Top 10 World Cup Cliches

There are plenty of lines that seemed to be rolled out by the pundits and commentators before and during each tournament, here are our ten favourites...

• 1 The World Cup doesn't really get going until the Brazilians have played.

• 2 Italy are notoriously slow starters.

• 3 The Dutch are their own worst enemy and will self explode because of in-fighting between groups in the camp.

• 4 Germany will be ruthlessly efficient.

• 5 Japan and South Korea are technically very good but they are vulnerable against the high ball.

• 6 Pele predicted an African nation would win the World Cup (and they play the game with a smile on their face, though they are very physical and have lost the unpredictability from their play now that they all play in Europe).

• 7 England's players have to show more passion.

• 8 There are no easy games in the World Cup any more.

• 9 Brazil are far more pragmatic these days.

• 10 The Americans will have more fans than any other team apart from the hosts (yeah, right).