Not so Jol-ly

Fulham came calling for Martin Jol after Roy Hodgson departed for Liverpool. He was keen and had agreed personal terms, but Ajax weren't interested in talking turkey. Both points of view are easy to see: the lack of obvious names for a replacement is the obvious one for Ajax while the ongoing financial constraints at the Amsterdam club may hamper Jol's ambition. What does that say about Ajax and the Dutch league as a whole?

There is virtually no way that Ajax will match last season. Scoring over a hundred league goals in finishing a point behind champions Twente whilst attempting to reduce the squad and wage bill was quite an achievement. The Marco van Basten legacy was a bloated squad full of wasters. Dario Cvitanich was palmed off on Mexican club Pachuca, but takers couldn't be found for the likes of Miralem Sulejmani who cost an eye-watering €16.5m and has done pretty much nothing. Jol clearly doesn't want him at the club or he'd at least have played some games last season. Marko Pantelic has been let go despite his goals as the club couldn't/wouldn't offer him more than one year. His replacement? Serial failure Mido. Mounir El Hamdaoui has joined from AZ, but while expensive imports like Oleguer linger then sales of star players like Gregory van der Wiel (about to join Louis van Gaal's Dutch enclave in Munich) and Maarten Stekelenburg (Arsenal looking to take him on after his stellar World Cup) will have to make up the shortfall, undermining any manager's ability to get into that all-important Champions League group stage (a qualifier against PAOK begins tomorrow) and maybe challenge for the title next season.

But the same problems afflict the other runners and riders. Twente have always been a selling club. On finishing second two seasons ago, they lost Eljero Elia and Marko Arnautovic. This time, veterans Blaise N'Kufo and Kenneth Perez have gone and new boss Michel Preud'homme has all on to keep hold of Bryan Ruiz. Feyenoord are still undergoing their own financial restructuring as their big money players come to the end of their careers. Roy Makaay and Gio van Bronckhorst have gone and Jon Dahl Tomasson will soon follow. PSV did similarly over the last couple of years while AZ's financial meltdown arrived last season. There are plenty of other sides in trouble too, NAC for one, which will hamper the ambition of any side in the league. It may make it more open in the league, but not in a good way so far as Ajax are concerned.

Compared to a nice little sinecure in west London, managing any of the big five clubs in the Netherlands looks like a hassle anyone could do without.

France: The backlash begins

Collective responsibility is the term. That's certainly what Laurent Blanc has dealt out as he has suspended all 23 members of the mutinous French World Cup squad for the upcoming friendly with Norway. Hugo Lloris told L'Equipe "we acted as a team" and it's as a team that they are being punished. So where does Blanc turn for a squad? Robbing himself of the best 23 available to him certainly doesn't help him pick a side, but Raymond Domenech did do him a favour by not picking some sure starters for anyone less bonkers.

Karim Benzema, legal issues notwithstanding, will spearhead the attack, supported ably by Samir Nasri. If fit, a big if, Lassana Diarra will do the screening job in midfield while so far as goalkeepers go, it looks a straight choice between Sébastien Frey and Monaco's Stephane Ruffier. Then it gets tricky.

Loic Remy, currently hunted by Lyon and a clutch of Premier League clubs, and Jimmy Briand should both get the nod up front. Hatem Ben Arfa may well get the chance to shine at international level despite a club career in danger of stalling, but the other option is Lorient's highly rated Kevin Gameiro. The centre backs look set to be Laurent Koscielny, newly of Arsenal, and Michael Ciani who played with distinction under Blanc at Bordeaux. Not exactly one for the future, but 30-year old AJA right-back Cedric Hengbart had a wonderful year while Lyon's Aly Cissokho is an option on the left. Tough tackling midfielder Maxime Gonalons, Lyon's French U-21 star, should also figure.

If it's wild punts you're after, how about Charles N'Zogbia out wide or veteran striker Pierre-Alain Frau who had his best goals return in his career for Lille last season.

Leaving out 23 of your best players is always going to make things hard, but Blanc has an opportunity to show those would-be mutineers that they're not indispensable and will have to pull their heads in if they want to get back in his good books.

