So many people talk up other nations chances and run ours down. The same people judge England on pre-Capello, which is pointless. It's like comparing us pre-Smith. If any set of fans should realise and not underestimate the importance that having a class coach can have, it's us. Same players, different results.

That's why England have a serious chance for me. Italy didn't have the best players in 2006, far from it but they found a way to win every game.

Never follow football but always watch my country, only names I remember from last time watching them are King, David James, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Walcott, SWP, Crouch, Defoe, Heskey, Rooney. Fuck, I know a lot more than I thought I would lol.

Which is exactly why international football is for part time fans with their cringeworthy face paint and car flags.

no doubt the pubs will be full to bursting when england play and i bet there will be the female wag wanna be society out nattering about corrie eastenders big brother etc whilst the game is on...why cant females stay at home when sport is on telly

Ha ha ha!

Part time fans? Lol. I don't give a flying about football, I only watch because it's my country and naturally I want them to win

If I don't follow football I'm certainly not stupid enough to go painting my face lol!

Exactly, especially the first two names you mentioned. How he can leave them out yet include the likes of Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, and Palermo is beyond me. The omission of Banega and Lucho Gonzalez is also surprising and it leaves them light in midfield.

The Brazil squad is the most boring I've ever seen from them as well, and the World Cup will be all the poorer due to the absence of the likes of Pato, Ronaldinho, Diego and Marcelo. Also there is no 'unknown' star included that could have burst on to the world stage this tournament, someone like Neymar or Ganso. Names like Kleberson, Baptista, Elano and Gilberto don't exactly excite the footballing purists. That said its harder to criticise Dunga than Maradona, simply because of the results he gets. Brazil may be more pragmatic in style this time around, but they are still among the favourites.

Not usually that bothered who wins the World Cup, I just like watching the feast of football. However this year I've got decent money on Ingerlund to win the thing, so will be getting the Bulldog tattoo done and St George's facepaint out. Got an additional small stake on Uruguay to win the competition, as I think they could surprise a few teams in South Africa. Also a couple of quid on Luis Suarez and Robin Van Persie for top goalscorer, plus Paraguay and Uruguay to win their groups.

Englands best Xl IMO is:

James, Cole, Terry, Carragher, Johnson, Milner, Gerrard, Lampard, Lennon, Crouch, Rooney.

Ivory Coast won't win it, you can forget about that silly bet. They have all of these stars but why can't they win the African Nations? Come up short against top teams from North Africa. Nevertheless with Sven I suppose quarter finals may be on the cards.

England with Capello I think will be a tougher side than we have been at recent major tournaments, and with Rooney on fire we will be a team that other sides take seriously, but we're a bit short on quality. I think we will progress fairly far through the tournament but when we come up against a side like Spain, Argentina or Brazil we will basically be hanging on trying to take them to penalties (and probably lose the shootout), we haven't got the skill levels of those sides.

I take it Lampard was warming up for the world cup with that penalty miss, that was a decent effort as for as England penalties go.

never write off the germans

I fancy holland to be up there

I can't take Argentina seriously with him in charge, I mean c'mon, he won't even give Messi the credit he deserves. Jonas Gutierrez first choice right back, jesus, and we think Johnson is a liability.

Argentina with say Capello - massive chance.

I'll be staggered if we're not semi finalists. I think we'll need some luck, folk harp back to '96 all the time, 'best chance we've had' and all that, well yeah, but the Holland performance aside in the tournament we were average, our second best performance was in defeat to the Germans. Folk brush past the QF when we stank and we're massively gateful to an appaling offside decision in extra time and David Seaman's heroics in the shootout. In fact, had McAllister scored it could have all been so different.

We'll need to eek through a round somewhere, like England have just done in the T20, they might have not got past the group, once they did they grew & grew. Ours might be a last 16, or a QF game, but if we get that stroke of luck, I think we can win this.

Very true in fact what you say is even more applicable to Italia 1990. Drew with Ireland and Holland and then sneaked 1-0 past Egypt in the final group game (a weak Egypt team, not the African Nations dominators they are now). Were 0-0 in the second phase against Belgium then Platt scored in the last minute of extra time. Took extra time to beat Cameroon in the quarters. We struggled our way through to the semi, but then were pretty much Germany's equals.

Actually in my lifetime the best chance I thought we had was France '98 because going into the tournament we had a strong and settled side, we'd won that Tournoi thing a year earlier beating Italy and France.

