1. The United States is headed for the World Cup for the seventh consecutive time. It’s a lock. Bom dia, Brasil 2014!

But it gets better.

2. The clincher came against Mexico. By 2-0 in Columbus, the fourth consecutive U.S. victory over El Tri in World Cup qualifying in Ohio’s capital. In 2001 (saw that one; it was cold), 2005, 2009, 2013. The defeat extended Mexico’s mysterious inability this year to win soccer games against Concacaf opponents.)

Mexico is 1-5-3 (won-tied-lost) with two matches left in the Hexgonal. Yes, eight points from eight games. Technically, fifth in the group, behind Panama on a tiebreaker, and fifth goes home, not to Brazil. (Not even to New Zealand for the fourth-place playoff.)

(Though, actually … while I have a healthy contempt for Mexico when they are playing the Yanks, I actually support them on the international stage — Concacaf solidarity, you know? — and they are still more likely to do some damage in a World Cup than would Honduras or Panama. Mexico has made the round of 16 for five consecutive World Cups, and that success is a reason Concacaf gets 3.5 berths, or at least one more than it really deserves.)

And, third, Landon Donovan scored … and Clint Dempsey did not.

This is a personal thing. I know Landon and like him. He is the best player in American soccer history, and the greatest scorer (which cannot be debated) and he has been the heart of this team since about 2001.

Those who have climbed on the Dempsey bandwagon (including Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach who has made Dempsey captain) choose to ignore that he is the most selfish attacking player on the team and never is asked or expected to track back on defense. Score a few goals for Fulham, and you’re special.

Landon played on the left side of midfield, and probably ran twice as far as the meandering captain, who missed a penalty on the last play of the game, and seemed far more interested in that personal failure than a team victory that began five seconds later. That’s your U.S. captain for you. OK, yes, a scorer of some skill, and a useful player who ought to be in the line-up, but with Clint it’s too much about Clint for him to be captain.)

Landon, meanwhile, played with a case of pink eye so intense that I just assumed he had been in a car crash, or maybe had been kicked in the eye by a Mexico defender or bitten by a Costa Rican mosquito.

And when he had a chance to put a goal in, he timed his run perfectly and was in front of goal to tap in the cross came through — the one Dempsey couldn’t quite reach, five feet earlier.

And it was Landon’s corner than Eddie Johnson headed in for the first goal.

So, yes, Landon is forgiven by Klinsmann (for the audacity of taking that “sabbatical” for a few months) — at least to the point that Landon is allowed to score one goal and set up the other in the victory that secures Brazil 2014. (And Dempsey has never scored against Mexico; just sayin’. Meanwhile, the U.S. is 10-3-3 against Mexico when Landon plays; he’s always killed ’em.)

Anyway, doesn’t get much better than that — a place in the big dance, at the expense of your arch-rival, with your favorite player having a nice game.

How will this turn out, in Brazil? This U.S. team is fairly cohesive, has more depth than any national team yet. They are a little shaky in the back, and they are not going to in a World Cup next summer (or in my lifetime), but they could get out of the group phase, and that’s success when you’re ranked No. 19 in the world.