The first wave of 2010 World Cup soccer qualifiers is almost complete and with it a suitable amount of despair and joy among national teams.
In Europe, the qualifying is now done for the most part until March and the most impressive team, shockingly, has been England.
What coach Fabio Capello has done in the short time he has been manager has been astonishing. England goes into the break in World Cup qualifying with a full complement of points from four games. Few pundits would have predicted that.
In truth, after failing to qualify for Euro 2008 and putting together some less than stellar friendly performances, it appeared as if the early session of qualifiers would be a struggle for England.
But Capello's rule has imposed a new attitude off the pitch, coupled with a new style on it and England not only is playing successful football, but also pleasing football to watch.
There are some who won't ever be satisfied. There never will be enough goals or big enough margins of victory to satisfy them. But England has put together impressive results. Its victory in Croatia was enormous, boosting confidence in itself and the system.
While Kazakhstan may not be a world power, beating it 5-1 is terrific when measured by any standard.
How far the English have come can be measured in their latest win. Travelling to Minsk to play Belarus is not easy. Playing any team in that region is not easy. Emerging with a clear 3-1 victory is about as good as it gets for a team that is still in the process of sorting out all its parts.
England's performance is especially impressive when a trip down the qualifying table reveals the difficulty any team can provide for another. Italy defeated Montenegro by a goal, Spain was all out to beat Belgium by a goal, Portugal drew with Albania.
For the most part, Capello is working with the same parts other managers have had. He simply has found a better way to put them together. He has tuned out criticism from former and would-be managers who would love to see him fail and who have picked apart his selections.
His use of David Beckham sent a clear message to his players. Beckham is no more than a 15-minute player on the international stage. That's the way Capello will use him. Capello feels no compunction to give in the pressure from the media because he simply doesn't care what it thinks and his seeming imperviousness to pressure has trickled down to his players.
While England revels in its pressure-free atmosphere, several other "sure-fire" qualifiers will sweat the next few months. Portugal is trailing Denmark and Hungary in their qualifying group and has looked horrible. The Czech Republic has played one less game in its group but has ground to make up to Slovakia, Poland and Slovenia. And even if France and Romania win their one game in hand in their group, they still will trail Serbia and Lithuania.
In CONCACAF, it's another four years wasted for Canada, which failed to qualify for the World Cup yet again. Not only did we fail to qualify, we didn't do enough to make it to the final qualifying stage.
That proved what everyone except those in charge of the national program seemed to know, that Dale Mitchell was the wrong man to lead the senior national team.
The Canadian side regressed, playing a stilted, unimaginative, frightened style of football.
It failed to respond positively when any pressure situation presented itself and was not worthy of being on an international stage.
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