AARHUS, Denmark --- The United States wasted an early goal by Jeff Cunningham and lost a World Cup warmup 3-1 to Denmark on Wednesday night, the final match of 2009 for the Americans.
Substitutes Johan Absalonsen, Soren Rieks and Martin Bernburg beat goalkeeper Brad Guzan during the first 10 minutes of the second half as the Danes took advantage of a porous U.S. defense.
The United States finished the year with 13 wins, eight losses and three ties, qualifying for its sixth consecutive World Cup.
"It kind of stinks that we ended it this way. You never want to go out on a loss," U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra said. "Do we still have things to work on? Yeah. But heading into the World Cup, we have a lot of confidence and we'll be pushing forward."
After the World Cup draw on Dec. 4, the next time most of the U.S. squad will be together is March 3, when the Americans are likely to play an exhibition game at the Netherlands.
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: In Mon- tevideo, Uruguay, Uruguay earned the final berth in the 32-nation field for next year's World Cup, tying Costa Rica 1-1.
Sebastian Abreu scored for Uruguay in the 70th minute, but Walter Centeno tied the score in the 74th.
Uruguay, the 1930 and 1950 World Cup champion, won the home-and-home playoff on 2-1 aggregate.
- In Saint-Denis, France, France qualified for its fourth consecutive World Cup when officials missed an obvious hand ball by Thierry Henry that led to William Gallas' overtime goal in a 1-1 tie against Ireland.
France avoided a penalty-kicks shootout and won the home-and-home, total-goals playoff 2-1, boosted by its 1-0 victory at Dublin last Saturday.
- In Maribor, Slovenia, Slovenia upset Russia 1-0 and qualified for the World Cup for just the second time when Zlatko Dedic scored with one minute left in the first half.
- In Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal qualified for the World Cup for the third time in a row, beating Bosnia 1-0 thanks to Raul Meireles' second-half goal in the second leg.
- In Donetsk, Ukraine, Greece reached the World Cup for just the second time, beating Ukraine 1-0 behind Dimitrios Salpigidis' goal in the 31st minute.
- In Khartoum, Sudan, Algeria qualified for its first World Cup since 1986, beating Egypt 1-0 in a tiebreaker playoff on Antar Yahya's goal in the 39th minute.
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