There is no question that England were on the end of some almighty good fortune in the 2010 World cup draw in Cape Town on Friday.
A group containing the USA, Algeria and Slovenia compares very favourably with the draws that most of the other seeds received, especially given that two teams will qualify from every group.
Only Italy - who drew Paraguay, New Zealand plus Slovakia - and Spain, who got Switzerland, Honduras and Chile, were anywhere near as fortunate in the draw.
Contrast that with Brazil, who will face Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal as well as the highly-fancied Ivory Coast, and Germany, who got Australia, Serbia and Ghana.
In fact, it is the Germans' tricky draw that is the only dark cloud on the horizon for England this weekend - for, if the Three Lions win their group and Germany finish second in theirs (or heaven forbid, vice versa), the two European superpowers will meet each other in the last 16.
Like any good tournament team, the Germans have a habit of starting competitions slowly, before building up a head of steam as it wears on. You may recall that they managed to lose to Croatia in the Euro 2008 group stages, before regrouping and going on to reach the final.
With games against three teams who are all tough to beat on the agenda, it is all too easy to imagine that the Germans may only sneak through their group in second place.
Better get practicing those penalties, Fabio...
If England do get past the second round, then they will face opposition drawn from Group A or Group B.
A cursory look at those groups suggests that France and Argentina are the two teams to fear most - although, on the evidence of the hard work that they both made of qualifying, neither constitutes the threat that they once did.
Best of all, there is no chance of England meeting the big three - holders Italy, European champions Spain and favourites Brazil - until the semi-finals at the earliest.
England fans are right to be wary of getting their hopes up too much after the experiences of past World Cups, but this really is as good a draw as they could have hoped for.
Hosts with the most to worry about
Contrast England's draw with that of tournament hosts South Africa.
The possibility of the South Africans becoming the first host nation in history to fail to qualify for the knock-out stages looms larger than ever following the draw, which puts them up against four very competent sides.
France may not be the side they were a decade ago, but they still boast enough class to mark them out as the stand-out team in the group. Raymond Domenech will doubtless see a draw in the same group as South Africa, easily the weakest of the seeded teams, as justice after the 2006 runners-up were snubbed earlier this week when the seeds were announced.
Mexico have had something of a renaissance since Javier Aguirre replaced Sven-Goran Eriksson as coach earlier this year, while Uruguay are always tough to beat.
South Africa's recent form is so poor that their hopes of securing a group that gave them a chance of progressing were always going to be slight.
Their best hope was to get at least one side that could be immediately discounted, such as New Zealand or Korea DPR, and then hope that one of the other teams in their group simply had a tournament to forget.
Instead, they will face three teams who will all fancy their chances of making it through. It is possible that one of the three will implode on arrival in South Africa, but almost certainly not the two that the hosts would need to stand a chance of qualification.
The Spy hopes he's wrong, but he can see the euphoria that will greet the start of the tournament in South Africa dispersing pretty quickly.
