WORLD CUP

U.S. World Cup foes Germany, Portugal ranked 2nd, 4th in world

Associated Press
In this June 7, 2013, file photo, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo gets the ball past Russia's Alexei Kozlov, on the ground, during their 2014 World Cup qualifying group F soccer match, at the Luz stadium in Lisbon.

ZURICH — Defending World Cup champion Spain will travel to Brazil as the No. 1 team in the FIFA rankings, and the host nation will kick off as No. 3.

Spain and Germany remain 1-2 in FIFA's monthly standings, while Brazil leapfrogs No. 4 Portugal.

Argentina and Switzerland both climb two places to Nos. 5 and 6. Colombia drops three to No. 8.

Group D rivals Uruguay, Italy and England are also all in the top 10.

No. 11 Belgium is the lowest-ranked of the seeded World Cup teams.

The United States at No. 13 leads CONCACAF nations.

Algeria, at No. 22, is top-ranked in Africa and No. 43 Iran heads Asian confederation teams.

Australia, No. 62, is the lowest-ranked team at the World Cup.

Germany and Portugal and the United States are in the same group at the World Cup.

The rankings (previous ranking in parenthesis):

1. Spain (1)

2. Germany (2)

3. Brazil (4)

4. Portugal (3)

5. Argentina (7)

6. Switzerland (8)

7. Uruguay (6)

8. Colombia (5)

9. Italy (8)

10. England (11)

11. Belgium (12)

12. Greece (10)

13. United States (14)

14. Chile (13)

15. Netherlands (15)

16. Ukraine (17)

17. France (16)

18. Croatia (16)

19. Russia (18)

20. Mexico (19)