Argentina has held onto the No. 1 spot in the men's world football rankings released by the sport's governing body FIFA on Wednesday.
With European and South American teams taking a break in December and early January, the top 18 places in the FIFA ranking remained unchanged.
Brazil remains in second place followed by world champion Italy, then Spain and Germany. The Czech Republic is sixth, with France, Portugal, Netherlands and Croatia rounding out the top 10.
Nigeria was the first team to advance, moving up one spot to number 18 on the strength of a 2-0 friendly win over Sudan on January ninth. They switched places with the United States, which fell one place to number-19 in the rankings.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP.