The World's Winding Road to Germany

As hosts, Germany do not need to worry about point races or goal difference to qualify for the World Cup, but the rest of the world is getting out the calculators and crunching how many more points they need for a trip to Germany after Wednesday night's preliminary matches.

Holland, the Czech Republic and Romania all won and made sure group one stayed close, three points separate the top three teams.

Seven yellow cards dotted a physical match between Ukraine and Denmark. The 1-0 loss probably spells the end of the Danes march to Germany, while keeping Ukraine three points ahead of European Champion Greece, who finished with a 2-0 lead against Albania.

France struggles, Italy sails

France is stuck in a three-way draw at the top of its group after conceding a draw at home, their third in a row, against Israel. Much of the night's action had something to with Frenchman David Trezeguet's head. He used it to France's benefit when he put in the game's first goal, but to their detriment when he was sent off after head butting an Israeli defender five minutes later. Cyprus kept Switzerland to a scoreless draw until the 88th minute when a Swiss goal put the alpine nation into third place, a point behind France and Israel with a game in hand.

Even without playing, Italy was the big winner in group five. Norway's failure to beat Moldova and the 1-1 tie between Slovenia and Belarus secured the Azzurri's lead at the top of the table before their next qualifier in Norway this June.

Calls for a double-digit goals were left unanswered as England, still atop group six, managed to scratch out a 2-0 second-half win against Azerbaijan, who were pounded 8-0 by Poland earlier this week. A pair of 1-0 wins from Poland and Austria hurt Northern Ireland's and Wales' already slim qualification chances.

Scoreless Spaniards sitting pretty

Sitting in second place, Spain was happy with a scoreless tie against group seven leaders Serbia-Montenegro. Lithuania's 1-1 draw in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the other hand was a riddled with missed opportunities to draw closer to the leaders. But Belgium is there to share Lithuania's misery. The Belgians had their hands full in 2-1 win over San Mario, whose first goal of the campaign cut its goal difference down to -19.

In Europe's final group it was Croatia that took advantage of Sweden's day off to move to the top by beating Malta 3-0. In the group's other game, Hungary scored a last minute goal to share points with Bulgaria.

Argentinean appearance nearly certain

Though still not a guarantee, Argentina's 28 points after a 1-0 win against Columbia make a finals spot almost a given. World Champions Brazil gratefully used a breakdown in Uruguay's defense to share points while Uruguay suffered its second frustrating disappointment in a week.

Paraguay came back from a 5-2 defeat in Ecuador with a 2-1 triumph over Chile, continuing their course toward a third successive World Cup.

In North America, the United States dominated Guatemala 2-0 while Mexico tied Panama.

Cape Verde carries on unlikely fight

The Asian teams' qualifying campaigns returned to soccer as usual after rioting marred matches earlier in week when the crowd got out of hand, killing five fans and injuring 40 more after Iran beat Japan 2-1 in Tehran. The favorites sides all took three points when Korea, Japan and Iran won.

Ranked 129th in the world, the Cape Verde Islands continued their improbable bid for a place in Germany with 2-1 win against Burkina Faso last weekend. Now the outsiders are just two points behind group leader South Africa.