World Cup finalists shaping up (Feature)

Hamburg - Next year, when the World Cup takes place on the African continent for the first time, 32 countries will be participating in the football fiesta. With less than a year to go before kickoff and only a few few weeks before the draw for the finals is made, only 11 of the participating countries are known at this stage. But all of that will change by the end of the weekend, when most of the continental zones play their penultimate round of qualifying games. Surprisingly, one of the countries struggling to make it to South Africa are two-time world champions Argentina, who are only lying fifth in the South American group, from where Brazil and Paraguay have qualified. With the top four teams qualifying directly and the fifth having to qualify via a play-off against the fourth-placed team from the North, Central America and Caribbean zone, there is still plenty to play for and the only teams no longer in contention are Bolivia and Peru. Chile, who are currently third, could make sure of being in South Africa, with a victory at home against Colombia, who are lying eight, but just three points behind Ecuador, who currently are in fourth place. Argentina should grab maximum points at home against Peru on Saturday, but will face a much tougher assignment in Uruguay in Montevideo on Wednesday. Coached by World Cup winner Diego Maradona, Argentina have been blowing more hot than cold during the qualifying campaign, but Maradona is still hopeful of taking the team to South Africa. 'We are not yet out of the World Cup,' he said after the 1-0 loss to Paraguay in September. In African qualifying, the Ivory Coast should make sure of their second World Cup appearance. The Elephants have a six point lead over Burkina Faso in Group E and are away to Malawi in Blantyre on Saturday. Algeria, whose last appearance on the world's footballing stage dates back to 1986, could also qualify if things go their way in Group C. The Desert Foxes should have an easy game at home against Rwanda and are three points ahead of Egypt who face a much tougher assignment away to Zambia. In Group A and B, the standings are much closer and theoretically all four teams in the group still have a chance of qualifying. In the North, Central America and Caribbean zone the US, Mexico and Honduras could book their ticket on the weekend. The Americans top the group on 16 points and are away to Honduras, who are third on 13 points. If Costa Rica fail to beat Trinidad and Tobago in San Jose and Honduras win against the US and Mexico beat El Salvador, the US, Mexico and Honduras would all have qualified, with only the play-off place still in doubt. In Europe, where 13 places are up for grabs, only England, Spain and the Netherlands have already qualified. Several others could follow suit on Saturday. Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia, Serbia and Italy could all win their groups and qualify directly with victory on Saturday, but there are several big footballing countries that are struggling. In Group 1, Portugal could lose out even on a play-off place, while Germany could be forced into the play-offs if they lose in Russia in their Group 4 match. In Group 7 the 1998 World Cup winners France are facing an uphill battle. They are four points behind Serbia and will probably have to resign themselves to the fact that they will have to hope for a place in South Africa via the play-offs. Faced with a situation that some of the biggest names in European football could miss out on a trip to South Africa, the world controlling body FIFA introduced a seeding system a few days ago. This was slammed by some of the smaller nations and Irish goalkeeper Shay Given, whose team will - most likely - qualify for the play-offs, was outspoken in his criticism. 'It is ridiculous how they can make a decision when some of the big name nations are maybe struggling to qualify. It is totally unfair on us smaller nations - if they say that before a ball is kicked then at least you know where you stand but to change it now is ridiculous and I dont think it is right,' he said. Australia, Japan and the two Koreas have qualified from the Asian zone and Bahrain could take a major step towards joining them with a victory at home in Manama against Oceania winners New Zealand in the first leg of their play-off. With so much at stake for Bahrain and all other teams still in line for a place in South Africa, there is bound to be plenty of action on the weekend, with much joy and probably even more sorrow a the end of it.