One of the side effects of prolonged exposure to sport is the danger of death by cliche and half-truth. In a certain context, Vince Lombardi might have said that winning was the only thing. In a flippant moment, Bill Shankly spoke of football being more important than life and death. Yet, there are thousands out there that swear by both statements, without pausing to think of how serious the original quote was.


Tony Currie of england and Zico of Brazil during an International Friendly at Wembley in London in 1978. Pic/Getty Images

The myths around victory are too many to name. Let's focus on just one for now – that history remembers only the victors. In that case, name me four players from the Greek side that won euro 2004. There should be bonus points if you can reconstruct at least two of the goals that they scored during the course of the competition. You don't even need to go back that far though. When Spain won the World Cup four years ago, they scored only eight goals.