The Euroballs selection: Ruffier; Hengbart, Koscielny, Ciani, Cissokho; Lassana Diarra, Gonalons; Nasri, Gameiro, Briand; Benzema.

What the hell was that?

We knew Total Football was a thing of the past - Bert van Marwijk's been quite clear on the subject since taking the Dutch job on - but that was ridiculous.

The inevitable autobiographies will have to be consulted for a proper account of what was said in the Oranje dressing room before the World Cup final of 2010, but it's hard to think that it was anything other than "If them Spaniards try that tippy-tappy nonsense, give 'em a massive boot up the arse", otherwise known as page one of John Beck's coaching manual. Quite why van Marwijk went this way is hard to fathom. The Dutch had waltzed through qualifying, winning every game, and did likewise on their run to the final. The semi-final against Uruguay was a veritable feast of football. From Giovanni van Bronckhorst's screamer of an opener to Maxi Perera's late consolation it was wide open and perhaps therein lies the issue. Uruguay got at the Dutch back four and made it a very nervous 90 minutes.

Spain were not about to be afforded that luxury. Instead, they were to booted as hard as possible and as often as possible. Referee Howard Webb set his stall out early with a flurry of cards - yellow only - and he seemed determined to keep it at eleven-a-side. Nigel de Jong's Jackie Chan impression would surely have secured a straight dismissal in any game other than a World Cup final. Plenty of other challenges were right on the borderline as well, but it was only when Johnny Heitinga pulled down Andres Iniesta when the red card appeared. It was one of the tamer fouls of the evening, but the letter of the law demanded a yellow and it duly appeared, Heitinga's second. Webb's no Graham Poll, so two was deemed enough for a dismissal. This isn't to lambast Webb. Overall, he did a decent job, but faced with the petulant and the thuggish, perhaps a tougher stance early on might have calmed it down rather than see it escalate.

Heitinga's absence allowed Iniesta the space to fire Spain ahead in extra time and he too picked up a booking for taking his shirt off. The law is an ass sometimes and certainly didn't help Webb on this occasion. The goalscorer's t-shirt bore a tribute to the late Dani Jarque. That's obviously a bookable offence. In the end, just three of the Dutch starting XI avoided a caution.

The roots of this go back a while. The most whiny, bitchy, petulant game in living memory was in Nuremburg in the last World Cup where the Dutch took on Portugal saw 16 cautions dished out and four players were dismissed. They lost that one 1-0 too, which tells you all you need to know about what happens when they revert to such tactics. They've got the talent to win without resorting to the kind of stuff we saw at the weekend, but nobody is lamenting the fact they lost after such a cynical display.

Van Marwijk wins battle of the pragmatists

The Netherlands v Brazil. One of the classics. Total Football v Brazilian brilliance. Even the 1974 World Cup clash between these two sides in Hannover - effectively a quarter-final coming, as it did, at the end of the second group stage - seems fresh in the memory given the scintillating football on show.

Times have changed. Bert van Marwijk would love to play Total Football, but given that he's got Ooijer, Kuyt and van Bommel to work with rather than Neeskens, Cruyff and Rep, it's going to be difficult. Likewise Brazil, though they could probably play that 1982 style were it not for Dunga and his dogged devotion to doing it his way. His way had been pretty effective, if not exactly pleasing on the eye, but anyone who saw him play can have been under no illusion that it was ever going to be anything other than this.

The two sides lined up with identical formations, the very much in vogue 4-2-3-1, and the fear was that they'd cancel each other out. Needless to say, there are special players on either side and it was clear from the off who Brazil had identified as the main Dutch danger. Arjen Robben, for it was him, got his first boot from behind inside three minutes as Dani Alves, as the cliché goes, 'let him know he was there'. It presaged a first half that was less football fiesta than Fight Club. Johnny Heitinga gave Robinho a boot up in the air, Robben was being kicked black and blue and Mark van Bommel was doing what he does best, i.e. foul everyone, wind everyone up and try to referee the game.

