Bafana Bafana are now ranked 21st in the African rankings, which does not instill confidence ahead of the Nations Cup in January.

Gordon Igesund’s men will face Angola (79th), Morocco (72nd) and Cape Verde (63rd) in the biennial tournament and all three are ranked higher than the hosts.

Five-times world champions Brazil remained stuck outside the top 10 despite winning both friendlies last month and scoring 10 goals in the process.

Brazil, whose next game is against Colombia next week, thumped Iraq 6-0 and Japan 4-0 yet rose only one place in the controversial table, from a record low 14th to 13th.

Despite winning most of their games, the 2014 World Cup hosts, who qualify automatically for the tournament, have been slipping steadily down the table over the last year as they have only been playing friendlies which carry less weight in the complex system.

Mano Menezes’s side have played 19 games since the Copa America last year, winning 15.

South American champions Uruguay’s dramatic loss of form cost them a place in the top 10 as they slipped from seventh to 11th.

They were thumped 3-0 by neighbours Argentina in World Cup qualifying and slumped to a 4-1 defeat in Bolivia.

Argentina’s wins over Uruguay and Chile helped them into third place as they swapped places with Portugal.

The leading two remained unchanged with world and European champions Spain on top, ahead of Germany.

Hungary leapt 19 places to 30th helped by World Cup qualifying wins over Estonia and Turkey while baseball-playing Dominican Republic climbed to 92nd, the first time they have been in the top 100.

sowetanlive.co.za