Ranking points

We braced for a storm and it did not come. No reason to get angry or curse the weather bureau, because much of nature is really unpredictable.

What we can predict though are the floods that come when it rains.

Around our office in the downtown area, we get a feel of living in Venice when the rains pour.

We thank the Lord for sparing us from the storm, but we need to stay vigilant because of the constant threat of floods and landslides.

If you don’t know how to swim, it would probably be good to find time to learn. If you don’t know how to paddle a boat, it would also be good to know.

Being prepared for calamities doesn’t mean we are praying for one. 

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The Philippine Azkals dumped the higher-ranked Nepal, 4-0, in a friendly match the other night at the Rizal Memorial field.

Nepal is 135th in the world while the Philippines is 166th, dropping four places since the last rankings.

Would the win help improve our rankings? It might but let’s not get too hopeful.

For each match played, a nation gets corresponding number of points. The number of points (P) earned would depend on the following factors: was it won or drawn (M), how important is it (I), how strong is the opposing team (T) and the confederation it belongs to (C).

The formula is P=M x I x T x C

Against Nepal, the Azkals get 3 points as they won it. If it was drawn, they get 1 and no points are earned for each loss.

As to the importance of the match, it gets only 1 point as it was a friendly. 

The strength of the team is based on the formula 200 minus the ranking, which means 65 as Nepal is 135th.

FIFA has assigned a confederation value of .86 for the Asian Football Confederation. This is based on the number of FIFA World Cups won by a confederation.

So, for the match against Nepal, this is how we compute the points earned: P = 3 x 1 x 65 x .86. This is a total of 167.7 points.

This could improve our ranking points to 127 from 105 based on the world ranking website, which could bring us up to 156th in the rankings.

Just like the weather, this is just a prediction as the rankings would also depend on how the other teams are faring in their own matches.

It helps a lot to play more international games even mere friendly matches.

We can only get better with more games and the discovery of more players both local and foreign-based.

The United Football League (UFL) will definitely help uplift the standard of football in this country and those products of the grassroots programs now have something to look forward to.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday to Jeanne Yu-The, Daniel Abelarde, Desiree Cataos-Ebrado, Cheryl Borlasa, Rafael ‘Paeng’ Encarnacion, and Patricia Rivera, who are all turning a year older today.

Advance greetings to those celebrating tomorrow like Myles de Guzman, Maritess Nicanor-Alcala, Jovylyn Maquiling, Patricia Alix, Victor Legaspina, Shiryl Dulhao-Gatal, my mistah Rommel John Mendoza, and my Tao brother Rick Partos.

More power to all of you! - THE FREEMAN