How will players deal with hours of down time during the World Cup?

"What happens off the field has become relevant to what happens on it now that the tournament has evolved into a two-month behemoth," writes Neil Manthorp in The Mail & Guardian. He muses over how teams can deal with the "cabin fever" of a lengthy competition, and what combinations might arise in South Africa's playing XI as they search for a first World Cup win.

Existing tensions within teams escalate and cliques develop because of a lack of communication. Every squad has one or two natural room dwellers, but the more players who are allowed to bury their heads and emotions in a blur of meaningless image and sound the less likely a team is to function together as a unit on the field, especially under pressure.