Poland 1 - England 1

The match in Warsaw between visiting England and Poland was rained out the day before, an embarrassing fact given that there is a retractable roof on the Polish stadium, but we digress.  The two teams now had the honor of closing Brasil 2014 play for the month of October 2012, and a full stadium was on hand to witness the spectacle.  The beginning of the match was slow as the two teams were feeling each other out and regaining adrenaline spent the day before in anticipation of yesterday's start time.  On the half hour mark, a Steven Gerrard corner found Wayne Rooney's head seven yards from goal, and Rooney flicked a headed goal without even jumping to put England ahead 1-0.  At the end of the half, Robert Lewandowski (pictured, white #9) flicked a rainbow through ball over Joleon Lescott's (pictured, blue #6) head into the path of Kamil Grosicki, but Grosicki shot wide, letting England off the hook.  The halftime scoreboard read England 1, Poland 0.

In the second half, Poland were much superior.  Fullback Glen Johnson had to made a sliding clearance along the six-yard line to save the Three Lions after Phil Jagielka had tripped during the initial clearance attempt.  Goalkeeper Joe Hart (pictured, red) saved a goalbound shot from Ludovic Obraniak three minutes later, but England surely could not hold out forever.  A short free kick from the side of the Polish penalty area gave England their only chance of the half but forward Jermaine Defoe scuffed a volley after having beaten his defender on a run to the back post.  Five minutes after that missed chance, Poland had a corner kick chance.  Hart come way off his line to clear with twenty minutes left to play, but sadly he came nowhere close to reaching Obraniak's cross as Kamil Glik rose above his marker Lescott to head into the vacated net for the equalizer.  The pace of the match slowed at the end, resulting in no further chances for either team.  The two teams tie 1-1.  England move top of the group, but Montenegro make up their game in-hand next month against San Marino.

England 8 pts +10
Montenegro 7 pts +7
Poland 5 pts +2
Moldova 4 pts -5
Ukraine 2 pts -1
San Marino 0 pts -13

Goals
England
Wayne Rooney 31

Poland
Kamil Glik 70

Match Reports:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1787483/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/oct/17/slumbering-england-poland-wake-up-call
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1785814/index.html
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/1165?cc=5901

Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KuvI97QVms