FINALLY, after four long years of wait, it's nearly here. South Africa 2010. The greatest footballing spectacle on the planet.
Well it should be. Let’s face it, the group stages sometimes peter out into nothingness, unless you get a Senegal v France-style shock in the opening game to liven things up a little. Or Cameroon see off Argentina...
And England have a history of starting slowly - in Italy 1990 they scraped through in the last game against Egypt following two draws, in France 1998 they started with a win over minnows Tunisia but followed it with defeat to Romania, and in 2002 in Japan they opened with a draw with Sweden.
The point - don’t expect things to be easy. As recently as 2006 in Germany they laboured to a 1-0 win over Paraguay, battled ineptitude against Trinidad and Tobago before a late Peter Crouch header calmed nerves, and then drew with Sweden.
Yet in all these examples they did actually qualify. In all cases but one so they could later crash out in a penalty shoot out.
So what are England’s chances this time around. Well to me they fall into the bracket of sides that could win the World Cup if they play to their maximum potential and get a little bit of luck along the way.
They probably won’t win it, but they actually could.
On paper, the USA, Slovenia and Algeria are all three points. Football isn’t played on paper. The USA have enough talent to cause anyone problems, and Algeria reached the finals of the African Nations Cup so are clearly no footballing mugs.
And for me there’s obvious issues with the England side. They’re probably one of the few teams in the tournament where fans have no idea who will start in goal. Can they risk the inexperienced yet brilliant Joe Hart, do they plump for ‘Mr Reliable’ Robert Green, or go for experienced yet calamnity-prone David James?
Who plays upfront with Rooney? Who play upfront if Rooney gets injured? Has Emile Heskey really only had 12 shots on goal all season? How do you accommodate Barry, Gerrard, Lampard and Gerrard in the same side?
Who plays wide left? Who plays wide right now Theo Walcott’s not in the squad? Is Aaron Lennon the smallest footballer in the world?
Do we have any players within the 23-man squad who can actually take a penalty...
Probably, the winner will come from one of Brazil, Argentina, Italy or Spain. But teams like England, Holland, Germany, Portugal, France - they will all secretly fancy their chances of making it to the semi-finals at least.
But could there be an even bigger shock? How about Serbia? Very impressive in qualifiying.... or could there be an African winner, the Ivory Coast have a tough qualifying group. But if they can get through it the do have some genuine world class players who could just take them all the way.
And they have Sven - fresh from his Notts County disaster – and his proven tactical astuteness and experience.
They will have three strikers known to Premiership fans - Didier Drogba, Soloman Kalou and Aruna Dindane. Add Barcelona’s Yaya Toure, Arsenal’s Emmanual Eboue and Manchester City’s Kolo Toure, and you can see why they are my tip to be the tournament’s dark house. Equally they could just flop.
But if they can get past Brazil, Portugal and the complete unknowns of North Korea, then Africa’s first World Cup could get Africa’s first finalist at least.
Or what chance Cameroon? Ever since Italia 1990 where they ran England close in the quarter finals, they haveseemingly got better and better. And Inter Milan’s Samuel Eto’o is one of the best strikers playing in European football.
One final question? Is Roger Milla still in their squad?