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THE organisers of the World Cup in South Africa now know 19 of the countries that will compete for the most prestigious trophy in the football world and some of the 13 remaining spots will be resolved tonight.
Others will have to wait a bit longer including Bahrain who were held to a 0-0 draw by New Zealand on Saturday. It will be a tough assignment to go away from home and get a result but it is well within their capabilities if they play well.
In Europe, the picture is much clearer now with Germany and Italy booking their places to join England, Spain, Holland, Serbia and Denmark. The remaining two groups will see one of Switzerland or Greece and Slovakia or Slovenia progressing as automatic qualifiers.
The subsequent losers will go into the lottery that is the playoffs where France and the Republic of Ireland have already booked their places. Portugal has still not booked their place and although they have a home match with Malta it will come down to goal difference if Sweden also win at home to Albania. The picture is slightly blurred at this stage as the results against the team that finish bottom are removed from the equation.
However, all will become clear by this evening and it still means Ronaldo could miss the World Cup and it will be a tense night for all his fans and sponsors.
It is a similar story for Lionel Messi and Argentina as their position remains precarious despite a last-gasp winner on Saturday against Peru. Martin Palermo who has not played for Argentina for 10 years was another controversial pick for maverick manager Diego Maradona but he popped up in injury time to save his side's blushes.
This vital victory means they stay in fourth spot before today's game away to fifth place Uruguay. Victory or a draw will see them through automatically but a defeat will see them in either a playoff with the fourth-placed team from North America or if Ecuador beat Chile then they will miss out altogether. This last scenario will leave Maradona's reputation in tatters.
Already qualified are Brazil, Paraguay and Chile but it is the team in yellow and blue that impress most and as usual will go into next summer's tournament as favourites being the only country to win a World Cup outside their own continent.
Elsewhere, Australia, Japan, North and South Korea have qualified from Asia and the US along with Mexico have made it from North America.
In Africa, only the Ivory Coast and Ghana have booked their places but tonight it is this part of the world that will see the most highly-charged encounter when Algeria take on Egypt in a winner takes all game.
Twenty years ago a similar situation arose when Egypt beat Algeria to qualify for the 1990 World Cup after a 1-0 victory in front of 100,000 fans in Cairo. It was a controversial game and one the Algerians have never forgotten and whilst the ground capacity has reduced to 74,000 it will still be as highly-charged a game as anywhere in the world. Algeria's 3-1 home win earlier in the group and the fact a draw will be enough suggests they may have the edge.
In the other African groups Cameroon and Nigeria will be trying to fend off Gabon and Tunisia, respectively. However, Nigeria is the more vulnerable because if Tunisia win at home against bottom-placed Kenya then they will be out. A victory for Cameroon away to Morocco will be enough to see them through and unless Gabon wins away in Togo the Cameroonians will be through anyway.
There are still numerous permutations because every continent has a different format but also the so called big guns do not have the same advantage as they used to.
This, of course, is a good thing for world football and ensures there will be excitement happening to the very last whistle in some part of the world tonight.
But it will not be completely over after tonight as the playoffs, including Bahrain's match, will mean the tension continues for a little longer before we know for certain who will be entertaining us next summer in South Africa.
