Ranked 10th in the FIFA world rankings, England boast many star players. They are placed in a relatively easy group C, along with USA, Algeria and Slovenia. Though England are expected to be group leaders, they have consistently underperformed, whether at Euro 2004 and 2008, or World Cup 2006.
Arguably, England face greater pressure than other teams because of the British media that hold the players up to 24x7 scrutiny, and hype everything they do, to feed frenzied English fans who actually beg for more.
The players are thus converted into tabloid superstars, and their real or imagined talents are presented in an exaggerated way in newspapers and on television.
And it does not help that many of the England players earn king's ransoms playing in the Premier League.
At a certain point, the media start believing in their own hype. Consequently gullible fans who read these reports about their favourite players hold up the players to imaginary standards and are disillusioned when the stars don't fulfill their expectations.
Getting back to the matter at hand, like some of the other big teams, England have also appointed a new coach, Fabio Capello, in the hope of a better showing, this time around. Capello's presence did improve things, in the qualifiers, where England won all but one of their 10 matches, in style.
Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch were particularly impressive, in the forward line; Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard did likewise in midfield. On a negative note, some of their stars are injury prone. Ashley Cole is returning after nursing a broken ankle. Ledley King is a good defender who's also injury prone. Another casualty of injury is the celebrated Beckham whose future as a player has been jeopardized by a career threatening industry he suffered recently. Needless to say, Beckham will not play in this World Cup.
Rio Ferdinand has taken over as captain from the sacked John Terry, but has chosen to retain his predecessor as a player in the squad, a move that Beckham has praised.
England are expected to head their group, although they will not have forgotten their loss to USA, at the 1950 World Cup. They are likely to meet France in the quarter-final, and if they survive that match, Brazil in the semi-final.
A team that won in 1966, and whose fans numbering in millions pray for a repeat performance, England would do well to reach the semi-final.
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Suresh Iyer is an avid sports fan and blogger.
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