Captain Fantastic axes anxiety

The day after the night before shines a little more brightly, even with persistent rain lashing the streets. The spirit of Jan Tomaszewski is no longer abroad and fear no longer stalks the land.  England put away Poland, as they had done on the previous five visits by the Poles to Blighty, but could only rest easy once Steven Gerrard jinked into the danger area and slotted home in the 88th minute, creating a two-goal cushion.  Thereby England avoided creating a cycle of failing to qualify for the World Cup once every twenty years (plus 1978, not to mention all the times they were too aloof to play in before World war Two).  1973 and 1993 can be placed back in the history books, instead of being on endless loop in print and television.  Two home games against mediocre Eastern European teams - two deserved wins, despite more than 30,000 whistling, jeering Polish fans that tried to turn it into a ferocious away tie.  But Tomaszewski was right about the modern England squad not being a patch on its 1973 counterpart.  When Poland qualified in place of England that year, they finished third in the 1974 World Cup.  By contrast, the quarter-finals are seen as the zenith of 2013 England's ambitions rather than a stumbling block to greater glory as it was in 2002 and 2006.  It was unnerving for Roy Hodgson to say he could select all his best players - with the exception of Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, no-one looked world-class out there.  And this is comparatively recent, as even ten years ago, outstanding quality could be seen throughout the whole team.
Still, there is no humiliation about not going to Brazil.  Even failing to progress beyond the Group Stage in 2014 will only be a mild frustration.  Montenegro (who boasted, before a 4-1 drubbing at Wembley, that once they beat or drew with England, they had a home game with Moldova to allow them to leap-frog the Three Lions - Moldova monstered them 5-2.  Oops) and Poland can watch all the fun on which they missed out.  As can all the other Home Nations, though all of them had an upbeat end to their qualification campaign, away draws against Belgium (2014 dark horses) and Israel for Wales and Northern Ireland respectively and home wins for Scotland against Croatia and the Republic of Ireland versus Kazakhstan.
I am delighted that Bosnia-Herzegovina will be at the party - a unifying moment for a country that does everything in triplicate (Bosniak, Croatian and Serbian) and is in constant danger of fragmenting.  Going to the 2006 World Cup, didn't keep the union of Serbia & Montenegro together, but they failed to escape the group stages and anyway, the corrupt Montenegrin president was determined to increase his powerbase through separation from Belgrade.  Hopefully, Bosnia will be different.
Another hopeful case is Iceland.  They have reached the play-offs ahead of the perennially tasty Slovenia and would supersede that ex-Yugoslav constituent part as the smallest ever participant at a World Cup, population-wise, were they to make it.  I wish them all the best and feel they have a chance against all the 'seeds' (a declining Croatia, a workmanlike Greece and an uninspiring Sweden) except Portugal.
England probably won't play them as it seems the former won't be seeded in Brazil for the group stages - fair enough, England have been fairly lacklustre for a while and only made the last 16 in South Africa's 2010 experience.  They probably won't even justify a seeding in 2014.  But to be pipped by Switzerland who didn't make it out of their group in 2010 and worse, Belgium, who didn't even qualify for the last two World Cups (or the 2012 European Championship for that matter), is galling.  In 1998 and 2002, England were punished for their failure to make the 1994 World Cup but now the rules appear to have changed and just because Belgium are currently riding high in the world-rankings (it was only last year that England were third; they were, until tomorrow, 17th), they get to waltz into a seeded position.  Insanely, the Netherlands who finished as runners-up at the 2010 World Cup will not be seeded if Uruguay win their play-off against Jordan (as of today, 7th in the world versus 73rd, hmmm), yet a team that wasn't at the last two world cups does.  That is Alice in Wonderland stuff, but it is FIFA after all.