English national football team (original) (raw)

The English national football team's moment of greatest triumph was in 1966 when the side led by Bobby Moore under the managership of Alf Ramsey won the World Cup. In the final, England beat West Germany by 4 goals to 2, with 3 goals from Geoff Hurst and one from Martin Peters. They, along with France, remain the only footballing nation to have won the World Cup only once.

Goalkeeper, Peter Shilton has played for England more times than anyone else, gaining 125 caps.

In 2001, Sven-G�ran Eriksson became the first foreign national (he is Swedish) to become the manager of England. They qualified for the Football World Cup 2002 (held in Japan and South Korea) in a tense finale on the 6th October 2001, with the final goal which gave them the much-needed draw against Greece coming from David Beckham in the dying seconds of the game. This result ensured automatic qualification above Germany on goal difference. In the World Cup itself, England reached the quarter-finals before being beaten by eventual tournament winners Brazil 2-1. So far, the highlight of Eriksson's time in charge of England is a 5-1 victory over rivals Germany, during the World Cup 2002 qualification campaign. England came from behind, with goals from Emile Heskey, Steven Gerrard and a Michael Owen hattrick.