Some football did break out. Heitinga was caught terribly flat-footed and Gregory van der Wiel out of position as Felipe Melo's delicious through ball found Robinho who tucked it past Maarten Stekelenberg. The Dutch keeper pulled off one of the saves of the tournament to deny Kaka later in the first half, but as they trooped off for the interval, it felt very much like Brazil's to lose. Robben's frustration was obvious. He constantly had four men on him, some a little too close, as when Michel Bastos should have seen a second yellow for a particularly malicious foul. Contact doesn't have to be huge for Robben to go down wailing and this was further winding the Brazilians up. From the free-kick, Wesley Sniejder got it back off Robben and curled it goalwards where a huge communication breakdown saw Melo nick it past Julio Cesar for the leveller.

Brazil lost their shit. Melo was at fault again for the second Dutch goal, Sneijder left alone in the box to nod in from five yards before the Brazilian enforcer was sent off for stamping on Robben. Bastos had already been withdrawn by Dunga before he got himself dismissed. The Dutch should have finished it off when Klaas-Jan Huntelaar dallied too long over picking a pass in the box and the cover got back, but they closed it out with relative ease.

Dunga would have faced a stiff task to keep his job even if he'd won the competition. Losing in the quarters made his departure inevitable and it was announced within hours of the final whistle. Van Marwijk, on the other hand, has a bit more freedom. All those years of tippy-tappy football brought no reward as the nation chased the halcyon days of the mid-70s. Van Marwijk has brought organisation, solidity and unity and it's got the Netherlands a lot further. Whether he'll be loved back home for it is a matter for a day when the euphoria of beating Brazil has worn off.

Spain highlight English failures

After France and Italy tumbled out of the World Cup at the first hurdle, Spain avoided the ignominy of joining them with a battling win over a very talented Chilean side. The opening, and probably decisive, goal came after a brain failure from Chilean keeper Claudio Bravo who went a-wandering outside of his area and played a half-assed clearance straight to the feet of David Villa who played a lovely little 9-iron over the stranded keeper and into the net. Andres Iniesta made it two and, with Marco Estrada sent off for a foul in the build-up, that was that.

The Villa goal remains the talking point. On ITV's trademark lamentable coverage, anchor Matt Smith was drooling. "When a predominantly right-footed player can do that with his left. Wow". What an utterly ridiculous statement which pretty well highlights a big problem the English have never got to grips with. Villa may be a right-footer, Lionel Messi a lefty, but you'd not know. They developed skills at an early age and learned how to use their less-favoured foot to the point at which they are comfortable on either side. In England, kids just play games. The more physically developed prevail in the kick-and-rush environment to the point at which there's a national team of right-footers who are utterly incapable of playing it off the left. This is a systemic failure that stretches back for as long as life itself and England will not be a world power while it remains.

And still the Europeans tumble

The reigning champions, Italy, are the latest big European name to bite the dust at the World Cup. Slovakia stunned them in taking a two-goal lead thanks to Robert Vittek and some curiously lax defending. It was only when Vittek's second went in with around ten minutes to go that Italy came out of their shells. They'd been poor, but suddenly looked up for it. Antonio Di Natale drew them level after Slovak keeper Jan Mucha couldn't hold a shot from range and an ever-so-tight offside call - different camera angles tell different stories - denied Fabio Quagliarella. Instead, Slovakia went up the other end and made it three.

A horrible backpass did Federico Marchetti no favours and he was forced to hoof it out for a throw rather than concede the corner. In hindsight, he might have been better leaving it. His defenders stood and watched as Kamil Kopunek jogged past them, latched onto the throw and chipped Marchetti for what was surely the decisive goal. But no. The one thing Italy will go home with is a contender for goal of the tournament, Quagliarella flighting an absolute peach of a shot out of Mucha's reach and into the top corner. That came with two minutes of stoppages remaining, but Slovakia held firm. The final whistle saw Marcello Lippi disappear down the tunnel - no handshakes with his opposite number.

