England National Soccer Team

Quick Facts:

Nickname – Three Lions
Home Stadium –Wembley Stadium
Confederation – UEFA
Manager – Fabio Capello
All time High Scorer: Bobby Charlton with 49 goals in 106 appearances
Most Appearnances: Peter Shilton with 125

World Cup History: Although they have appeared in 12 FIFA World Cup competitions England have only won the trophy once – in 1966 under the leadership of the great Alf Ramsey.

Prior World Cup Results:

1950: Round One
1954: Quarterfinals
1958: Round One
1962: Quarterfinals
1966: Champions
1970: Quarterfinals
1982: Round Two
1986: Quarterfinals
1990: Fourth Place
1998: Round of 16
2002: Quarterfinals
2006: Quarterfinals

Analysis:

The current England side managed to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup undefeated, with a record of 8-0.

Since England won their one and only World Cup title in 1966, on home soil, their fortunes in the competition have been mixed and the best that the team has achieved since the heady glory days of Bobby Moore and company was a fourth place finish in 1990. They failed to even qualify for the World Cup in 1974,1978 and 1994, a huge disappoint for millions of English soccer fans.

So the fact that the current team practically sailed through the qualifying rounds is certainly a great sign for the nation that invented soccer in the first place, but it also puts a lot of pressure on the side.

Much of the credit for England’s improvement goes to Fabio Cappello, the former AC Milan and Real Madrid manager who took the post in December 2007. His no nonsense style of management, and his somewhat rigid selection requirements have thus far worked very well.

One of Cappello’s requirements is that his players must all be playing at what he terms “the highest levels of club football (soccer). All of the current squad come from the English Premiership with the exception of David Beckham, who has gone to great lengths to try to win a place on the plane to Johannesburg. It is even rumored that he paid the fee due to the MLS as part of his loan to AC Milan in 2008 partially out of his own pocket, in a bid to prove to Cappello he could still compete in top flight soccer (which Fabio does not consider the MLS to be.)

Beckham aside, who did indeed participate in the qualifying rounds fairly solidly, the current England side is a real mix of veterans and youngsters with a great deal of talent. According to Capello his biggest concern going forward towards the World Cup is player injury. Some of those he would like to rely on, Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole to name just two, have been injury prone of late.