This article originally appeared on David Hunts Blog - Life of Another League.

Welcome back.

It's less than two weeks until the biggest tournament in the history of sport. I have been looking forward to it and I'm sure you are all feeling the same. You can feel the buzz and anticipation around the country, everywhere you walk there's a St George's flag flying. I'm sure everyone's thinking and hoping that surely this time is England's turn to lift the trophy.

I hope Fabio Capello can get the team to gel and have as much an impact on the individuals as we've seen with Jose Mourinho and his Inter Milan players.

I've been watching some of the warm up matches and think there's going to be a few surprises for the quarterfinals and maybe the semis too. Lets first talk about England. Capello has been testing out his teams but I'm pretty sure he's got his starting eleven in mind. The fun thing about writing this blog is that I can share my opinion, so if I were manager my first choice 11 would be…

David James
Glen Johnson
John Terry
Ledley King
Ashley Cole
Steven Gerrard
Frank Lampard
Adam Johnson
Aaron Lennon
Wayne Rooney
Emile Heskey

I would play a 4-5-1 formation like this…

I'd like to see Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole really attack when possible, Gerrard play a more holding role and get the team ticking, Lampard bombing forward like he does for Chelsea and then Rooney cause havoc in little holes.

These are just my thoughts, I'm sure many would disagree and it's great that we can all have an opinion. I don't feel that Gerrard has had a good season but something tells me this World Cup will change all that. He's my one to watch for England, the catalyst!!! I don't particularly enjoy watching England's style of play, if I had to choose between England and Spain I'd probably prefer to watch Spain's style. I do however think Capello has chosen a good squad to take with him and I'd like to see Michael Dawson and Scott Parker make the final 23. I'm still very surprised at other countries choice of squads. How France's squad can't include Samir Nasri baffles me. Then there's Diego Maradona and his Argentina squad, which included Coloccini and Gutierrez who were both playing Championship football, yet didn't include Zanetti and Cambiasso who both won the Champions League. I guess it's like I always say to my dad, that's football.

There are a few players that are going to be taking part in the competition that I have either played with or against. Tommy Smith of Ipswich Town was on loan with me at Brentford earlier this season, now he'll be playing for New Zealand against the likes of Italy and Paraguay. I've played against a few of the England squad and have also played against Fulham and USA player Clint Dempsey as you can see…

England are going to find their group hard but I think they'll finish top. Looking at the other groups, I'm going to predict the following to qualify from each…

Group A - France & Mexico
Group B - Argentina & Korea
Group C - England & USA
Group D - Germany & Australia
Group E - Holland & Cameroon
Group F - Italy & Paraguay
Group G - Brazil & Ivory Coast
Group H - Spain & Chile

There's going to be some upsets and I'm sure I'll be wrong in my predictions. There's some mouth watering talent on show and that's what makes this competition the best in the world! If I had to pick a winner now I would go for Spain but I think the four main contenders are; Argentina, Spain, England and Brazil…oh wow, I've left out Holland, this is hard to pick, well here's my top five then!

Even though some of the biggest teams like Germany, Argentina and France haven't been playing to their full potential, when it comes to the crunch they always step up to the occasion. England still has more to show and I hope they're just saving it for the big stage. The climate is going to play a big part in their chances of winning and I hope they adapt quickly. These guys are about to take part in a tournament that most footballers can only dream of and watch on TV. I wish the whole squad good luck and hopefully I'll be writing a blog after the June 11th talking about England's triumph.

Hunty