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 Dec. 4 draw at Cape Town, although several more teams are banging on the door.

While five-time World Cup winners Brazil, European champion Spains and 1966 winners England look set to join them soon, other powerhouse teams have plenty of work to do.

Inspirational as one of the game’s greatest ever players, Diego Maradona is struggling to lift Argentina as their coach. The talented but brittle team are  in the fourth and last of South America’s qualifying spots behind Brazil, Chile and Paraguay, and in danger of missing out, especially if they lose at home to the Brazilians on Saturday.

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

Although fifth place means they still have a chance of qualifying through a playoff, that’s not what Argentina fans were expecting from their greatest star. A positive for their team is that Brazil haven’t beaten their rival in World Cup qualifiers away from home since 1995.

Brazil coach Dunga knows that Maradona has several big stars in his line-up apart from Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.

‘Every player deserves attention,’ Dunga said. ‘You can’t mark only one player and let 10 others remain free.’

Although three-time champions Germany are top of their group, second place Russia appear almost certain to cut their standings lead to one point by beating Liechtenstein at home on Saturday. With only the group winners sure of World Cup places from European qualifying, there’s still a strong chance that Guus Hiddink’s Russians can catch the Germans, who host South Africa in a friendly on Saturday.

World Cup holders Italy also top their group and are out to capture three points in Georgia on Saturday. But Marcello Lippi’s team have only a one-point lead over Ireland – who are guided by another Italian coaching great, Giovanni Trapattoni – who visits Cyprus. The Ireland-Italy game in Dublin Oct. 10 could be crucial.

Lippi is unconcerned by criticism that players from his former club Juventus make up a third of his squad.

‘Juventus has put an emphasis on Italian players,’ he said. ‘So it’s only natural that they hold my attention.’

Runners up to the Italians in Berlin three years ago, France have five points to make up on leader Serbia in Group 7 although Raymond Domenech’s team, who host Romania on Saturday, have a game in hand on the leaders and soon go to Belgrade.

‘It will be hard, but the message I’m getting across to the players is that it will be just as hard (for Romania and Serbia),’ Domenech said. ‘We have a talented and a strong team, and we’ll show it.’

Slovakia are the surprise leaders of Group 3 as they chase a first World Cup appearance, and have a great chance to push neighbours 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, with the Czechs next to last and seven points behind.

Portugal badly need a victory over Group 1 leader Denmark in Copenhagen or Cristiano Ronaldo and his team-mates will probably have to start thinking about the runners up playoffs.

With four rounds of games to go, group favourites Portugal and Sweden are lingering well behind the Danes and Hungary. Denmark have 16 points and Hungary 13 with Portugal and Sweden on nine.

With the Hungarians hosting Sweden on Saturday, two home wins will push the Portuguese and the Swedes further out of contention for places in the finals.

England, who host Slovenia in a friendly on Saturday, will capture a place at the finals if they beat Croatia at Wembley 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 on Saturday. Three points behind the Croats, third place 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 of games 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 leaders Costa Rica. The Mexicans have nine points and a victory would turn things upside down.

The four automatic spots from Asia are already decided and now Bahrain and Saudi Arabia go into a two-game playoff to decide which team goes on to face Oceania champion New Zealand for a spot at the World Cup.

Among Saturday’s other friendlies, the Netherlands host Japan in a meeting of two teams headed for the World Cup. —AP