i World Cup

Switzerland’s 1-0 victory on Wednesday means the European champions cannot lose Monday’s Group H match at Ellis Park if they want to advance to the second round.

Xabi Alonso reiterated that Spain will stick to its possession-based game, but that coach Vicente del Bosque was considering making player changes.

“Nothing’s decided yet. Logically, the coach is analysing (the game),” Alonso said Friday from the team’s base in Potchefstroom. “It’s hard to evaluate, especially since the system worked well in the warm-up games coming in. The coach makes the decisions and whatever he decides, the players back him 100 per cent.” @Telegraph

The captain Patrice Evra admits it feels like France are a “small football nation – and it hurts” after they lurched towards the verge of early World Cup elimination with a 2-0 defeat to Mexico in Polokwane.

Second-half goals from Evra’s soon-to-be Manchester United team-mate Javier Hernández and veteran striker Cuauhtémoc Blanco, from the penalty spot, put their side level on four points with Uruguay at the top of Group A, three ahead of France and South Africa. A draw between Mexico and Uruguay in their final match would put the 1998 champions and 2006 runners-up out.

“It’s a catastrophe, that’s all we can say. We are not a great team,” said Evra, who was part of the side which suffered an early exit at Euro 2008. “When you are knocked out of the European Championship in the first round and you are also capable of being knocked out in the first round of the World Cup, you just don’t want to think about football after that. @Guardian

His suggestion that it was a shock, though, jarred. After all, theirs is no abrupt demise. The cockerel has barely crowed for a decade.

France’s surprise appearance in the 2006 World Cup final was a rare moment in the sun amid otherwise perpetual twilight. They were eliminated at the group stage of the World Cup in 2002, of the European Championship in 2008 and, to be confirmed, of this World Cup.

Evra, certainly, is not holding out hope. “We have to beat South Africa, of course, but I do not believe in miracles,” said the Manchester United player, the responsibility of captaincy weighing heavily on his shoulders as his team-mates trudged silently past. @Telegraph

Slovenia were denied a place in the last 16 of the World Cup by a fine USA comeback. Having slumped to a 2-0 deficit at the interval, Bob Bradley’s men responded superbly after the break to earn a 2-2 draw.

It was Slovenia who showed better in the first half, deservedly leading thanks to goals from Valter Birsa and Milivoje Novakovic, but Landon Donovan’s powerful shot from a tough angle pulled the Stars and Stripes back into the game just after the restart.

The expectation in the early stages of the game was that the Europeans would sit back and simply soak up pressure, but that wasn’t the case. Matjaz Kek’s outfit looked the livelier side are a stodgy, disjointed start to the match. @Goal

France, the 1998 world champions and 2006 runners-up, were left with just a point from their first two Group A matches in South Africa and are three behind Uruguay and Mexico who meet next Tuesday.

France need to beat South Africa in their final game on the same day, and hope the mathematics works in their favour.

But the controversial Domenech, who steps down and will be replaced by Laurent Blanc after the World Cup, is not holding out too much hope of his team making the second round. @Telegraph

Fabio Capello said last night that he has decided who his goalkeeper will be for tonight’s match with Algeria in the spectacular Green Point Stadium here and he has provided several hints that Robert Green will be retained for the job.

Green’s training session here was less than convincing, with the 30-year-old fumbling consecutive shots fired at him at pace, but Capello declared for the first time that he believes the Adidas Jabulani ball was to blame for Green’s costly fumble against the Americans and seemed to say that Green should therefore be exonerated for his error. “I saw some keepers make mistakes and it’s a problem with the ball,” Capello said. “One problem [for] the keepers is that sometimes the bounce is higher than normal. For this reason, I have to justify the keeper.” @Independent

The day after Spain’s shock 1-0 defeat by Switzerland the Spanish press contained a mixture of gloom about the team’s performance and wounded resentment at the perceived failings of the referee, Howard Webb.

Marca noted sombrely: “Spain can no longer indulge the fantasy of choosing their last-16 opponent. Now it is merely an exercise in survival.

“The sports daily’s main headline quoted Luis Aragonés: “Spain played without conviction”, and the former national manager’s criticisms were extensively detailed in all newspapers. @Guardian