Argentina face Spain in the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, kick-off 3pm ET, and the trophy is only half of what is on the line. Whatever the scoreline in East Rutherford, this is a night heavy with history. Lionel Messi walks out for a third World Cup final. The holders walk out chasing something no country has managed in more than 60 years.
Start with the man everyone came to see.
Messi and a place even Cafu never reached
Messi has now reached the final in 2014, 2022 and 2026. That puts him alongside Cafu as one of only two men to feature in three World Cup finals. There is a twist. Cafu came off the bench in the 1994 final and started the two after it, so if Messi lines up from the first whistle at 39, as he surely will, he becomes the first player to start three World Cup finals. Cafu's three finals were a landmark. Messi is about to go one better.
The captaincy adds another layer. Lift the trophy in New Jersey and Messi becomes the driving force behind back-to-back World Cup winners for the first time since Pele's Brazil, per ESPN. It would be a fitting way to bow out of what is widely expected to be his last World Cup: defending the prize he spent a whole career chasing.
Argentina chasing 1962
For Argentina the record is collective, and it is a big one. No side has retained the World Cup since Brazil won in 1958 and 1962. Italy did it before that, back in 1934 and 1938. Sixty-four years on, Lionel Scaloni's champions are one win from joining that two-country club, an Argentina back-to-back champions bid that would sit among the game's rarest feats.
They have earned the shot. Argentina saw off England 2-1 in the semi-final, and Scaloni has nursed Messi's minutes carefully across a month in the United States. This is a side that has carried the weight of holders without buckling.
Spain's own slice of history
Spain are hardly short of motivation. Luis de la Fuente's team reached the final by beating France 2-0 and are hunting a first World Cup title since 2010, the summer of Andres Iniesta's winner in Johannesburg. Follow Euro 2024 with the world title and La Roja complete a continental and global double few nations have ever held at once.
There is a generational thread too. Lamine Yamal, 19, would be the youngest World Cup winner of the modern era should Spain prevail, with Rodri running the midfield and Mikel Oyarzabal arriving as top scorer on five.
The models lean their way. Any sober Spain vs Argentina prediction has to weigh the Opta supercomputer, which makes Spain around 59 per cent favourites to Argentina's 41. Numbers, of course, do not lift trophies.
What to expect on Sunday
Two ideas of football, two shots at history. Spain will want the ball and the rhythm. Argentina will trust the nerve of champions and a captain who keeps saving his best for the biggest nights.
One more record lurks. Messi sits second in the Golden Boot race on eight goals, two behind Kylian Mbappe's 10, and must score at least twice to overtake him, with the pair level on 10 breaking his way on assists under FIFA's criteria. He may not get there. He may not need to. By full time in East Rutherford, at least one of these records will carry a new name.
Sources
- ESPN
- BBC Sport
- Opta Analyst
- Cover photo: Bryan Berlin / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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