LONDON: Little more than nine months before the World Cup makes its first appearance in Africa, all but six of the 32 team spots are still to be decided.

So far, Japan, Australia, North and South Korea and the Netherlands have

captured places alongside host South Africa in the

December 4 draw at

Cape Town, although several more teams are banging on the door. While five-time World Cup winner Brazil, European champion Spain and 1966 winner England look set to join them soon, other powerhouse teams have plenty of work to do.

Diego Maradona’s Argentina are in the fourth and last of South America’s qualifying spots behind Brazil, Chile and Paraguay, and in danger of getting missing out, especially if they lose at home to the Brazilians

on Saturday. That would leave them stranded on 22 points and allow fifth place Ecuador to leapfrog them with a win at Colombia.

Although Germany are top of their group, second place Russia appears almost certain to cut their standings lead to one point by beating Liechtenstein at home on Saturday. World Cup holder Italy also top their group and are out to capture three points in Georgia. But Marcello Lippi’s team has only a one-point lead over Ireland.

France have five points to make up on leader Serbia in Group 7 although Raymond Domenech’s team, which hosts Romania on Saturday, has a game in hand.

Slovakia lead Group 3 as they chase a first World Cup appearance, and have a great chance to push the Czech Republic further out of contention by beating them at home on Saturday. The Slovaks go into the game with a two-point lead over second place Northern Ireland.

Portugal badly needs a victory over Group 1 leader Denmark or they will probably have to start thinking about the runners up playoffs. With four rounds to go, Portugal and Sweden are lingering well behind the Danes and Hungary.

England will capture a place at the finals if they beat Croatia on Wednesday to make it eight wins out of eight in Group 6. That means the race is effectively for second place and a playoff spot, which Croatia are favoured to capture, especially by beating fourth place Belarus. Three points behind the Croats, Ukraine have a game in hand, however, and should also beat Andorra at home to stay in contention.

With six wins from six games, Spain should move closer to the finals by beating Belgium at home, while second place Bosnia-Herzegovina are hopeful of staying in contention by winning in Armenia. Qualifying for the three automatic spots from Central and North America is effectively down to four teams as Mexico aim to stay in touch with Costa Rica (12 points), Honduras (10) and United States (10) with four rounds to go. With Honduras expected to beat Trinidad & Tobago at home and the Americans hosting El Salvador, the crucial game on Saturday appears to be Mexico’s visit to leader Costa Rica. The Mexicans have nine points and a victory would turn things upside down.