CONCACAF
Winners:

Forward TAYLOR TWELLMAN scored his first U.S. goal in 14 appearances and midfielder KYLE MARTINO tallied his first in seven U.S. games to give the USA a 2-0 victory over winless Panama in the Americans' third qualifier since clinching passage to Germany 2006. Combined with Mexico's loss to Trinidad & Tobago, the USA finishes first in the Hexagonal by virtue of a better head-to-head goal difference (3-2) with Mexico, which also finished on 22 points.

STERN JOHN, who scored 52 goals for the Columbus Crew in MLS in 1998-99 before moving to England, scored both goals as Trinidad & Tobago upset Mexico, 2-1, to finish fourth in the Hexagonal. T&T must play off against Asia's No. 5 team, Bahrain, to qualify for its first World Cup.

Loser:

Carlos Ruiz scored on a spectacular bicycle kick as GUATEMALA downed already qualified Costa Rica, 3-1. But Trinidad's win over Mexico moved it above Guatemala, whose tie with Panama in its Hexagonal opener cost it dearly, Trinidad having won both its games against the Canaleros.

SOUTH AMERICA
Winner:

URUGUAY, which started the year with three bad losses — to Venezuela (3-0) and Peru (3-1) at home and 5-0 in Colombia — rebounded under Coach Jorge Fossati and with Wednesday's 1-0 win over archrival Argentina to clinched fifth place and a playoff spot with Australia, which Uruguay overcame in a playoff four years ago to reach the 2002 World Cup.

Losers:

COLOMBIA, which qualified for the 1990, 1994 and 1998 finals, will miss a second straight World Cup. Its 1-0 win Wednesday over Paraguay was not enough to earn it fifth place and a playoff spot because of Uruguay's win over Argentina. CHILE, which was in contention going into Wednesday's games, tied 0-0 with Ecuador also misses its second straight finals.

EUROPE
Winners:

The CZECH REPUBLIC earned a playoff spot with a 3-0 win over Finland, edging out Romania by two points in the group that was won by the Netherlands. SLOVAKIA earned second-place in Group 3, which Portugal won, thanks to a scoreless tie with Russia.

FRANCE, whose poor form had prompted the return from retirement of Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele, thumped Cyprus, 4-0, to win Group 4 and qualify for the finals in neighboring Germany. In a Match between two teams that had already clinched, ENGLAND downed Poland to win Group 6.

Losers:

2004 European Champion GREECE finished fourth in Europe's Group 2, from which Ukraine qualified and Turkey earned a playoff. It marks the first time since the 1994 World Cup that Europe's champion failed to qualify for the World Cup. That's when 1992 European Championship winner Denmark failed. This time around, the Danes finished third in Group 2 and fail to qualify after reaching the finals in 1998 and 2002.

SPAIN will have to win a playoff to qualify for its eighth straight World Cup after Serbia & Montenegro won Group 7 with a 1-0 win over Bosnia.

ISRAEL, despite going undefeated in Group 4, finished third and fails to qualify from the group that France won and Switzerland finished runner-up.