[GreatBriton]

It's the "soccer" World Cup in Germany next year. Thankfully, England have qualified for it. They beat Austria 1-0 yesterday in their qualifying group (which also has two of the other Home Nations of Wales and Northern Ireland in it). That means that because, in another group, Holland beat the Czech Republic 2-0, England will, at least, finish second in the group and qualify automatically as one of the two best second-place teams or, if they beat group leaders Poland on Wednesday, will qualify as group leaders by overtaking Poland. Either way, England have definitely qualified for next year's World Cup. All the other teams that finish second will have to win the play-offs in order to qualify.

Northern Ireland and Wales can't qualify (only England and Poland in our group can qualify) and Scotland's already faint hopes of qualification were destroyed when they suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of Belarus yesterday - that was only Belarus's second-ever away win.

Group 6
...............Played....Points

Poland.......9.........24 Q
England......9.........22 Q
Austria........9.........12
N.Ireland.....9..........9
Wales..........9..........5
Azerbaijan....9..........3

--------------------------------------
Group 5

Italy...........9........20 Q
Norway........9........15 P/O
Slovenia......9.........12
Belarus........9.........10
Scotland.......9.........10
Moldova........9.........5



In the North American section, the United States qualified.

Unfortunately for Canadadians, they finished bottom of group 2 in phase 2 of the qualifyiers, on which teams need to go through three stages to have a chance of qualifying.

Costa Rica........6..........10
Guatemala........6..........10
Honduras..........6...........7
Canada.............6...........5

Then in phase 3, Costa Rica and Guatemala failed to qualify for the World Cup.



Mexico...................9.............22 Q
US.........................9.............19 Q
Costa Rica..............9.............16
Trinidas & Tobago....9.............10
Guatemala..............9..............8
Panama..................9..............2

[Toro]

Costa Rica qualified because they finished third. The fourth place team in CONCACAF will play either Bahrain or Uzbekistan for a spot in Germany.

Africa was a stunner. Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Angola all qualified for the first time while South Africa, Cameroon and Nigeria - traditional powerhouses of Africa football - failed to advance.