by Anton Johan
In its quest for its first World Cup victory in 44 years, the English side flew off to South Africa yesterday under the watchful eye of coach Fabio Capello.
Capello announced his final team on Tuesday and the slimmed down team winged its way from Heathrow to Johannesburg some time later.
Not everybody was on board, with a few surprise exclusions.
This included "a very disappointed" Theo Walcott, who was expecting to join his teammates, but said that he respected the coach's decision.
Others left out of the squad included Michael Dawson, Leighton Baines and Scott Parker.
Before flying out, Capello entered into a verbal agreement with the Chairman of Club England to remain on as coach until Euro 2012.
The final English squad for the World Cup is as follows:
Goalies: Robert Green, Joe Hart, David James
Forwards: Peter Crouch, Jermaine Defoe, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney.
Defenders: Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Kerry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock.
Midfielders: Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Philisp.
In the meantime, the UK remain early favorites, along with Spain and Brazil, to win the World Cup, with sites such as Bodog and Paddy Power offering odds of 7/1 on their victory.