With the other game, New Zealand and Paraguay, remaining goalless, all Italy needed was a score draw, but only for about five minutes did it look remotely possible that they'd get it. Impossibly negative in the opening two games and eighty minutes, they've ended up with what they deserved: nothing. Lippi got the old band back together, but it's never the same. It's like seeing the Four Tops. You know they were great, but there's not many of the original line-up left and even those aren't as good as they were four years ago. Fabio Cannavaro, so imperious in Germany, looked two years too old throughout. Gianluigi Buffon only lasted 45 minutes and Andrea Pirlo only came in as a last throw of the dice by Lippi. There was no spark, no pace and no ideas. As a result, they finish bottom, below New Zealand who bow out despite remaining unbeaten. On the flip side, Vladimir Weiss was brave. Having seen his side disappoint in the opening two games, he dropped his own son, also Vladimir, and went more attacking with Miroslav Stoch getting his first World Cup start. It paid off in an inversely proportional way to Italy's steadfast refusal to change.

It's often been said that Italian teams returning in disgrace can expect to be pelted with tomatoes. Let's hope for the players sake that the tifosi that greet them this time have taken them out of the tins.

France's next move

It could scarcely have gone worse for France at the World Cup. Internal disputes saw the side pulled apart as it has threatened to do since the extension to Raymond Domenech's contract was announced after the dismal European Championships of two years ago. Many commentators have compared this implosion to those of the Dutch sides of the 80s and 90s, but this is on a different scale. Star players verbally abusing and physically threatening the coach, a strike (how very Gallic), a horrible official statement relating to the strike, players sent home, the captain dropped for his part in the revolt and the old man of the side assuming control of team affairs for the last game - hey, you've read it all elsewhere. That makes the Dutch of twenty years ago look like mere amateurs. Spain and Belgium too - they were merely dipping their toes in the shallow end while this crop of Frenchmen took a running jump off the ten-metre board.

Needless to say, results on the pitch were about as predictably awful as can be expected in the circumstances and they are on their way home - flying economy - barely ten days after the tournament began. The names Evra, Anelka and Henry are all mud, but there are a few players whose reputations have been enhanced by the fiasco, namely Patrick Vieira, Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa and Samir Nasri. All four were omitted, surpringly so, by Domenech and while missing out on a World Cup wasn't in the script for any of them, they may be pleased they sat this one out.

Domenech is gone now and, oh boy, what a legacy the new guy has been left. Laurent Blanc takes over and European qualifiers are just around the corner. One thing Blanc has got in his favour is that he commands respect in a way Domenech never has done, but what personal rifts there are in the squad after all that's gone on in South Africa need identifying and resolving as a matter of urgency. There's a crop of young players who it would be easy to see as being resentful to the older group - the agitators - for ruining their World Cup. Before the French kick another ball in anger, Blanc could do a lot worse than get together with his squad - and players like Nasri et al who weren't there for this one - and bend them to his vision. Draw a line under this episode and regroup. Lingering resentment will hold back the nation for many years. This needs sorting and sorting now.

Last minute Americans send Slovenia packing

In truth, that headline should have been written last Friday night when only a bonkers refereeing decision helped Slovenia to a draw with the USA. Instead, the Americans got their revenge in the final group games and it's they that go through and Slovenia who are on their way home.

It wasn't like that throughout proceedings though. England took a lead midway through the first half, but with the USA being held 0-0 by Algeria, that was still enough for Slovenia to join England in the second phase. England had chances, but couldn't kill the game off. The best chance for an equaliser ended with Valter Birsa shooting wide with the fourth effort of a barrage of shots blocked by England defenders. At the final whistle, it still remained goalless in the other game. Happy days. Well it might have been had there not been a couple more minutes of stoppage time left when Landon Donovan broke, Jozy Altidore's shot wasn't held and Donovan followed in to snatch a dramatic late winner for the States which saw them top the group ahead of England.

