COLLISION: Valencia’s goalkeeper Carreira Diego Alves (left) makes a save against Swansea City during a Europa League Group A match on Thursday. Valencia won 1-0. (AP-Yonhap News)
ZURICH (AP) ― Cristiano Ronaldo’s match-winning goals for Portugal in World Cup playoff matches against Sweden lifted his country to No. 5 in the monthly FIFA rankings.
Portugal’s 1-0 and 3-2 wins fueled a nine-place jump in the standings published Thursday as rivals played only friendly matches which score fewer points in the calculations.
FIFA set World Cup seedings for the Dec. 6 draw from October rankings so playoff teams would not gain unfair advantage.
Spain leads an unchanged top four from Germany, Argentina and Colombia.
Uruguay is sixth, and No. 7 Italy swaps with No. 8 Switzerland which was seventh for one month to clinch seeded status.
Netherland is ninth and host Brazil rises one to No. 10.
Seeded Belgium falls six places to No. 11, and is now the lowest-ranked of the eight seeds.
The United States drops one to No. 14, and CONCACAF rival Mexico used its home-and-away playoff wins against New Zealand to rise four places to No. 20.
Ivory Coast is the highest ranked African nation, remaining at No. 17.
Iran is best of the Asian confederations teams, rising four to No. 45. Long-time leader Japan fell four to No. 48.
Australia, No. 59, will be the lowest ranked of the 32 World Cup draw teams next week.
Spain maintained its clear points lead despite scoring zero for its 1-0 defeat by South Africa last week in a friendly.
Union: Worker warned about crane
SAO PAULO (AP) ― A safety engineer at the World Cup stadium where a giant crane collapse killed two workers allegedly warned his supervisor of possible problems with the operation, only to have his concerns brushed aside, a labor union leader charged Thursday, as sniping over the accident heated up.
The incident has fed worries about Brazil’s capacity to host next year’s showcase tournament, as well as the 2016 Olympics, though authorities insist they will be ready for both.
Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians was slated to be completed by the end of December, and workers have suggested that speed was a top priority on the construction site, with many working 12-hour shifts and skipping vacations.
The stadium was initially scheduled to be part of the Confederations Cup earlier this year, but world football’s governing body FIFA scrapped the venue from the warm-up tournament because of financing problems before construction even started.
