Yankess win! (The good kind of Yankee, not those people in the Bronx)

Well, boy howdy, the Yanks have qualified for World Cup 2010!

Conor Casey scored his first two international goals in the second half, Landon Donovan added another and the United States clinched its sixth straight World Cup berth with a game to spare by rallying to beat Honduras 3-2 on Saturday.

“It never gets old, that’s for sure,” Donovan said. “After what most of us would say was a very disappointing 2006 World Cup, we now have a chance at redemption.”

In one of the most exciting end-to-end matches the U.S. has played in many years, the Americans took a 3-1 lead before Honduras closed on Julio Cesar De Leon’s second goal of the game in the 78th minute.

Sounds like it was an exciting game. Too bad none of us got to watch it. Here in America, you had to go to a bar that had purchased some strange sort of closed-circuit feed of the match. It wasn’t available on television — not even on pay-per-view. What the hell is that?

Oh well. We did it on the road, too, which is a welcome break, especially considering Honduras were 8-0 in qualifying on their home turf.

The sad thing is it renders the game I’m attending Wednesday night, USA vs. Costa Rica, pretty meaningless. Meaningful for the American side, at least; Costa Rica is in third place in the table, just two points ahead of Honduras. If the Yanks win in Washington on Wednesday and Honduras beat El Salvador, they’ll swap places and it’ll be Honduras who go into the playoff with a team from South America.

So here’s a list of everyone who has qualified for the tournament so far:

Africa
Places left: 3
Teams clinched: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana (I still hate them for 2006), South Africa (automatically qualify as host nation)

Asia
Places left: none, but Bahrain still could go if they win a playoff with the Kiwis
Teams clinched: Australia (thank god, our tickets will work), Japan, Korea (The Bad One), Korea (The Good One)

Europe
Places left: 6
Teams clinched: Denmark (Nothing’s Rotten In), England (kicking ass and taking names in their group), Germany (quietly getting it done), Italy (they’re already practicing their dives), The DutchNetherHolland, Serbia (top of their group, which includes France), Spain (a.k.a. America’s bitch)

North, Central America and Caribbean
Places left: 1, currently it’s Costa Rica, but, like me, Honduras hopes for a U.S. win on Wednesday
Teams clinched: Mexico (mang), United States (huzzah!)

Oceania
Places left: 1
Teams clinched: none, but New Zealand is in a playoff against Bahrain for the last spot in Oceania/Asia (why is Australia not in Oceania?)

South America
Places left: 1, pending a death match between Argentina and Urugay, who hold the #4 and #5 spots, respectively, and are separated by one point
Teams clinched: Brazil, Chile, Paraguay

There’s your state of play. The list will change dramatically on Wednesday, when all will be told.