England, Croatia make FIFA rankings moves

Spain sits atop the FIFA men's soccer rankings but England jumps two spots to fifth and Croatia enters the Top 10 at eighth this month. Spain has been ranked No. 1 in the world all but one month -- last August -- since winning the World Cup in 2010. Spain went 2-1-1 following the October rankings update, with the draw coming against Costa Rica and the loss at the hands of England. That win, along with another 1-0 victory over Sweden, helped push England to No. 5. Croatia moves from 12th to eighth in the rankings after a 2-1-1 month. One of the wins was against England, although that was outside ranking calculation. The Netherlands remains ranked No. 2 but a 3-0 loss to No. 3 Germany pulled the Germans within 20 rankings points of the Dutch. Close behind is Uruguay, which beat No. 9 Italy and No. 13 Chile last month. Spain totals 1,564 rankings points while the Netherlands has 1,365 and Germany comes in with 1,345. Fourth-ranked Uruguay has 1,309, still well ahead of England (1,173). Brazil, down a spot to sixth this month, has 1,143 points and Portugal, up one to seventh, has 1,100. Croatia has earned 1,091. Italy (1,082) slips three places to ninth and Argentina is 10th with 1,067. 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 Dec. 21.