How best to describe the defense from the Spanish National Team at the World Cup final? How about “suffocating”, “stiffening”, “smothering”, or any other word you can pull from a thesaurus. But, in layman’s terms, Spain absolutely shut down Argentina, allowing next to no chances for Argentina to attack. Spain had to win in extra time by a score of 1-0 to dethrone Argentina.
Ferran Torres scored in extra time to give Spain a 1-0 win over defending champion Argentina in the World Cup final. The 2026 World Cup, the first to be held in three countries, ended Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey with a tense final in front of a crowd of 80,663. Spain secured its second World Cup title, while Argentina had been playing for a fourth. It was the 104th and last match of the biggest World Cup ever, a 48-team event that played out in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
It was a perfect strategy deployed by Spain to overcome an offense led by Argentine star Lionel Messi. Going into this final match, it was shaping up to be the classic conundrum: what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. In this case, the immovable object won. Argentina barely had any opportunities on offense the whole game. It then got extraordinarily worse when Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez got sent off with a red card. This automatic disqualification forced Argentina to play with only ten men for the rest of the match.
At the same time Spain was shutting down the Argentina attack, the Spanish team nicknamed “La Roja” was able mustard enough on offense to finish with 12 shots on goal. However, Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez turned away 11 of those shots, setting a record for saves in a World Cup final. Martinez only error came at the start of the second 15-minute extra time. Torres kicked in the lone goal off a head pass from teammate Nico Williams.
It wasn’t all good at the end, however. FIFA opened an investigation Monday after Spain’s celebrations on beating Argentina in the World Cup final took an ugly turn when players briefly clashed on the field. Video replays showed several players involved in a scuffle, including Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes. He appeared to shove Spain’s Eric Garcia by the throat. When Spain substitute Gavi jumped in to intervene, Paredes pushed him to the ground.
A FIFA statement said, “Following an assessment of the relevant match reports for the FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, and in line with article 36 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC), the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has appointed a Disciplinary and Ethics Prosecutor to investigate potential breaches of the FDC with regard to the post-match incidents.
“Further details will be communicated by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee once the prosecutor’s report has been completed.”
Here is a list of the turning points of the game:
62nd minute: Spain sub Ferran Torres enters game.
90th minute: Argentina forward Enzo Fernandez received his second yellow card, thus getting an automatic red card, forcing his team to play the rest of the match one player short.
106th minute: start of second 15-minute extra-time period, Torres scores off a head pass from teammate Nico Williams.
117th minute: Lionel Messi records the first shot on goal by Argentina.
120th minute plus 3 minutes of stoppage time: referee whistles the match over.
With no goals scored in this match, Messi finished with eight goals in the tournament, which means the winner of the Golden Boot, the award for the top goal scorer in the World Cup, is France’s Kylian Mbappé with ten goals. Argentina’s keeper Emiliano Martinez got a record 11 saves in this game, the most in a World Cup final. However, he didn’t have as good a tournament as Spain. Argentina allowed eight goals in this tournament…Spain allowed only one goal. Also, with the win, Spain’s manager, Luis de la Fuente, becomes the oldest coach to win a World Cup at the age of 65.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Clearly for many of you, this is a letdown, sports-wise. Now you might be thinking…what do we watch now? Well, there isn’t much in terms of sports. Major league baseball is barely more than halfway through the season, which means plenty of time until the World Series. As I mentioned in a previous article, the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers are rolling with no one really mounting a challenge within their division.
As for all you disappointed American soccer fans, fear not. The women’s World Cup is just next year. Beginning June 24, the United States will have a REAL soccer team to actually root for that actually HAS a chance to win: the women’s national team. The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) is the gold standard of women’s soccer around the world. They’ll be looking to secure their spot in the Women’s World Cup in 2027 later this year.
