All Whites finish 22nd at World Cup

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AMAZING: These All Whites fans made their feelings known when awaited the team's arrival back from the football World Cup.

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Fifa World Cup

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The All Whites finished the World Cup ranked 22nd out of the 32 competing teams.

As a result the All Whites are set to climb to a record high when the official Fifa rankings are released overnight in the washup to the just-completed World Cup in South Africa.

New Zealand’s unbeaten run at the World Cup – the only team who didn’t lose a match at the tournament – saw them nestled between Australia and Serbia when all 32 countries were rated against each other on their results there.

Significantly they finished five places higher than defending champions Italy.

Now we wait to see where they move to on the sport’s overall rankings.

They entered the tournament at 78 but three successive draws will make them one of the big movers. Their highest ever ranking, since they began in 1993, was 47th in 2002, while just three years ago they were ranked a lowly 156th, their lowest ever mark.

The All Whites' climb will certainly help in New Zealand Football's quest to get a meaningful game here in October for Ricki Herbert’s team.

Fifa 2010 World Cup standings: 1 Spain, 2 Netherlands, 3 Germany, 4 Uruguay, 5 Argentina, 6 Brazil, 7 Ghana, 8 Paraguay 9 Japan, 10 Chile, 11 Portugal, 12 United States, 13 England, 14 Mexico, 15 South Korea, 16 Slovakia 17 Ivory Coast, 18 Slovenia, 19 Switzerland, 20 South Africa, 21 Australia, 22 New Zealand, 23 Serbia, 24 Denmark 25 Greece, 26 Italy, 27 Nigeria, 28 Algeria, 29 France, 30 Honduras, 31 Cameroon, 32 North Korea.

- © Fairfax NZ News