Hamburg - Japan aims to qualify first again for the 2010 World Cup on Saturday and can be joined by Australia and the Netherlands as the worldwide campaign reaches a first climax.

As with the 2006 edition, the time difference gives Japan the advantage, with their match in Tashkent against hosts Uzbekistan starting at 1405 GMT and a victory seeing them through.

Two hours later the Socceroos need just one point in Doha against hosts Qatar to make it through their first qualifying campaign in the Asian Confederation as well.

Another three hours on, the Dutch want to book their ticket to South Africa with a win against Iceland in Reykjavik.

While the three can join South Africa, who didn't have to qualify as hosts, the remaining 28 berths will be fought out until November 18 in the various confederations.

Japan were the first team to qualify for the 2006 edition in Germany and on that same June 8, 2005, were joined by Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran and Argentina.

The Japanese claimed 4-0 victories Chile and Belgium last week to win the friendly Kirin Cup event, but coach Takeshi Okada warned that victory in Uzbekistan and a fourth straight trip to the World Cup wasn't a foregone conclusion.

"We scored goals while keeping a clean sheet in these last two matches, but that doesn't give us any guarantee in the Uzbekistan match. We should reset our focus to make sure we come home with a win," Okada said.

For Australia, qualifying early would stand in sharp contrast to four years ago when they beat Uruguay on penalties on the final day of the campaign, November 16, 2005.

Australia were then part of the Oceania Confederation but have since moved to Asia and take an unbeaten record of four wins and one draw in the final group stage to Doha against the group's bottom side Qatar.

"This is one of the most exciting games for me because it's a chance of qualifying for another World Cup. It is a dream of ours to qualify for another one," said forward Tim Cahill. "We want to go for the win."

The Everton player also said that qualifying will feel the same as four years ago, despite an earlier date and no shootout drama as in front of a delirious Sydney crowd.

In Europe, the first team to make it to Germany 2006 were Ukraine, on September 3, 2005. Now the Dutch are determined to do so three months earlier this time around.

"We have never qualified this early for a big tournament. Now we have to grab the first chance. We have all had a long season but we all want to go to the World Cup and therefore we have to beat Iceland," said captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

The Dutch have won all five matches in their group and according to coach Bert van Marwijk have improved vastly since failing to qualify for Euro 2008.

"We are more stable, better organized. We know better what we want," said van Marwijk. (dpa)