Ghana rises to 26th spot on FIFA world rankings

 　　ACCRA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Ghana moved four places up to rank 26th on the January edition of the overall FIFA world rankings, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) announced here Thursday.

　　Ghana jumped from the 30th position on December's rankings to the 26th place after picking 11 more points to reach a total of 788.

　　The Black Stars maintained their fourth position on the continental¹ ranking table.

　　Cote d'Ivoire is still leading the African pecking order, followed by Algeria and Mali respectively.

　　World champions, Spain, start the year as the number one side ahead of Germany and Argentina.

　　According to FIFA, only 46 matches were included in the ranking since December's episode, 18 of which took place in 2012, with the remaining 28 played in the first half of January 2013.

　　Ghana's Black Stars, who placed fourth at the 2012 CAF Nations Cup co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, last year, have been drawn² in Group B of the 2013 edition of the tournament alongside Mali, Niger and DR Congo.

　　The West African nation Wednesday ended its camping in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the team fine-tuned ahead of the Cup of Nations competition scheduled for South Africa from January 19.

　　The team defeated Egypt and Tunisia in two warm up friendly matches in Abu Dhabi and has since arrived in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where it will be based for the tournament.

1 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。