Few jobs ask so much of a single individual under conditions of hysterical stress. A World Cup coach must be a tactical genius, psychologist, sports scientist, negotiator, data analyst, master motivator and charismatic PR figurehead, able to carry the hopes of a nation on his shoulders, while the tabloid press mine the recesses of his private life for dirt.

In the opinion of Italian legend Giovanni Trapattoni (currently the Republic of Ireland coach), "A good manager, at best, can make a team 10 percent better; but a bad manager can make a team up to 50 percent worse." Here are 10 World Cup coaches who have sank to the occasion.

1. Ademar Pimenta, Brazil, semifinal, 1938
Hungry to claim their first World Cup, the Brazilians opened strongly, powered by the "Black Diamond," Leonidas da Silva, their bicycle kick-pioneering striker who, with limbs flailing, effortlessly chalked up five goals over the course of the first two rounds.

Their challenge was masterminded by innovative coach Ademar Pimenta, who professionalized the Brazilian squad by creatively dividing his players into two starting lineups: a "blue team," which played a physical, bruising brand of soccer, and a "white team," which relied on skill and speed to bewilder its opponents. This early experiment in squad rotation backfired at the semifinal stage. Pimenta benched his rubber-limbed striker to keep him fresh for a final the Brazilians never reached.

Drained as Leonidas may have been after struggling through a replay against a physical Czechoslovakian side (penalty kick tiebreakers would not be instituted until 1982), he might have averted the Brazilians' 2-1 semifinal loss to the Italians. President Getulio Vargas labeled the lost a "national disgrace."

2. Walter Winterbottom, England, 1950
For the first three tournaments, England, the perhaps too-proud birthplace of soccer, declined to participate as the English perceived the French-created tournament to be beneath them. They finally deemed the tournament worthy of their participation in 1950, arriving as if they only had to turn up to claim the cup. Demonstrating an arrogance as monumental as the 200,000-seater Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the squad breezed into town a mere two days before kickoff, one of many ill-advised logistical decisions that gave the players no time to acclimate. Instead of choosing a more pastoral training facility, the English struggled to adapt while staying in a tourist hotel amid the chaos of the Copacabana. None of this mattered to the England coach, the wondrously named Walter Winterbottom, who saw opponents as target practice, and the cup a divine right.

This perspective seemed entirely justified when they lined up against an amateur American team that had lost 9-0 in a warm-up game against Italy. Maybe it was the noisy tourist hotel, maybe not, but Joe Gaetjens, a Haitian-born part-time dishwasher headed in a cross from the American captain/gym teacher Walter Bahr to score the match's first goal. Helped by a series of heroic saves from undertaker/goalkeeper Frank Borghi, the United States hung on for the victory, still the greatest single shocker in World Cup history.

While English papers proclaimed the death of English football, the American coach, Bill Jeffrey, proved he was also fallible as he proudly announced, "This is all we need to make the game go in the States!" It would prove to be just the first of many false dawns for U.S. soccer. Only one journalist, Dent McSkimming of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, saw the game live, and the New York Times, at first believing the reported victory to be a hoax when it came through on the wire, buried the story.

3. Scotland, 1954

AP PhotoLook closely and you can see the collar on the wool uniform of Scotland's John Aird.

Perhaps this clueless decision can be spread around the entire Scottish soccer establishment, but even in the era before soccer sabermetrics, global scouting and slo-mo video, there's no excuse for brain-dead planning. Given that this was Scotland's first World Cup appearance (they'd qualified in 1950 but amazingly withdrew), you'd think they could check a weather report or two prior to leaving for Switzerland. With some temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit during what would be a sweltering summer, the Scots were forced to play in their thick, outdated wool jerseys complete with long sleeves and stifling collars.

Leave it to defender Tommy Docherty to explain, some 40 years later: "The Scottish FA assumed Switzerland was cold because it had mountains. You'd have thought we were going on an expedition to the Antarctic." It's no surprise that against teams with more appropriate garb, they were decimated 7-0 by Uruguay and sent home to a cooler clime.

