There's just over a week to go until the start of the World Cup and everything has gone quiet. After the mayhem of England's squad announcement on Tuesday, the lucky 23 have now touched down in South Africa and although they were given a warm welcome, there was very little fanfare.

I would imagine that's exactly what Fabio Capello would have wanted. Over the coming eight days he has two main tasks - keep his players out of the flare of the press and ensure they are fully acclimatised...

gunnerryan

Most teams going to the World Cup this summer won't be able to boast a whole host of stars and will instead rely on one or two key men supported by a host of well-organised team-mates.

Sadly for Ghana, there preparations took a battering this week when it was confirmed that Michael Essien will not play in the tournament. He is perhaps the side's only stand out player and although they're not a bad team without him, they're certainly a much worse one and the World Cup odds should reflect...

gunnerryan

FIFA has a reputation for blaming everyone but themselves for their failures and it seems they're at it again.

Jerome Valcke has expressed his disappointment at the fact only 40,000 World Cup tickets have been sold to African fans outside of host nation South Africa.
Many critics believes this is a result of FIFA's decision to only sell the tickets online initially - with few Africans having access to a computer this made it extremely hard for them to get their hands on them....

gunnerryan

It's started already. The World Cup hasn't even kicked off yet but England players are already discussing the prospect of a penalty shoot-out defeat. To be fair, all the talk is hardly their fault - they get asked questions by journalists and it would be churlish not to answer them. The shoot-out defeats on the other hand very much are. Sadly, it seems very little has been learned since the last one.

Frank Lampard has suggested it's all a matter of self-belief. England lack it and...

gunnerryan

Rooney watch will be in full effect this weekend as England fans wait to see if he will play against Sunderland.

The Manchester United striker is reportedly back in training after suffering a groin injury and although on the face of it this is good news for the Three Lions, supporters will know that there could still be problems ahead.

Sir Alex Ferguson cares little for England's World Cup hopes and will be more than willing to play a half-fit Rooney to secure the Premier...

gunnerryan