With 16 days to go until the opening ceremony, and with most of the regular season now behind us, World Cup 2010 fever will be going go into meltdown.

Manager Fabio and his England squad are currently team building at the pre World Cup base camp in Austria, but flew home last Sunday to compete in their last home friendly against Mexico. I was at Wembley on Monday evening to access the team performance and get an insight as to the effects of the training session. Please watch out for further notes later.

Just for the record I will be praying for three routine group victories as I have South Africa match tickets for England's round of 16 and quarter-final matches should they win the group. Anything less will be some thing of a major personal disappointment! I’m flying out on British Airways on June 25, so my trip is now just around the corner.

Following the pattern of previous blogs, I’ll now continue with some memories and stories from previous England world cup antics. This article concentrates on France ‘98 and the magical Oriental 2002 experience.

Glenn Hoddle's England Squad topped the 1998 qualifying group two, winning six out of eight matches and only conceding two goals along the way. It was a professional campaign against old rivals Poland and Italy.

In the World Cup finals, we found ourselves drawn into Group G with Romania, Colombia and Tunisia. Things got off to great start win a 2-0 win over Tunisia (Shearer and Scholes), then came a very disappointing 2-1 reversal against Romania in Toulouse, Petrescu scoring with the last kick of the match. We bounced back against Columbia 2-0 (Anderton and Beckham), qualifying in second place.

Unfortunately, second place runs the risk of facing a super power in the round of 16 - Fabio take note. In this case the country held its breath as Argentina loomed large. Would it be another mid-week knockout? At 7pm, everyone was down the pub aching for victory.

It was a bad start with a Batistuta Pen on six minutes, but then a massive transformation as Shearer scored with a penalty and then a wonder strike from Owen at 16 minutes put us on top. Owen's goal will always be an iconic moment for him and England fans.

Sadly it all went down hill after that when Zanetti equalised on half time. Beckham was infamously sent off and we then went out on the dreaded penalties, Batty and Ince missing.

There was a surreal moment late in extra time when Sol Campbell headed what looked to be the winning goal. He, along with the rest of us were dancing with delight. A sneaky look back at the screen and Argentina were on the attack. It was declared a no goal due to an earlier infringement. It was horrible.

France went on to win a stunning final 3-0 against Brazil with Arsenal favourite Petit getting the last on 90 minutes.

The world of football was stunned by the news that Japan and South Korea had landed the 2002 World Cup finals. It all added up to a piece of Oriental intrigue and promise with a touch of the exotic. My friend Bryan and I couldn't help ourselves and embarked on a 15 day journey of a life time covering matches in Korea and Japan. We decided to base ourselves in Seoul pre draw with the hope of England being stationed there.

As luck would have it the squad was based in Japan for the group stages so we had to add to our itinerary.

We spent seven nights in Korea taking in two matches before flying to Tokyo to watch Ireland beat Saudi Arabia 3-0, then travelled by bullet train to Osaka to watch England draw with Nigeria in a goalless game. We then returned to Seoul to be in the stadium to watch Korea beat Portugal 1-0 (a spectacular experience).

Manager Sven Goran Eriksson and his team qualified from group 9 helped by an amazing 5-1 drubbing of Germany in Munich on September 1, 2001 (Owen hat trick). This was arguably one of the best stand alone performances ever by England. Going through we were drawn into group F with Sweden, Argentina and Nigeria based in Japan. First up, a dreary 1-1 draw against Sweden. Then, a battling 1-0 win against Argentina with a blasted Beckham spot kick. Finally a boring 0-0 against Nigeria in baking hot Osaka (I was there!). In the round of 16 we beat Denmark 3-0 in a comfortable fashion. Things were going very nicely.

Bryan and I were back for the quarter final, England v Brazil. Many of you will recall the morning knockouts and this match started at 9am. Like many, I watched with loads of work colleagues squeezed into a meeting room, all tucking into bacon rolls. After a pulsating first half the scores were level at 1-1 (Owen). The second half failed to spark and after a strange Ronaldinho goal which looped in from 40 yards, England never managed to regain the upper hand. There was no passion from the players or the manager and in the end we made it far too comfortable for ten men Brazil.

For me and other people this goes down as one of the most disappointing England failures of all time and returning to my desk that morning there was a sense of anger and deflation.

Let’s hope for none of that this time around. South Africa 2010 is just around the corner!