Germany moves to No. 2 in soccer rankings

Germany moved past the Netherlands and Portugal, Italy and Denmark all improved their Top 10 positions in FIFA men's soccer rankings. Germany moves into the No. 2 spot, pushing the Netherlands to third. The Netherlands, which spent August 2011 at No. 1 in the ranking, hasn't been ranked lower than second since May 2010. Spain remains No. 1 in the world, having amassed 1,566 ranking points, and has a comfortable 197-point advantage over No. 2 Germany. The Netherlands is 10 points back of Germany. All of the changes in the Top 10 result from devaluation of points from previous matches as none of the leading teams had games in the last month. There was still some juggling in the rankings, however, with only Spain, No. 4 Uruguay (1,317) and fifth-ranked England (1,179) holding the same positions as last month. Portugal (1,155) moves to No. 6, switching places with seventh-ranked Brazil (1,152) while Italy (1,115) goes from ninth to eighth, forcing Croatia (1,101) from eighth to ninth. Denmark (1,090) improves one spot to 10th, which puts Argentina (1,081) into 11th. The FIFA world rankings are determined by points awarded from match results in a three-year period, with more recent games given greater weight. Teams get additional points for playing relatively strong opponents. The next FIFA men's rankings are to be released March 7.