Here are my personal power rankings for each of the 32 competing national teams after watching each game in the first round of group play. These rankings are based on a number of factors including quality of play, strength of squad, results of first game, opposing team, potential, and more. The number next to each team is their Official FIFA Ranking going into the tourney.

I’ll give some more explanation on the next go around, but I just wanted to get these out there now. Germany is pretty obviously everyone’s choice for numero uno – but they definitely did look the best. I was most impressed by the play through the midfield by Mesut Özil, a complete unknown to me coming in. While some of the faves had poor first games (Spain, France, Portugal), they are by no means out of it and with the talents on their squads could still go all the way. I thought the USA looked great – but with the strength of Germany, we need to really show up against Slovenia Friday to make a play for the group win.

Here are my rankings. Check out my Statistics Companion if you want some more numbers thrown your way.

1. Germany (6)
2. Netherlands (4)
3. Argentina (7)
4. Brazil (1)
5. England (8)
6. Italy (5)
7. Ghana (32)
8. Spain (2)
9. Paraguay (31)
10. South Korea (47)
11. Chile (18)
12. USA (14)
13. Japan (45)
14. Uruguay (16)
15. Switzerland (24)
16. France (9)
17. Portugal (3)
18. Ivory Coast (27)
19. South Africa (83)
20. Serbia (15)
21. Mexico (17)
22. Slovenia (25)
23. Denmark (36)
24. Slovakia (34)
25. North Korea (105)
26. New Zealand (78)
27. Cameroon (19)
28. Nigeria (21)
29. Honduras (38)
30. Australia (20)
31. Greece (13)
32. Algeria (30)