Brazil, meanwhile, whose ranking had suffered by not playing competitive qualifiers ahead of hosting next year's World Cup, have gone back into the top 10 following their Confederations Cup triumph, up 13 places to ninth.
Since the 2007 triumph, Iraq has done little to suggest that it can repeat its success, even if it gets out of Group D. The security situation has improved to an extent: exhibition matches have taken place in the country, but competitive qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers were held in Doha and Amman.
Given that Poland head into the tournament as its lowest-ranked side (65th), such pessimism is perhaps appropriate, even though their poor ranking is exacerbated by a problem all hosts face, the weighting Fifa, the world governing body, gives to competitive qualifiers compared to friendlies.
Could their FA intentionally schedule friendlies to exhaust the ban before any competitive '18 qualifiers?" wonders Chuck Scott.
San Marino did their best and the effort was appreciated by those locals who did file in - but this was a game that flouted its billing as a competitive World Cup qualifier.
The former Liverpool striker guided Wales to 10 competitive wins in 29 qualifiers - losing 16 - since his first game in March 2005, but failed to claim the scalp of a major footballing nation.
It seems apt that Xavi's 100th cap is a competitive fixture, a European championship qualifier against the Czech Republic.
Euro 2004 After excelling on his competitive debut in a crucial qualifier against Turkey, Rooney starts all of England's four games, scoring four times.
He pulls from the deep end for competitive fixtures like World Cup qualifiers, relying on European-based players like Bocanegra, who plays for Rennes in France, and forward Clint Dempsey of Fulham and goalkeeper Tim Howard of Everton of the English Premier League.
"In Scotland, they're a little bit concerned that because the teams now have to go into the European qualifiers basically without competitive games as Dundee United had to do during the week, it holds them back and it's currently causing problems with the European co-efficient.
