The World Cup has always been influenced by players connected to Manchester United. The England National Team doesn’t win anything unless it has some Red Devils on it. This year will be no different. The squad features All-Stars from all over the English Premier League: Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and of course Manchester United.
This summer will be no different for Roy Hodgson’s side.
England have appeared at 13 editions of the FIFA World Cup, including seven of the last eight. The Three Lions have been World Cup winners once, in 1966 when they were hosts, but have since suffered a succession of early exits. Sir Bobby Robson came closest to matching the achievements of Sir Alf Ramsey’s ‘Wingless Wonders’, guiding England to the semi-finals at Italy 1990 only to be knocked out on penalties by Germany.
To see how England shapes up among the favorites in the world’s most famous soccer tournament, check out these up-to-date odds on the World Cup matches. England will have to navigate their way through a very difficult Group H.
Fox Sports soccer analyst Warren Barton analyzed the Three Lions chances in a recent interview with the website The Big Lead. Here’s a snippet:
As an Englishman what’s a realistic expectation for England at the World Cup this year?
WB: To win it! (laughes) No, if we can get to the quarterfinals that would be a great achievement. As you know in England we all get so excited that we’re going to win it, that this is the year. When you talk about South America you talk about Brazil, Argentina and in Europe you look at the Germans and the Spanish.
TBL: English fans are weird with the World Cup. Half of them think it’s their birthright to win it, the other half think they have no chance. What’s it really like?
WB: Two weeks before everyone says we’re going to win it. The Queen will be on TV. We’ll have Prince Charles, Prince William, it’ll be our time. Once we kickoff, it’ll be, no we’re going to lose and go out of it. There are so many mixed emotions. You have all the flags out, we’ll be ready to go. Maybe this year we’re being pessimistic, but realistic. This is the first time I’ve spoken to people and they’re like “we ain’t going to win it.” We’ve always said before “we’ve got Rooney, we’ve got Peter Crouch, we’ve got Steven Gerrard.” This time it’s more like, if we get out of our group we’ve done well. A bit of reality has kicked in.
Yes, Wayne Rooney, the striker who just signed an extension to stay with United, the richest deal in English football history, is the nation’s top talent.
The final roster of 23 has not been set yet, but Red Devils on the national team during World Cup qualifying phase include Tom Cleverly, Rooney, obviously, Danny Welbeck, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Michael Carrick and Ashley Young.