Canadian women finish 2016 ranked fourth in FIFA world soccer rankings

TORONTO — Canada will finish the year unchanged at No. 4 in the FIFA world women’s soccer rankings.

But coach John Herdman can look forward to 2017, knowing that his team has wins over second-ranked Germany and third-ranked France.

The United States remained atop the standings released Friday, having won all six games while scoring 29 goals since the last rankings were published.

The Americans were followed by Germany, France, Canada and England in an unchanged top five.

Australia and Japan moved up one place each to No. 6 and 7, respectively, while Sweden dropped two places to No. 8. Brazil climbed one spot to No. 9 and North Korea fell one place to No. 10.

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Denmark, which beat Sweden 2-0, climbed five places to No. 15. Kenya moved up 10 spots to No. 122.

Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Palestine and Swaziland dropped out of the rankings due to prolonged inactivity

The next rankings will be released March 24.

Canada’s next outing is a Feb. 4 friendly against No. 26 Mexico in Vancouver at B.C Place Stadium. Herdman’s team will then head to Portugal in March to defend its Algarve Cup title.

The match against Mexico is being billed as a “celebratory homecoming” in the wake of Canada’s bronze medal performance at last summer’s Olympics in Brazil where Canada won five of six games.

The Canadian women moved up six spots to No. 4 in the post-Olympic rankings in late August. Their previous high was No. 7.

The Canadian Press