I think you are right, we need a stroke of luck in one game. The top teams I think we may be able to scrape a draw with and will have to hope one day we will win a penalty shoot out. You might be right about Argentina with Maradona....the team that I really struggle to see us getting past is Spain.

'90 is a great call, exactly the same. Saved their best performance for the semi, and wen't out. (Theme)

'98 again, you're dead right. We'd won Le Tournoi - had some brilliant players emerging like Scholes (who emerged at Le Tournoi), Beckham, Owen, Campbell etc and should have gone further. I think the problem was Hoddle. I've alot of time for Hoddle, thought he did well with England too, but he just handled the big situations & decisions badly, like dropping Gazza, World Cup Diaries, Eileen Drewery etc, he just took his eye off the ball. I see that as the key difference, Capello will have this lot focused, knowing their roles, believing.

We'll need some luck, England needed it in the cricket, we needed last year at Hull KR, take your pick - at 24-12 down we needed some, in extra time we needed some. I bet their was a knock on that might have been a ball steal that went our way to set up field position or something tiny like that, but you need it and when you go on & lift the trophy as we did it's consigned to history and the detail is overlooked.

In a World Cup, it might be a linesmans flag, a sitter, a save, a free kick award, a decision, a winder strike, a scuff, who knows - something small, but you'll need it. The rest of the tournament you rely on players & coach - and we've got a good squad and a manager up there with the best.

You know I love sport in general, and would even support England playing tiddlywinks but something about Association Football leaves me stone cold. It's not a beautiful game, it's by and large, a very dull, simple game.

A real shame about Hoddle. Seemed to know what he was doing in terms of tactics and preparing a team professionally but had an eccentric streak with the Eileen Drewery and his karma business. Hoddle's first 18 months with England were as good a period as we've had. Similar happened with Spurs, good start, return of the golden boy, but it ended up going sour and he fell out with players.

I don't think he related well to the celebrity of the modern footballer, he didn't have time for drinking and showboating where Venables had mucked in with the lads. He probably quietly resented the fact that he'd never been properly part of the England team when he played, and felt that he had been a better player than anybody in the team he coached.

I'm a big supporter of "aces in their places". Managers who have a proven record of success at the top level being eventually promoted to the very top.

Hoddle had very little qualifications to hold the most important role in English football. Other than taking Swindon up to the top division (via playoffs) and a defeat in the FA cup final being the highlights, he achieved nothing else in his managerial football career before getting the top job.

A classic Cullenesque appointment. All promise, made for the right reasons I will grant, yet no result.

Continuing his career, he then failed at Southampton, Spurs and Wolves and has been on the jelly roll since 2006. QED.

Whilst I don't disagree with you, the same problems blight football & rugby in that the top vacancies are always filled by foreign coaches so when England 'go English' there's not too many highlights on CV's that fill you with joy. Hoddle had took Chelsea to the FA Cup Final, he'd also in all honesty put the pieces in place to start the 'Chelsea Revolution', so you could see why he was appointed given he liked to get the ball down, and England had made a success of Euro '96.

If England went English now, you'd have 'Arry who's won an FA cup and finished 4th to push his case, Hodgson who's finished mid table but had a great UEFA cup run (like McLaren did) and that's about it really.

Crazy thing is, most folk say 2006 was a great chance for England, I think the 90's were when it was most likely to happen, England must have had ten quality strikers to choose from in the Mid 90's, couldn't make it happen then.

Shearer, Sheringham, Ferdinand, Fowler, A.Cole, Le Tissier, Collymore, Sutton, Wright, Beardsley.

Anyhow, I think we'll get the semi finals. I believe in Capello, similar to the Smith belief, It's more about him than the players.

its been around that police are banning england flags to be up on windows for the world cup because its upsetting the people that are not from this country

i havent a clue if its true but its been around on facebook

if it is true its a disgrace

Its not true.

it was for the last world cup....can recall certain councils up and down the country preaching these ridiculous comments

I'll tell you one thing if they ask me to remove my flag i won't be.

The only thing I'd ever need an England flag for would be if I ran out of bog roll so if anyone bans them it's fine by me.

Come on 'Wazza', 'Lamps', 'JT' and the boys? No ta.

Viva Espana.

I also fancy Holland to do something in this tournament..Correct me if i'm wrong as CBA to research it but were Holland the only team to qualify with a 100% record..?