in Africa’s Top 10 are Ghana (50), Equatorial Guinea (53), Bayana Bayana of South Africa (56), Ivory Coast (63), Algeria (77), Morocco (79), Egypt (87) and Senegal (92).

Meanwhile, the teams that made up the top ten in September maintained their positions for the December FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking to ensure that they ring in the new year at the top of the table.

According to fifa.com, in total, 104 matches were played over the past three months in competitive Women’s football. The majority of these games were focused on continental Olympic qualifying tournaments and qualifying for the 2017 European Championship in the Netherlands.

Zimbabwe climbed the most places (9) largely thanks to a surprise victory at home against Cameroon. Meanwhile, two countries improved on their best-ever ranking, namely, Bosnia and Herzegovina (65th) and New Caledonia (92nd).

The only significant points change in the top ten was for England, whose slender three-point increase marked a new all-time top score for the Lionesses while simultaneously narrowing the gap between them and fourth-placed Japan to just four points.

Other teams to improve on their best-ever scores included New Zealand (1846), Austria (1730), Costa Rica (1630), South Africa (1431), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1386) and Guatemala (1322).