Winners

ED JOHNSON, 20, who scored in his national team debut on Saturday in El Salavdor, came off the bench and scored a hat trick while LANDON DONOVAN, 22, notched a pair as the USA beat Panama, 6-0, to clinch a spot in next year's six-team final round of World Cup qualifying.

CARLOS RUIZ. The Los Angeles Galaxy forward scored the winner as Guatemala downed Honduras, 1-0, to clinch a spot in the final-round for the first time since the 1990 World Cup qualifying campaign. Ruiz returned to the lineup after serving a yellow-card suspension during Guatemala's 5-0 loss to Costa Rica last weekend. The Chapines are aiming for their first World Cup.

MEXICO reached the final round with two games left to play thanks to a 3-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago on a goal by Brazilian-born Antonio ''Zinha'' Naelson and a pair from Jaime Lozano, the UNAM Pumas midfielder who also scored twice in last week's 7-0 win over St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Including their preliminary series against Dominica, the Mexicans have scored 32 goals in six straight qualifying wins.

PORTUGAL rebounded from Saturday's embarrassing 2-2 tie with Liechtenstein by drubbing Russia, 7-1. Portugal is in a first-place tie with Slovakia in their European Group 3.

Losers

CANADA. Frank Yallop, after guiding the San Jose Earthquakes to the MLS title for the second time in three years, took the helm of his county's national team late in 2003 with dreams of guiding it to the World Cup for the second time in its history. (It appeared in Mexico '86). But yesterday's 3-1 loss to Costa Rica in front of 4,728 in British Columbia eliminated the Canadians from contention after earning just two points in five games.

IRAQ was unable to build on its U-23 team's spectacular semifinal run at last summer's Olympics: a 2-1 defeat to Uzbekistan ended the Iraqis' chances of reaching Asia's final round of qualifying.

BERTI VOGTS, Scotland's German coach who failed to qualify the team for Euro 2004 and whose results include a 2-2 tie with the Faroe Islands, faces another clamor for his sacking after yesterday's 1-1 tie at Moldova followed winless qualifiers at home against Norway (0-1) and Slovenia (0-0): ''It's Moldova and out for Vogts,'' wrote The Herald of Glasgow.

CHINA, which reached the World Cup for the first time in 2002, is unlikely to secure a final-round qualifying spot after falling 1-0 to Kuwait. Kuwait will finish ahead of China if it beats winless, last-place Malaysia in its final Group 4 game.