The closest any of the players from the 10 teams in the Oceania Confederation qualifying tournament are likely to get to the tournament in South Africa is by watching on television.

While most nations await the World Cup qualifying draw in Durban on Nov. 25, a FIFA-sanctioned event at the South Pacific Games doubles as the first round of Oceania qualifying. The Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Tahiti and Tuvalu will play in one group, with American Samoa, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu in the other.

The finalists from the Sept. 7 gold medal match and the third-place finisher will qualify for the second round, a four-country tournament with New Zealand.

The winner of that tournament — and based on rankings, it should be the Kiwis — must play an Asian Confederation team in a two-match series, with the winner advancing to the 2010 World Cup.

The odds that a team from Oceania will fill that role have been marginally improved with Australia's move to the Asian Confederation. Teams such as American Samoa and Tonga will not miss Australia, which humiliated them in the past.

In April 2001, Australia led American Samoa 16-0 at halftime in the first round of Oceania qualifying, and Australian coach Frank Farina gave his team a pep talk.

"Score as many goals as you can ... and be professional," he said.

The Australians went on to a record 31-0 victory. That win followed a 22-0 thrashing of Tonga in Australia's opening match.

Australian forward Archie Thompson, who'd only scored one international goal before getting a FIFA-record 13 against American Samoa, questioned his feat.

"You have to look at the teams we are playing and start asking questions," Thompson said.

This time, South Pacific teams need only worry about each other.

Tonga has a day off Saturday, when Fiji plays Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands takes on American Samoa, Tahiti plays New Caledonia and Vanuatu opens against host Samoa.

Soccer fans from most teams in the tournament will have to wait nearly a day for results.

Samoa is on the furthest western edge of the international date line, 11 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. Fiji, among the South Pacific island nations which see the world's first sunrise each day, is 12 hours ahead of GMT, a 23-hour time difference. So Saturday afternoon in Apia is Sunday afternoon in Fiji's capital Suva.