4. Alf Ramsey, England, 1970 quarterfinal

AP PhotoEngland star Bobby Charlton can't quite look at coach Alf Ramsey after losing to West Germany.

The English were reasonably accommodating of Ramsey's xenophobic personality -- he famously enraged the Argentines in 1966 by calling them "animals" -- as he'd led the "Wingless Wonders" to an improbable, glorious victory back home. The squad he took to Mexico four years later was a strong one, but Ramsey's overconfident decision-making against bitter enemy West Germany spelled the end of the Three Lions' magic carpet ride.

Having already overcome the loss of mercurial shot-stopper Gordon Banks to food poisoning on the eve of the match -- despite having warned the players to be wary of the local cuisine -- Ramsey's luck ran out as the game wore on.

Up 2-1 with 21 minutes left, Ramsey broke the golden rule -- never take off your best player, no matter what the score -- that Jose Pekerman would break 36 years later. Off came Bobby Charlton, the fulcrum of the English midfield, and this gave German dynamo Franz Beckenbauer room to exploit. Die Mannschaft equalized six minutes later via Uwe Seeler's lucky header and went on to dominate in a 3-2 extra-time win, with stand-in keeper Peter Bonetti culpable on all three goals (it would be just one of seven career appearances for Bonetti in an England shirt).

The Germans would go on to win the title in 1974 and become a soccer superpower, while England would fail to reach another World Cup until 1982.

5. Ferruccio Valcareggi, Italy, 1970 final
When you have two amazing, world-class players who both play the same position, how do you put them to good use? This was an issue for both finalists in Mexico -- Brazilian boss Mario Zagallo had a veteran Pelé and youthful Tostao fighting for the center-forward spot, so his solution was to merely switch the formation and throw them alongside one another, a move that worked to devastating effect. Italy, on the other hand, couldn't quite solve a similar problem in its midfield. AC Milan's Gianni Rivera and Inter Milan's Sandro Mazzola were identical midfielders -- full of creative flair and invention, yet neither enjoyed the dirty work on defense.

So Valcareggi adopted a "relay" system; each player would get 45 minutes a game and hopefully stay fresh throughout a tournament played under oppressive heat. It worked, for the most part. Italy overcame West Germany in an epic 4-3 semifinal that needed a full 120 minutes to separate the two sides (Rivera played the bulk of the game). However, tension in the dressing room -- Rivera's swaggering personality often clashed with Valcareggi's authority -- led the manager to give his talented midfielder just six minutes of action in the final, bringing him on for a cameo in the 84th minute with the Azzurri down 3-1. Valcareggi defended his move as "technical," while some journalists felt the move was "in bad taste."

Brazil scored a fourth goal, and the Italian team was greeted at the Rome airport by hostile fans and "Viva Rivera!" banners.

6. Steve Sampson, United States, 1998

Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty ImagesU.S. coach Steve Sampson guided his team to a 32nd-place finish at the 1998 World Cup.

The United States' greatest World Cup humiliation was self-inflicted. Coach Steve Sampson sabotaged his own team in 1998, making wholesale changes to the squad on the eve of the tournament. He cut a slew of previously untouchable veterans, including John Harkes, whom he had called his "Captain for Life," waiting more than a decade before revealing that some John Terry-style shenanigans were the root cause: Harkes had been rumored to be carrying on an affair with teammate Eric Wynalda's wife.

After tossing aside the veterans, Sampson completed his extreme squad makeover by replacing them with a slew of inexperienced players, including David Regis, a French-born defender who was promised a starting position if he agreed to become a U.S. citizen.

Lacking any cohesive rhythm, the United States team ended dead last, gaining no points and finding the net only once, during garbage time at the end of a mortifying 21 loss to the team from the country that often topped the CIA watchlist, Iran.

