Stricken England striker Michael Owen has become just the latest soccer player to become the focus for his team's mantra of "We are going to win the World Cup for...."
In an increasingly sentimental sport, each time a player goes down and is ruled out of a tournament the team involved feels compelled to turn the tournament into a personal crusade for the player in question.
Unlike less worthy recipients of their teammates' support, the service that the clean-living but desperately unlucky Owen has given England down the years merits such a tribute.
Similarly 1998 champions France showed their solidarity with Djibril Cisse as the Liverpool forward broke his leg just prior to the World Cup in a meaningless friendly with China.
All the France players wore sweatbands with "Djibril" written on them in their first World Cup match, a 0-0 draw with Switzerland.
Now "Les Bleus" have another martyr to go in and play for when they enter their must-win match against Togo -- Zinedine Zidane.
Lose and the great man's last gesture for the team will have been his angry throw of the sweatband into the dugout when he was replaced in the first minute of injury time in the 1-1 draw with South Korea.
It is the South Americans who fly the flag for the more emotional dedications, as Ecuadorean striker Ivan Kaviedes demonstrated in the 3-0 win over Costa Rica.
After scoring the third goal he pulled on a Spiderman mask in tribute to former international team-mate Otilino Tenorio, who was killed in a car accident aged 25 in May last year.
Some dedications push the sense of good taste to the limit.
Like when Scottish striker Duncan Ferguson -- or "Drunk and Disorderly" as he was known -- served three months for headbutting another player.
Instead of being sacked by his club, Everton, he received a welcome back seemingly more fit for a returning war hero or political prisoner as the club arranged for a band to pipe him onto the pitch at a reserve team match.
"The people who criticized the club for that didn't know what Duncan meant to the fans," commented Jim King of the Everton Supporters Club. "He was the right man at the right time for us.
Perhaps the most macabre "tribute" was paid to Colombian defender Andres Escobar, who paid with his life for scoring an own goal in the South Americans' costly defeat to the US in 1994.
Ten days after returning to Colombia, Humberto Munoz -- who was to receive a 43-year prison sentence but was released after serving just 11 -- gained his 10 seconds of fame as he plugged Escobar with 12 bullets. As each bullet hit the defender, Munoz said, "Goal."
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