Vietnam at risk of falling out of FIFA top 100

Vietnam needs to score points against Iraq in the final round of Group D of the 2023 Asian Cup to avoid the risk of falling out of the FIFA top 100 for the first time in 6 years.

Before the tournament in Qatar, Vietnam ranked 94th in FIFA with 1,235.58 points. The latest ranking will be updated on February 15.

According to FIFA's formula, Vietnam will be deducted 6.47 points for losing 2-4 to Japan, and 23.26 points for losing 0-1 to Indonesia. The team has 1,205.85 points and drops to 99th place.

If they continue to lose to Iraq, Vietnam will lose 11.33 points, and is at high risk of falling out of the top 100. In case of a draw or win, Vietnam will be awarded 6.17 points or 23.67 points respectively.

Coach Philippe Troussier (in black shirt) and Vietnamese players after losing 0-1 to Indonesia in the second match of Group D of the 2023 Asian Cup. Photo: Lam Thoa

As of today, Vietnam has been in the top 100 for 1,881 consecutive days since November 29, 2018 and 2,224 days at the top of Southeast Asia, since December 21, 2017.

Thailand is closing in on Vietnam. The Golden Temple team is expected to have 1,198.95 points, after being awarded 22.2 points for beating Kyrgyzstan (18.99 points) and drawing with Oman (3.98 points), to move up 11 places to 102nd. They will be awarded 7.75 points if they draw, or 25.25 points if they beat Saudi Arabia in the final round of the group stage, thereby entering the top 100. Thailand also has a good chance of reaching the round of 16, so they have at least one more match to improve their position.

Meanwhile, thanks to an important victory over Vietnam, Indonesia rose four places to 142nd. Malaysia lost both matches, falling five places to 135th.

The FIFA rankings were first introduced in December 1992, and are usually published every one to two months. Each team is awarded points based on the importance of the match. FIFA friendlies are only awarded a coefficient of 10, while Asian Cup matches before the quarter-finals are awarded 35, and after the quarter-finals are awarded 40. In addition to the match results, the formula also depends on how the expected result is calculated, which is understood as the difference in strength between the two teams. The further apart the two teams are in the previous FIFA rankings, the lower-ranked team will be awarded more points for a win and the lower-ranked team will be awarded fewer points for a loss.

The FIFA ranking is important because it is considered the basis for seeding in the qualifying rounds and finals of FIFA tournaments, such as the World Cup and Asian Cup. However, it is not an absolute measure to affirm the strength and position of a team.

Another ranking table, according to the Elo scoring system for football, shows that Thailand is 22 places above Vietnam. Vietnam is ranked 124th with Elo 1,341, while Thailand is 102nd with Elo 1,416.

Thailand (white shirt) drew 0-0 with Oman (red shirt) in the second match of Group F of the 2023 Asian Cup. Photo: Lam Thoa

Elo is a method of assessing the ability of chess players, developed by Hungarian-American physics professor Arpad Elo in 1960. Ten years later, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) used Elo to rank chess players.

In 1997, a man named Bob Runyan applied Elo to rank national teams. In 2003, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) used Elo to rank women's teams. Elo is considered a more accurate method of predicting football results than FIFA's old scoring method. Since 2018, FIFA has also used a new method called SUM, inspired by Elo, to rank men's teams.

Hieu Luong

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/viet-nam-nguy-co-rot-khoi-top-100-fifa-4703650.html