Although England remained idle during
the periods covered by the first two rankings of 2004, they remained in 8th
spot in the January ranking, level with Turkey, and climbed to 7th in the
February ranking. On the strength of their 1-1 away
draw to Portugal in February, England climbed another spot to 6th in the March
ranking, although they shared that spot with the Czech Republic and
Argentina. The 6th place ranking equalled the highest they attained under coach Sven-Göran Eriksson, although their four earlier monthly
6th place rankings under him were not shared, and it was two spots below
the highest they ever achieved, the fourth spot reached under manager Glenn
Hoddle in December, 1997.
England seemed on the verge of
climbing into the elite top five teams once again, but it was not to be. Following a 1-0 friendly match loss
to Sweden in late March, they sank four places to 10th in the April ranking.
They did not play during the period covered by the May ranking and dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in two years, to 12th,
which they shared with Cameroon. They sank to 13th in the June ranking following the
1-1 draw with Japan and the 6-0 drubbing of Iceland at the FA Summer
Tournament in Manchester. But their quarterfinal penalty kicks shootout
elimination at European Championship 2004 in Portugal was sufficient to push them back up to 8th in the July
ranking and to 7th in the August ranking. They remained there in the
September ranking following their 3-0 home friendly victory against the
Ukraine...
England
Football Online