On April 7, the international soccer authority unveiled a new issue of the global ranking of national teams, our soccer team unfortunately slipped two places, now in the 77th position.
Two teams managed to overtake our soccer team in this ranking change: Cape Verde and Curaçao.
Cape Verde, a country located on the African continent, beat Cameroon and Mozambique in consecutive African Cup of Nations qualifying matches recently, and as a result, moved up seven places in the rankings and has now overtaken our soccer team. It is worth noting that as a former Portuguese colony, many of the players in Cape Verde's team play in Portugal's domestic league.
Former Porto player Zé Luís, who now plays for Lokomotiv Moscow, and Dadi, who played for our Shanghai Shenhua team, are outstanding representatives of the Cape Verdean team. Dadi has also continued to contribute to the cause of soccer in China after his retirement.
Curaçao, an island nestled in the southern Caribbean Sea near the coast of Venezuela, is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with a population of just 158,665. Today, Dutch manager Hiddink is at the helm of Curaçao, who have won two consecutive World Cup qualifiers in North America, but remain in 76th place in the rankings.
