Hamburg  - Japan are a win away from qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa after beating Bahrain 1-0 in the Asian qualifying zone on Saturday.

There was also an important win for North Korea, whose 2-0 victory against the United Arab Emirates took them to the top of Group B, while Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia also kept alive their hopes of making it to South Africa with victories.

Hamburg  - Roman Pavlyuchenko was the man of the match as Russia defeated Azerbaijan 2-0 in 2010 World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

The Tottenham Hotspur striker opened the scoring in Moscow with a curling free-kick in the 32nd minute and fed Konstantin Zyrianov for the other in the 71st.

Russia improved to nine points from four games in qualifying group 4, one point behind leaders Germany who were due to play minnows Liechtenstein later Saturday in Leipzig.

Rome - Argentina football icon Diego Maradona has paid a minimal part of the large tax payment he owes the Italian state from the years he spent playing with Napoli, the Association of Italian taxpayers (Contribuenti. it) reported on Saturday.

"The Italian revenue has been unable to levy from Maradona more than 0.10 per cent (of what he owes)," said Contribuenti. it president Vittorio Carlomagno as he criticized how taxes are collected in Italy.

Hamburg  - Former Bayern Munich and Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn has ruled himself out of the running for the position of general manager at troubled Schalke 04, the Bundesliga club confirmed Friday.

Kahn was interviewed following the dismissal of Andreas Moeller on March 9 but the 39-year-old has now informed Schalke that he has no further interest in the position due to other commitments.

"I isn't possible at this moment in time. But it is not a big issue, it doesn't cause us problems," said supervisory board head Clemens Toennies.

Buenos Aires  - Thousands of people gathered Friday to buy tickets for Argentina's game against Venezuela in Buenos Aires, which was set to be Argentine football legend Diego Maradona's first official match as national team coach.

The queue was more than 700 metres long to get one of the 13,000 "popular" tickets for the Monumental stadium, the cheapest option available at around 10 dollars each, to watch the historic game on site.

Hamburg  - Former Bayern Munich and Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn has turned down the job of general manager at troubled Bundesliga club Schalke 04, Kicker sports magazine reported Friday.

Kicker said that according to its information, Kahn, 39, will inform Schalke he has no further interest in the position.

There was no immediate confirmation.

Kahn was interviewed following the dismissal of Andreas Moeller on March 9.

Schalke on Thursday also dismissed Dutch coach Fred Rutten.