Tim Howard's USA will be travelling to the finals next summer as they beat CONCACAF group rivals Honduras in San Pedro Sula, 3-2. Although, the Stars and Stripes went behind two minutes after half-time, as Julia de Leon opened the scoring for the home side. But by the 71st minute, USA found themselves 3-1 up as Conor Casey scored twice and Landon Donovan added the third. De Leon set up a tense finish by netting his second for the Catrachos but the visitors held on to book their passage.
The Everton goalkeeper will join at least three other Blues team-mates in South Africa who were involved in a friendly on Saturday morning. Australia and the Netherlands played out a goalless draw in Sydney as Lucas Neill captained the home side playing the full game, while Tim Cahill was withdrawn after 45 minutes. John Heitinga got 90 minutes as both sides failed to break each other down.
Two players who are uncertain of being involved are Nigeria captain Joseph Yobo and forward Aiyegbeni Yakubu, though they were on the winning side as Victor Obinna swooped late in Abuja to give the Super Eagles a much-needed victory over Mozambique and keep their hopes of reaching the World Cup in their own continent.
The Internazionale striker scored three minutes into time added on at the end of the 90 minutes and as group leaders Tunisia also grabbed three points, Obinna's strike was crucial. There is one match remaining in Group B of the CAF standings with the Carthage Eagles two points ahead and both countries need to travel away from home for their final fixture; Tunisia to Mozambique and Nigeria to Kenya.
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov did not feature in Guus Hiddink's squad against Germany as they went down 1-0 in Moscow. And the Russians will now have to go through a two-legged playoff in the European section of World Cup qualifying if they are to gain one of the 31 places in the finals along with the hosts.
In the other internationals to take place over the last 48 hours, Jack Rodwell's England U21's were involved in a nine-goal thriller at Coventry City's Ricoh Arena on Friday night as they ran out 6-3 winners over their Macedonian counterparts.
Braces from substitute Zavon Hines of West Ham, Newcastle's Andrew Carroll and goals from captain Micah Richards of Manchester City and Arsenal full-back Kieran Gibbs wrapped up a fine win in the Young Lions' first home European qualifier.
The visitors did however come back from 2-0 and 3-2 down, but Stuart Pearce's players ran away in some style towards the end.
Blues midfielder Rodwell got 90 minutes under his belt and showed some good touches.
Also on Friday evening, Seamus Coleman was yellow carded after just 2 minutes, but on a more positive note played 86 minutes in Republic of Ireland's 1-1 draw against Group 2 rivals Georgia in Dublin's Tallaght Stadium.
Blackburn's Alan Judge scored the opener after 28 minutes, but an agonising 89th-minute equaliser from Giorgi Ivanishvili meant both sides ended up with a point.
James Wallace was involved for the first of England U19s two 3-1 wins as they got their European Championship off to a flying start against Finland and hosts Slovenia. The Everton midfielder played a full game in the victory over the Finns on Friday, but was an unused substitute during the Young Lions' triumph against the Slovenians on Sunday.
Everton's young Welshman Nathan Craig helped Wales Under-21s to a 2-0 win over Bosnia and finally Northern Ireland's Shane Duffy was involved in their Under-19s draw 0-0 with Iceland.
