Russia ranked 63 by FIFA for Confederations Cup; Brazil top
ZURICH (AP) Confederations Cup host Russia dropped two places to No. 63 team in the new FIFA rankings on Thursday.
Russia will open the eight-nation event against No. 95 New Zealand, the Oceania champion, on June 17 in St. Petersburg.
As the automatically qualified World Cup host, Russia's ranking has fallen while playing only lower-ranked friendlies in recent months. Russia last won a competitive game in October 2015.
Top-ranked Brazil and No. 2 Argentina did not qualify for the World Cup warm-up event. No. 4 Chile is the champion of South America.
No. 3 Germany, which won the World Cup, is the highest ranked team at the Confederations Cup.
European champion Portugal is unchanged at No. 8, Gold Cup winner Mexico dropped one place to No. 17, African champion Cameroon is No. 32, and Asian champion Australia is No. 48.
The top-ranked teams in Africa and Asia did not qualify for the Confederations Cup, which includes the World Cup host, six continental champions and the World Cup champion.
Egypt, which lost to Cameroon in the African Cup of Nations final in February, dropped one place to No. 20. No. 30 Iran leads Asian teams despite falling two spots.
The only top-10 change involved Poland, which rose one place and into a tie with No. 10 Spain.
The United States is unchanged at No. 23.
