WORLD CUP QUALIFYING
The U.S. doesn't start World Cup qualifying matches until June 2008, European zone teams don't start until August 2008, and 2010 World Cup host country South Africa automatically qualify (as is policy for any country that hosts the World Cup). For an overview of each zone, see here. Here's a quick breakdown of each qualifying zone by number of teams followed by a summary of who's on top thus far in qualifying.

Saturday 13 October
Uruguay-Bolivia
Argentina-Chile
Ecuador-Venezuela
Peru-Paraguay
Sunday 14 October
Colombia-Brazil
Sports Illustrated has a nice preview here, as does FIFA.
Some other important dates to keep in mind:
25 November 2007
Preliminary Draw 2010 FIFA World Cup™ (Durban)
14-28 June 2009
FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 (South Africa)
04 December 2009
Final Draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ (South Africa)
11 June - 11 July 2010
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ (South Africa)

(Summary is not available.)