Korea falls in FIFA ranking, Japan soars

South Korea dropped four notches to 35th place in the monthly FIFA rankings released Thursday, after Spain trounced the country in a friendly.

Korea’s ranking score fell 27 points to 719 after losing 4-1 against Spain in a friendly on May 31.

Korea’s long-time rival Japan, however, shot up seven seeds in this month’s ranking to 23rd. Japan saw big wins against both Oman and Azerbaijan, which helped to boost its score. This puts Japan at the top of Asia just a rank above Australia. Australia fell three spots putting it in 24th place.

Just ahead of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Korea still ranks well above the rest in their group.

Qatar, who Korea will face on Saturday for the first World Cup qualifier match, also dropped in the rankings to 91st.

In Korea’s World Cup qualifying group, Lebanon dropped a whopping 14 places to settle at 143rd, while Iran rose to 45th and Uzbekistan climbed to 66th, both coming into the month with better standings.

Spain held its place as the best football team in the world followed by Uruguay, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, England and Argentina. Portugal dropped five ranks to just make it into the top ten.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)