Fifa World Cup 2010

I love the England national team. I remember back in 1998 I watched an England game and the starting XI featured a lot of Man Utd players such as Scholes, Beckham & the Neville Brothers and I guess one of the main reasons I support Manchester United is the English national team.

I turned into a Man Utd maniac at the beginning of the 1998-1999 season. That's the year I went football mad and it's probably because I was fascinated by the "beautiful game" when I watched the FIFA World Cup 1998. Thats the first World Cup I ever experienced (the first world cup I can remember), thankfully I was too young to bother when England experienced the heartbreak of not qualifying for the 1994 World Cup. After that World Cup I purchased my first PC video game(which was Fifa World Cup 98) and I even joined a local football team. I started to breath, eat and speak football...and I still do.

The world cup is an amazing event. Suddenly, when the world cup starts, my flat becomes a dreamland. I can stay relaxed, in front of my TV, and watch football all day long while I enjoy a pint of ice cold beer! That, for people who LOVE football, is heaven. 3 games per day is one heck of a treat!But obviously all good things have the dark side. I experience the dark side of the World Cup whenever England play. The tension I feel before and during each England game is as if my life depended on England, and that's not something enjoyable. England always seem to disappoint. They, unlike Man Utd, have never given me any reason to cheer, except maybe in the Qualifying stages when they always seem to skip every hurdle without much effort(I am excluding the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign which was a disaster).

About a week ago, just before England played Mexico, I was a tad optimistic about England's chances. However, when I saw England take on Mexico and Japan my optimism soon vanished with every passing second of the two games. Vs Mexico we didn't do that well and vs Japan, well, it was a horror show! Playing like that will probably give the same output that the English team has given ever since 1966 i.e. early elimination. With the likes of Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Rio, Terry and a host of other stars I just can't phantom how on earth England still play like crap. I just hope that Capello manages to make them play some decent football during the World Cup.So let's hope England do well and bring the cup back home and let's hope I survive the world cup, because believe me, I don't think that my heart can take it if England play like they did last Sunday. C'mon ENGLAND!

N.b If England miss out on the world cup, I just hope that Italy don't win it.