7. Mario Zagallo, Brazil, 1998 final
The 1998 final featured France against Brazil, matching the host nation against the defending champions for the very first time. Yet, what happened on the field was eclipsed by the drama unfurling off it. Rumors began to circulate on the day of the game that the pressure of expectations, coupled with whispers of his girlfriend's infidelity, had led Ronaldo, the world's finest player, to suffer a breakdown. In what amounted to a 30-minute mystery before the game, Zagallo shockingly left the star out of the starting lineup. Word spread he had suffered a fit so severe that his roommate, the normally pugnacious Roberto Carlos, was reported to have run down the hotel corridor, screaming that his friend had died.

A second lineup sheet materialized just before kickoff with Ronaldo's name on it. The player took the field, some believed under the order of a sponsor which demanded that its poster boy show off its new line of boots, leaving a mystery to be unraveled someday, perhaps by Oliver Stone.

Ronaldo might as well have stayed home, as that magnificent icon for balding men around the world, Zinedine Zidane, used his pate to pop in two first-half headers from corner kicks, and Emmanuel Petit iced France's 30 victory just before the final whistle, sending an estimated 1 million people onto the Champs-Élysées to celebrate through the night.

8. Mick McCarthy, Ireland, 2002
Roy Keane was a belligerent maestro who had long cultivated a simmering feud with the Irish soccer authorities over their alleged failure to maintain a professionalized approach to the game. This war of attrition boiled over during pre-tournament training in 2002 on the island of Saipan, when Keane protested the lack of adequate training facilities and equipment by publicly berating manager (now Wolves coach) Mick McCarthy in front of his squad: "Mick. I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person. You're a f------ wanker and you can stick your World Cup up your arse. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your bollocks."

Keane was sent home, McCarthy was left with his reputation in tatters and the Irish team were dumped out in the Round of 16.

9. Jose Pekerman, Argentina, 2006 quarterfinal
Playing the hosts in a World Cup is a tricky proposition. The rabid, overwhelming support for your opponent leads you to play more defensively than usual, but Argentina's aptly named manager took his respect for Germany to choke-inducing lengths. Leading 1-0 in Berlin with 20 minutes to go, Pekerman's use of his three substitutions baffled even the most casual observer. Sixty seconds after his goalkeeper was forced off with injury, Pekerman removed Juan Roman Riquelme, his side's primary offensive threat and the source of so much chaos in the German penalty area. He replaced him with Esteban Cambiasso, a defensive-minded midfielder and the Argies quickly retreated into a shell that allowed the Germans to claw their way back into the game.

Wait, there's more. On 79 minutes, off came ineffectual striker Hernan Crespo, but arguably the best Argie forward -- a man you might know as Lionel Messi -- stayed on the bench. A minute later Germany equalized, leaving the Argies with no more substitutions to make and no dangerous attackers on the field. You can see where this is going; Argentina continued to dominate possession but lost on penalties.

There is no room for caution in a World Cup, but Pekerman would learn the hard way and resigned shortly after the defeat despite calls from the Argentine FA for him to stay.

10. Sven-Goran Eriksson, England, 2006
The quiet, confident Swede enjoyed a good run as England manager -- a 5-1 win over Germany in Munich, quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup (a loss to eventual champion Brazil) and the quarterfinals of Euro 2004 (yep, England lost on penalties). No surprise then that the country's expectations were high heading into the 2006 tournament.

However, Sven did have one weakness and it was usually brunette and willowy. His appreciation of the fairer sex was constant tabloid fodder -- he famously had an affair with his secretary -- and he took a laissez faire approach toward his team when it came to their wives and girlfriends. The WAGs, as they became known, laid siege to the small west German town of Baden-Baden, racking up outrageous tabs at bars, restaurants, spas and boutiques, none of it escaping the ravenous lenses of the paparazzi who swarmed the England camp looking for their money shots. "We became a bit of a circus," understated Rio Ferdinand.

Worse than that, England went out in the quarterfinals and the WAGs became the latest excuse for their underachieving performance at World Cups.

Roger Bennett and David Hirshey are the co-authors of "The ESPN World Cup Companion," your guide to everything you need to know to enjoy the 2010 World Cup. Roger Bennett can be e-mailed at sirfabiocapello@yahoo.com.