England - Team Fact Sheet

10 Unassailable Facts about England's Three Lions

When you think of England, you think of grey weather, bad teeth, Posh 'n Becks, dour boarding schools, and mumbled accents. You also think of fun things like Big Ben, the Queen, Shakespeare, 007, the Beatles, pubs, and tea time. But most importantly, you also think of sport.

England has given the world so many of its great games like squash, tennis, cricket, rugby and even football (in its modern club and national form). And they've entertained with some of the finest players around. Despite consistently doing well at the World Cup, though, they've rarely made it past the semi-finals. Indeed, they've only won the cup once, and that was on home soil.

Now with a quality coach and an impressive line-up, England might just get over the hump this time and take the championships. Do it for the Queen, boys!

Here's the top 10 facts you need to know about the England football team:

10. The English side is nicknamed is The Three Lions, based on the team shield which has 3 rather funky looking blue lions jumping across it. The lions are surrounded by 10 pretty red flowers.

9. England went to their first World Cup in 1950. In the opening round, they beat Chile, but lost to Spain and the United States. Then they packed their bags and left Brazil.

8. England is coached by Italian Fabio Capello. A former player for the Italian side, he's coached a number of high-powered Italian and Spanish clubs. He has said that this stint as the English team coach will be the final of his career. We hope he goes out on a high note.

7. John Terry captains the English side. This centre back has played at Chelsea since 1998, racking up plenty of trophies along the way. But he did have one famous penalty miss that would have changed his team's Champion's League fortunes. Has anyone forgotten that one?

6. The English team have never won the European Championships. Their best finish was third in 1968 and fourth in 1996 when they hosted the tournament. They really should have at least one though.

5. Legend Bobby Charlton (that's "Sir Robert Charlton CBE" to you!) remains England's top scorer with 49 goals. A midfielder and forward with Man U for many years, plus some other clubs, he's lucky to be alive. He barely survived a British Airways crash in 1958 out of Munich, Germany.

4. England's coaching staff is comprised of 5 Italians, 13 English and One Scot. These demographics reflect the shifting fortunes of the coaching position. Now it's an Italian, formerly it was a Swede, and previously an Englishman.

3. FIFA ranked England 9th before the 2010 World Cup, but they've had fine form in the run-up to the World Cup. This ranking will be meaningless once they're in South Africa where they'll be looking for national glory.

2. The England national football team is the joint-oldest in the world, formed at the same time as Scotland in 1870. Sadly, age and history don't win matches these days.

1. England beat Germany in 1966 to win the World Cup on home soil. They are one of only 7 teams to ever win the World Cup. In that year, they had to go to extra time to do it. Will they have what it takes for win number 2?