Japan, Australia, South Korea 1st 3 nations to qualify for next year’s World Cup

By AP
Saturday, June 6, 2009

Japan, Australia, South Korea qualify for WCup

Japan, Australia and South Korea became the first three nations to qualify for next year’s World Cup, joining host South Africa in the 32-nation field.

England, meanwhile, put itself in good position to qualify, winning 4-0 at Kazakhstan on goals by Wayne Rooney, Gareth Barry, Emile Heskey and Frank Lampard to improve to 6-0 in Europe Group Six. David Beckham entered in the 75th minute for his 111th international appearance, 14 shy of goalkeeper Peter Shilton’s English record.

The United States, coming off a 3-1 loss at Costa Rica, hosted Honduras later Saturday in the North and Central American and Caribbean final round, and Mexico was at El Salvador.

Japan became the first team to qualify for the second straight tournament, winning 1-0 at Uzbekistan on a ninth-minute goal by Shinji Okazaki. It will be the fourth straight World Cup appearance for the Japanese, who were eliminated in the first round of the 2006 tournament in Germany.

Australia will appear for the second straight time following a 0-0 tie at Qatar, the Socceroos’ sixth consecutive shutout in the Asian finals. It will be the third World Cup appearance for Australia, which qualified in 1974 and was eliminated three years ago with a second-round defeat to Italy.

Japan and Australia are both 4-0-2 with two games left, ensuring they can’t be caught by Bahrain (2-3-1), Qatar (1-4-2) or Uzbekistan (1-5-1).

South Korea clinched a berth in the other Asian group with 2-0 victory at the United Arab Emirates (0-6-1), getting goals from Park Chu-young in the fifth minute and Ki Sung-yueng in the 37th. A semifinalist when it was World Cup co-host in 2002, South Korea will be making its seventh straight World Cup appearance.

South Korea (4-0-2) has 14 points, three ahead of North Korea (3-2-2), which tied 0-0 against visiting Iran (1-1-4) and four in front of Saudi Arabia (3-2-1), which hosts North Korea on June 17. The top two teams in each Asian group qualify, and the third-place teams meet in a playoff.

In Africa, Togo lost 3-0 at Gabon (2-0), which got goals from Bruno Ecuele, Roguy Meye and Moise Brou. Emmanuel Adebayor picked up a yellow card for Togo (1-0-1). Cameroon, which lost its final-round opener against Togo, also is in Group A and hosts Morocco on Sunday, The five African group winners will join South Africa.

YOUR VIEW POINT
NAME : (REQUIRED)
MAIL : (REQUIRED)
will not be displayed
WEBSITE : (OPTIONAL)
YOUR
COMMENT :