The promotion was attributed to Vietnam’s 1-1 tie with Jordan in their last Group C match as part of the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers on March 27, which gifted the “yellow stars” 38 additional FIFA rating points.
This is the highest world ranking that Vietnam have achieved since 2012, which has helped the team to get closer to the goal of breaking into the FIFA’s top 100, as committed by the Republic of Korea tactician Park Hang-seo when assuming the role as Vietnam’s head coach.
With 331 points, Vietnam went on to defend their top spot in the Southeast Asian standings this month, ahead of the Philippines (world no. 113, 289 points), Thailand (world no. 122, 253 points), and Myanmar (world no. 135, 227 points).
The FIFA rankings of Southeast Asian teams in April.
Despite a three-place fall, Iran still dominated the Asian ladders as world no. 36 with 727 points, followed by Australia (world no. 40, 700 points), Japan (world no. 60, 528 points), and the Republic of Korea (world no. 61, 520 points).
The Kyrgyz Republic produced the most impressive jump in the FIFA’s April rankings, leaping up 40 notches from 125th to 75th position in the world with 424 points.
There was only a slight change in the world’s top five rankings, as Belgium moved up two notches to replace Portugal in third place with 1,364 points. Germany held on to the top spot with 1,609 points, followed by Brazil (1,489 points).
