Porto defender Bruno Alves, who scored the only goal as Portugal narrowly defeated Bosnia Herzegovina in the first leg of their World Cup 2010 playoff yesterday (1:0), gave the struggling Portuguese some reason the be cautiously optimistic before the return leg in a few days.

Alves got all the rewards in the FTBL system: a copious bonus for winning without conceding a single goal, as well as for scoring the winning goal itself. This all tallied at 27.04 points. Given he went into the game with a plank of 11 rating points to beat, this has allowed Pepe to claim a spot in the top 20 of our world ranking of defenders.

In his next 2 games Alves will face a combined plank of just 6.46 rating points to beat. But opposition will be fierce in those games: Bosnia again in the return leg, and then leaders in the Premier League Chelsea. Further gains in the FTBL ranking are, therefore, unlikely.