Some believe the Russian national team has been lucky in today’s draw for the playoffs in World Cup 2010 qualifiers for falling on Slovenia, which are considered less dangerous than, say, a Bosnia-Herzegovina led by Wolfsburg’s prolific striker Edin Dzeko. But the FTBL rating has some surprises for those of that opinion: In fact, if you plow through the numbers, the Slovenes appear a lot more balanced and stable as a team.

Their top striker, AJ Auxerre’s Valter Birsa (pictured left), has an overall FTBL rating of 116.85 points, a respectable number by any standard. In his last big gain, he picked up 18.10 rating points in the FTBL system against Number 3 in the French Ligue 1 Bordeaux by scoring his side’s only goal.

Another top striker in the Slovenian team is FC Koln’s Milivoje Novakovic (112.42 points). Novakovic topped the FTBL rating of Slovenian strikers until he was overtaken by Birsa as he dropped 4 rating points despite Koln’s 1:0 win over Mainz 05. He scored the only goal in the game, but was substituted, which led to the loss of rating points.