Posting forward events

OK,
I can display events in the future, by either use of the “Future” in the code, or by adjusting the code to convert Future – Published.

The former causes problems if not logged in, in that the links don’t work.

The latter option works, however, I cannot manage to get events that are now past to disappear.

My code at present is:

<?php
global $post;
$mpyposts = get_posts('numberposts=5&category=8&order=ASC');
foreach ($mpyposts as $post):
setup_postdata($post); ?>
<li>
<?php the_date(); ?><br />
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>

I assume that I need an if function of the type
IF the_date() > today THEN display entry ELSE do nothing

but I cannot figure out how to get it to work – any ideas?