Heartbreak, then, for Matjaz Kek and his team, but let's be realistic. Slovenia is tiny - a nation of two million with only around 450 registered professional footballers to call their own. Man City have about that many. This has forced Kek into forging the side into a fairly rigid starting XI with minimal changes which produces it's own pluses and minuses. On the plus side comes a team harmony many others envy (we mean you, France) with more of a feel of a club side about it. Players know instinctively how their colleagues play and that allows them to play in a way that gets the best out of each other. On the flip side, when it comes to chasing a game like they had to against England, it becomes very difficult to change personnel, let alone the system. The lack of a plan B really counted against them. While the nation has such meagre playing resources, that's unlikely to change and while the disappointment is tangible, it has to be remembered that getting to this point is a major victory. It may take a couple of days and a couple of beers to realise this, but that's the reality of the situation and it's a big feather in Kek's cap.

Blundering ref keeps Slovenia alive

After a less-than-convincing win over Algeria, could Slovenia carry it on against the USA? On paper, it looked like a far tougher assignment, but a stunning strike from Valter Birsa and a tidy finish from Zlatan Ljubilankic saw them into a comfortable 2-0 half-time lead. USA coach Bob Bradley made a couple of changes during the break and they worked. Landon Donovan scored from a stupidly tight angle - the otherwise exemplary Samir Handanovic at fault on his near post - a couple of minutes after the restart and then it was backs to the wall for Slovenia, hoping to hold off the resurgent Americans.

They couldn't hold out, the boss's son Michael lashed home from the edge of the box to square it up with five minutes to go, but that was just the start of it. Enter Koman Coulibaly. Donovan curled a free-kick into the box which one of those half-time subs, Maurice Edu, stuck past Handanovic for the apparent winner, but Coulibaly had blown for a foul. Repeated viewings showed none. If anything, it was the Slovenians guilty of pushing, grabbing and wrestling. The irate Americans pressed the ref for a reason why, but they got little change from the Malian who we saw referee in the Africa Cup of Nations earlier in the year where he showed little sign of the erratic display he gave here. It wasn't just that game-turning decision as he'd been - to put it kindly - idiosyncratic throughout.

Had he called it right, the group would be wide open. Instead, Slovenia lead the way with a game against England remaining. They need to get something out of it to progress and keep the Euroballs pound alive.

Elsewhere, we had a real collectors item with Germany's first penalty miss in a World Cup finals since 1982. Lukas Podolski had the chance to level from the spot after Miroslav Klose had been sent off and Milan Jovanovic had put Serbia ahead, but a weak effort was relatively simple for Vladimir Stojkovic to push away. The Dutch are two-for-two without impressing in either game. Received wisdom says they're poor at the back, but two clean sheets puts that in question although tougher tests will follow. France are in utter disaaray after losing to Mexico in a display that does the good name of insipid a disservice. Nicolas Anelka is the latest to face being dropped after a fall-out with coach Raymond Domenech. Anelka screamed at him during half-time in that game "screw you, dirty son of a whore" after being berated for drifting out of position. There's only Patrice Evra who looks like he cares.

No accident

Everyone has played once each in the World Cup now and there are just two results that really stand out. First, there was Germany's demolition job on Australia then Switzerland beating pre-tournament favourites Spain. These results have one thing in common.

The one constant throughout the tournament is the ball. This happens every time, but excuses of this nature are the last resting place of the scoundrel. Goalkeepers can't hold it or read it, outfield players can't control it. Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil and company seemed to have little problem. Euroballs favourite Diego Benaglio seemed to have little trouble plucking it out of the air in an inspired display against the Spaniards. All the German side play in the Bundesliga, as do the majority of the Swiss side and the Bundesliga have been using the much-maligned Jabulani ball since January. Fail to prepare and prepare to fail. That's the mantra and it's only used so often because it's true.

Oh, but the Bundesliga is sponsored by adidas so they've an advantage is the traditional retort. FIFA unveiled the ball back in January. Teams at club and national level have had it available and if they've not used it, that's their issue. If they have exclusive contracts with other ball manufacturers, tough. Why weren't those manufacturers instructed to deliver something similar? Excuses, excuses, excuses. Germany and Switzerland did their homework better than anyone else, hence they've stood out in the first round of fixtures.