5 Things we learned from Spain’s World Cup final win over Argentina
Spain win their second ever World Cup. I said that yesterday felt like Christmas Eve in the 3rd place match but Christmas Day did not live up to the expectations I was hoping for anyway, the first half was one of very few chances with Spain dominating the ball but Yamal probably had the best chance in the first couple of minutes with his shot from close-range getting deflected into the path of a grateful Emi Martinez. Argentina couldn’t get out of their half in the opening 45 that ended with Lisandro Martinez going off injured for Nicolas Otamendi, we finally got some entertainment at half-time with Justin Bieber and Madonna performing for far too long in a Super Bowel-esque half-time show before we got back underway for the second half. The second half continued in the same vein as the first with Spain continuing to dominate the game and looking more and more likely to score the first goal, Argentina were clearly getting frustrated with having to defend so much with Paredes, and Enzo Fernandez picking up unnecessary bookings late on. As we headed towards extra-time the game finally had a huge moment as Enzo Fernandez went flying into a challenge with Pau Cubarsi giving the referee the easiest decision he made all game giving the Chelsea man a second yellow card three minutes into injury time, Argentina were all hands on deck in extra-time and saw out the first half only giving away one real chance as Merino’s header went just wide from Nico William’s cross. Then not even a minute into the second half of extra-time Spain did finally get their goal as Porro’s cross to the back-post was headed back by Nico Williams to Ferran Torres who rocketed the ball high past Emi Martinez to give Spain a well deserved lead in extra-time, Argentina did have chances after though even with 10-men with the best of the lot falling to Giuliano Simeone who’s volley from inside the box went miles over the bar. Spain saw the rest of the time out and won the World Cup after a hard fought game in New York.
A well deserved second World Cup for Spain. They started off the competition relatively slow but I think a switch was flicked in the Round of 32 against Austria and Spain haven’t looked back since, they were the far better team for basically the entire 120 minutes but just couldn’t find that clear-cut chance they needed to open the scoring. Similar to the semi-final it was Rodri who was dominant in the midfield that allowed Spain to control the game but it was the subs who injected some much needed life into the Spanish attack, Nico Williams was brilliant off the bench and was unlucky not to score himself after his goal was disallowed when Otamendi was ‘fouled’ by Merino in the box. Despite that Williams comes away an assist in a World Cup final so he’s not doing too bad, Ferran Torres scores the winner from the bench and was unlucky not to have another with his second getting ruled out for a tight offside. He’s quite a devise player among Barcelona fans but he’ll go down in history for Spanish football and you can’t take that away from him, Rodri comes away with the Golden Ball which I think is a tiny bit undeserved after Messi dragged this Argentina team to the final but he was Spain’s best player so I guess he can have it. Pau Cubarsi won the young player of the tournament which is well deserved after a fabulous tournament that saw the Spanish defence only concede 1 goal all tournament, a ridiculous achievement. The same goes for Unai Simon who won the best goalkeeper and didn’t even have to make a save today, he did a great job sweeping the entire tournament which I do think gets overlooked. Overall Spain were the deserved champions for the 2026 World Cup and it’s scary to think that their best players weren’t even at their peak, this Spain teams only going to get better. Who’s going to compete with them in the next few tournaments? I’m not too sure.
Such a disappointing performance from Argentina. It was never going to be an end-to-end classic today but for Argentina to not even have a shot until the 117th minute is a disgrace and showed just how far off they were from Spain today, even before the Enzo Fernandez red card they were miles off competing with Spain and resorted to kicking lumps out of the Spanish that could have seen the likes of Paredes and Tagliafico sent off before Fernandez comes flying in with a ridiculous challenge on Cubarsi. The funny thing is that the goal was completely avoidable with Simeone switching off on the edge of his own box and letting Ferran waltz into the box unmarked to score the winner, a mistake that cost his country the World Cup. It’s been a disappointing tournament for Julian Alvarez only scoring one goal which to be fair was crucial against Switzerland but I’m surprised Scaloni didn’t bring Lautaro Martinez on who was the reason they are in the final in the first place, I understand he was trying to get to penalties but they really could have done with Lautaro’s energy in the attack. It was also a disappointing game from Messi but I think it’s getting a bit overblown to be honest as the man’s 39 years old, he’s dragged this team single-handedly to the final where no one stepped up for their country. Argentina missed the likes of Di Maria badly in this tournament and I struggle to see this team competing at the highest level when Messi retires which might just be after this tournament, overall I’m so disappointed with the way Argentina handled themselves today even after the final whistle when Paredes and others are attacking the Spanish players. That’s not the way to behave as the holders of the World Cup and I expect better from them, I wonder where Argentina go from here?
The Ballon d’Or race just got even more confusing. Going into this game it was pretty clear that if Argentina had won then the Ballon d’Or would have gone to Messi but with Spain winning and Yamal not having a standout performance I don’t really know who the favourite is now, Harry Kane had the best club season for me last season but I struggle to make him favourite after a World Cup where he wasn’t even England’s best player. Obviously Yamal’s odds will surge up but I don’t think I would put him in Spain’s top 3 players this tournament so how can you give him the Ballon d’Or even after he had a sensational season for Barcelona, Mbappe had a brilliant World Cup but went trophy less last season for Real Madrid so they’ll definitely not give it to him. Ousmane Dembele won the Champions League but he wasn’t PSG’s best player in that campaign and was France’s third best attacker at this World Cup, he can’t win it either, so where does that leave us? I think the two current favourites for me are probably Yamal and Kane, with Yamal now winning the World Cup I think the journalists will probably side with him even though he wasn’t a standout at the tournament. It’s definitely not cut and dry though so it’ll be interesting to see who gets the award in a few months, who is your current Ballon d’Or favourite?
The World Cup has come to an end. I said a few weeks ago that this was shaping up to be the best World Cup I’ve ever watched but I think it just falls short of Qatar in 2022 for me anyway, I think since the quarter-finals the games have become less entertaining and now with a disappointing final I just can’t compare it to 2022 when we saw games like France v Argentina, Netherlands v Argentina, Morocco making the semi-finals etc. That’s not to say that it still hasn’t been a brilliant World Cup with the best players in the world performing at their best level along with smaller countries like Cape Verde, Paraguay and Norway defying expectations. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself now that it’s over but the full focus now turns to club football which returns in a month or so, I’ll have previews for the leagues and clubs coming up closer to the time but until then I’ll be keeping a close eye on the transfer market. Stay tuned for previews over the next month or so when the picture becomes clearer for a lot of teams, lets hope for a cracker season coming up.