Quote from: tiCeR on July 07, 2025, 10:35:54 PM

Quote from: Sithara007 on July 06, 2025, 02:53:00 AM

Uzbekistan has hardly played against any teams outside the AFC confederation. So the current rankings doesn't really take in to account their present form. Only when they play against the top teams in tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup, their performance and prospects can be accurately measured. But I would like to repeat one thing. Performance in international football seems to have some correlation to demography. Countries with a young population are the ones who are advancing the most now.

They didn't play against outside AFC confed treams for obvious reasons, but that coefficient does somehow try to balance out the difference in strength of all teams. I agree though that these rankings have their flaws, but scrolling through their game history reveals that they are not losing games with overwhelming results against them. The last relevant game against Australia for example, it ended 1-1 in early 2024 at the Asia Cup.

But if anything, they would only play against top teams in the group stage of a World Cup and now last month they qualified for the WC 2026 for the first time ever. I think this means something, but it has to be noted that the WC was extended I think and more teams are able to participate. I don't know if it was for their improved performance, or for the expanded field of participants that they were now able to make it.

I agree with you on few points still it's going to be interesting Uzbekistan is now one of the good sides in Asian region and things are clearly favouring them for having good results in future because they are having good skills and talented players.

Recently few players joined big clubs which give them good boost still need them to have good performance against top teams in the future, but their recent performance is not bad at all currently they are ranked 66th in FIFA rankings, but I am sure this is going to be improved with they are having strong structure which will help their youngsters for having good results. Difference of quality is huge but still with quality and consistent performance few teams can do much better which will give them confidence for big events like FIFA World Cup in the future.