Can we WIN the World Cup?

Qualification, achieved. We may have done it the hard way, but we managed to secure our passage to Brazil with two fine performances against Montengro and Poland in our concluding group games.  To be honest, in those last two games thats the best I've seen England play for a very long while. I'm being serious, I thought we were absolutely brilliant against Montenegro from the 1st minute to the very last, and although the game against Poland was a lot more of a nervy affair and bar some shaky moments whereby Lewandowski threatened, we also performed extremely well that night; particularly with the pressure that had been out on the team prior to the game. 

In the two games we played with an intensity, urgency and with a will to succeed that has been evidently lacking in previous years. We looked like a team who wanted to win. We looked like a team who didn't want to let themselves down. And most importantly, we looked like a team that didn't want to let the country down. And in the end both turned out to be solid wins; wins that were truly merited given the performances on each night.

So with qualification earned, I raised the question on twitter: can we win the World Cup? 

Again, there was widespread opinion voiced regarding the topic. Some believed that there was every chance that England could lift the coveted World Cup trophy in Brazil 2014, given our progress in recent months. Although indirectly stating that England have a chance, @JamesAtronn noted that 'It'll be interesting to see if players like Morrison play in the coming friendlies and how they perform,' indicating that there may be a chance depending on how our young stars develop in the time leading up to the World Cup finals. @SamRimmington also displayed his clear optimism, stating 'Yeah, we can' before going on to explain that although we're technically better than the likes of Spain or Germany, our different style of play means that winning against the worlds best as still possible.

But also general pessimism that seems to grip England fans was clearly apparent again. @JordanParslow quoted that 'we have a lot of catching up to do' before expressing his opinion on our defensive fragilities, declaring 'Jags ad Cahill aren't a good enough defensive pairing.' @LexDunnage also expressed his doubts, although conceded there was 'every chance we could win,' whereas @MattPullen believes our weakness lies in our philosophies, stating that 'we are too cautious against the big teams.'

So, do I think we can win it? Yes. I genuinely believe we can. We are good enough now, with young talent brings a new wave of optimism, and budding youngsters such as Oxlade-Chamberlain, Morison, Sturridge, Barkley and Townsend in particular have given me great hope. We now have a genuine goal threat, someone who can run at players, someone with flair, someone with excitement. We finally have a certian degree of creation within the ranksthat we haven't had in recent years; and i think our success may well be dependent on how well Sturridge, Rooney and Townsend perform.

The only doubt I have, is that I completely agree with @JordanParslow - Jagielka and Cahill are just too average. They make a good partnership, but not the formidable one we've been used to be seeing in the shape of Ferdinand and Terry. Cahill has proven he can do a job against one of the worlds best strikers in Lewandowski, but he needs to do it on a more consistent basis. Cahill suffers from lapses of concentration, and one mistake can be the difference in losing and winning the World Cup. One mistake.