Spain are champions of the world. For the second time, and the first since 2010, and this time with a European title already in the bag, Luis de la Fuente's side saw off Argentina 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium to complete a Euro and World Cup double.
The final was goalless after 90 minutes. It did not stay that way for long. In the 106th minute Nico Williams rose to head the ball across the six-yard box, and Ferran Torres was waiting at the near post to steer it past Emiliano Martinez. One touch, and a tournament was decided.
A final Spain controlled from the first whistle
For all the tension of a scoreless first 90, this was one of the more one-sided finals in memory. Spain had 65% of the ball and used it: 762 passes at 89% accuracy against Argentina's 358. They had 19 shots to two, and 12 of theirs found the target. Argentina did not muster a single attempt in the 90 minutes of normal time, and just two across the full 120, neither on target. The big chances read four to nil. Across the whole game the defending champions failed to register one shot the keeper had to save. Not one.
The expected goals told the same story, 1.94 to 0.20 in Spain's favour, per the match data. Emi Martinez kept Argentina in it almost single-handed, making 11 saves. At the other end Spain's goalkeeper was a spectator, untroubled and unused, with nothing to save.
Rodri anchored everything from midfield, the metronome Spain built around all tournament. Williams and Lamine Yamal stretched Argentina wide and ragged. Messi, 39 and playing what is widely expected to be his last World Cup, saw precious little of the ball in the areas that hurt.
Torres the unlikely hero, Yamal a champion at 19
Ferran Torres will not have been the name most would have pencilled in as the man to settle a World Cup final, but his run and his finish were those of a striker who had been there before. Williams supplied it, Torres took it, and Spain had the goal their control deserved.
Argentina's night grew worse deep in extra time when they were reduced to ten men by a late red card, though by then the final was long gone. The defending champions, who had come through against England in the semi-final, never found a way past a Spain side that had earlier accounted for France.
For Yamal, still only 19, it makes him one of the youngest World Cup winners of the modern era, a European and world champion before his twenties are out. The Golden Ball, the award for the tournament's best player, had yet to be announced as the confetti came down.
What it means
The Golden Boot, at least, was decided. Kylian Mbappe took it with 10 goals; Messi finished on eight and, without a goal in the final, missed out. France's forward had the individual prize, Spain the one that matters most.
For de la Fuente, a coach once questioned at home, it is vindication of the grandest kind: back-to-back major titles and a team that looks built to stay. For Argentina and for Messi, the defence of the crown ends in New Jersey, quietly, against a better side on the night.
Spain leave as champions of Europe and the world. The next question is a simple one: who stops them now?
Sources
- ESPN
- FIFA
- Yahoo Sports
- Al Jazeera
- Cover photo: CARLOS TEIXIDOR CADENAS / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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