As Germany took its customary place in the finals, the 17th World Cup that it will contest, Klose said: “We dealt with the pressure here. It was not a top-class game, but we used our chance in a difficult place to play soccer.”

There are other places that come under that description. Italy, the reigning world champion, had to come from behind twice to tie Ireland, 2-2, at Croke Park in Dublin. Normally the home of Gaelic football, whose hierarchy regards soccer as the alien upstart, Croke Park was rocking to the fervor of believing that the men in green could turn over the Italians.

But Italy makes an art of going the long way around qualifying. Its final goal, with about 20 seconds of time left on the clock, was scored by Alberto Gilardino, who, like Palermo in Buenos Aires, was sent on as a substitute when the match was running against his team.

“The lads played with quality and character,” commented Marcello Lippi, the unruffled Italy coach with the Paul Newman looks. “They had calmness to construct this equalizer in the 90th minute, and it was a deserved one.”

Italy qualifies; Ireland goes into the playoffs that give group runners-up like Russia, Bosnia, France and perhaps Portugal, Greece, Croatia or Ukraine a chance of sneaking into the finals in November.

Those countries dare not presume that their teams will reach South Africa. Danes, however, know they are there after Jakob Poulsen’s goal won the Scandinavian derby against Sweden.

Scandinavians don’t cry, and don’t paint the town red, right? Wrong.

Copenhagen belonged to Brazilians last week when Rio de Janeiro was granted the 2016 Olympic Games. But where the president and the first lady of the United States lost a sporting contest, Poulsen’s long shot won one.