The World Cup 2010 website is a significant step change in the way that content is published. From first using the site, the most striking changes are the horizontal navigation and the larger, format high-quality video. As you navigate through the site it becomes apparent that this is a far deeper and richer use of content than can be achieved through traditional CMS-driven publishing solutions.

At the World Cup, only Spain – who have had a stable side for three years and whose players are drawn largely from two clubs and so have an understanding – and Chile – who were coached by the idiosyncratic and brilliant Marcelo Bielsa – were genuinely proactive and, as Arrigo Sacchi said, it is proactivity that makes for true greatness. Even Germany, for all the goals they scored, were essentially reactive, a very good counterattacking team. Most disappointing were the sides with a great tradition of proactive football, such as Brazil and the Netherlands, who relied on a solid base and hoped individuals could turn the game their way.

Amid all the hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth that followed England's failure to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup, the detail of Russia's bid has been rather overlooked. Like South Africa, for Russia the World Cup represents both a great opportunity, but also major challenges ...

So where does this World Cup rank in the pantheon? It's probably a question best asked in a few months' time, when the tournament – like a Christmas Day Shiraz – has had time to breathe, and the essential accomplices, such as Cris Freddi's Complete Book of the World Cup and Fifa's official tournament DVDs, have been called to duty again. My instinct, however, is that this has been a middling-to-decent World Cup, but no more.

There is a way to go back to a more manageable 16-team tournament, and a way of doing it that would get 16 competitive teams that would be still fair to all regions and still stimulate growth in the less traditional football strongholds. I'm not naive enough to believe it could ever happen, but imagine this ...

"At the dawn of the tournament Football Further posed ten tactical questions that the World Cup would answer. Three days after Spain’s tense extra-time victory over the Netherlands in the final, the answers to those questions reflect a tournament in which defensive rigour was overwhelmingly de riguer and tactical innovation conspicious by its rarity."

RT @pitchinvasion: The terrible state of British World Cup punditry, by @twoht http://bit.ly/9bpgcB

My recent #worldcup posts, incl. South American technique (http://bit.ly/9jxNyi) & how England might line up in 2014 (http://bit.ly/a6zSAR)

My recent #worldcup posts, incl. South American technique (http://bit.ly/9jxNyi) & how England might line up in 2014 (http://bit.ly/a6zSAR)

RT @Zonal_Marking: Great stat from @totalFootball10 app about Juan Veron last night - http://bit.ly/9LK1kX

Two issues, however, do seem to have struck a common denominator with those critics of Del Bosque's tactical plan for the opening group game in Durban.

The first points to the redundancy of Spain's doble pivote of Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets when facing against sides such as Switzerland and Honduras who will display a reserved game plan.

The second gripe concerns the presence of llegada, or breaking into the box, arriving as a surprise element for second balls and generally just shooting! Xabi Alonso can launch thunderbolts from distance but he tends to do so only when the play has stalled to a static stage with the opposition defence already amassed on the edge of its 18-yard box. What is needed to punctuate Spain's neat mastication of passes when approaching the final third is a dynamic presence, the arrival of a midfielder who will break the lines and carry the ball beyond the defensive barriers before either culminating or else setting up another attacker.

Jonathan Wilson: Will attacking full-backs win the competition? http://bit.ly/cJmkTB #WorldCup
– Guardian sport (guardian_sport) http://twitter.com/guardian_sport/statuses/16375346348

"True, this doesn't look a vintage Italian side. But how many do? 2006 wasn't. Nor was 1990 (which needed Schillaci's surprise emergence) and even 1982 doesn't always get the respect due a side that defeated Argentina, Brazil and West Germany in a single tournament."

NEW ON ZM: Two friendlies lead Capello back to square one http://bit.ly/d8nXyM
– Zonal Marking (Zonal_Marking) http://twitter.com/Zonal_Marking/statuses/15051243296

Paul Wilson on the England players unlikely to survive Fabio Capello's seven-man cull: http://bit.ly/aOAgql
– Guardian sport (guardian_sport) http://twitter.com/guardian_sport/statuses/15032253595

ITV's coverage for the World Cup sounds like it will be absolutely awful http://bit.ly/bRALec
– Zonal Marking (Zonal_Marking) http://twitter.com/Zonal_Marking/statuses/14836332612

NEW ON ZM: Mexico's fluid shape makes them dark horses http://bit.ly/dmClM6
– Zonal Marking (Zonal_Marking) http://twitter.com/Zonal_Marking/statuses/14825290012

After 30 years, the truth behind Johann Cruyff's World Cup absence: http://j.mp/cxszWD