Jul 12, 2006, 16:59 GMT
Zurich, Switzerland - Italy's fourth World Cup victory was enough to earn the country the second place spot on FIFA's latest World Rankings released on Wednesday, but Brazil still remains in first place.
The World Cup champion sealed the second place spot with 1550 points, a 78 point lead over third place Argentina.
Despite winning the World Cup, Italy still fell short of reaching the first place spot, which is still held by Brazil with 1630 points.
France (1462 points) and England (1434) round out the top five teams. The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Germany follow with the Czech Republic earning the 10th spot on the rankings.
The host country previously held the 19th place spot on the rankings, while the Czech Republic was in the second place spot entering the 2006 World Cup.
The United States, ranked in a tie for fifth place entering the tournament, dropped to 16th place on the rankings list. Mexico also fell in the rankings, dropping to the 18th position.
The U.S. struggled through its group schedule, losing to the Czech Republic to open the tournament, tying with Italy, 1-1 and losing to Ghana to face an early exit from the tournament.
FIFA's newest rankings were calculated using a new method, where only the last four years are taken into account as opposed to the last eight. FIFA also changed the weighting system, placing more emphases on a team's World Cup match results as opposed to friendlies. An opposing team's strength, goals scored and regional strength were also taken into consideration.
© 2006 The Sports Network
Your Talkback on this Story