In Brief
- Spain are the World Cup champions for the second time in the team's history.
- Argentina have finished second after they were unable to put a score on the ledger.
Spain have seized the World Cup from the hands of defending champions Argentina after a late strike from Ferran Torres to seal a 1-0 victory in the New Jersey final.
Riding the momentum of their record-breaking fourth 2024 European Championship victory, Spain have etched their names into football history with a legacy win — taking home the trophy of all trophies for the second time, after their iconic 2010 World Cup triumph and making them the first nation in football history to hold the men's and women's World Cup titles at the same time.
The team remains the only nation ever to win the European Championship and World Cup in successive tournaments, having now done so a second time after their Euro 2024 title. They are also the first World Cup champion ever to concede only once across an entire tournament, and they are the first winner of the UEFA Nations League to capture a World title, having captured the eight-year-old competition in 2022-2023.
"We've won everything, everything," said Spain manager Luis de la Fuente through an interpreter. "And that's wonderful, with a generation of footballers, I'll say it again and again, who are an example for Spanish sport, for Spanish youth, for Spain. Together we are stronger, let there be no doubt about that."
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For Argentina and skipper Lionel Messi — despite showing pluck and courage until the whistle — it was a somewhat disappointing end to a World Cup campaign that until this match showed they were full of surprises.
The Argentines had been dreaming of a fourth World Cup and a back-to-back trophy after winning against France at Qatar in 2022— but it was not to be.
Spain appeared to dominate for much of the game with Argentina barely getting a look in, but it was only in extra time that one of Spain's dozens of shots broke through.
In the 106th minute, well into extra time, Ferran Torres managed to land a strike into the roof of the net, just as a penalty shootout felt all but assured.
Torres was a late-game sub, taking the pitch in the 62nd minute.
"It was a goal scored by 47 million people, it wasn’t even mine or from the 26 players. It was destined to happen; it was meant to be a winner," Torres said, speaking after the win.
It was 27C and sunny for the 80,000-strong crowd at New York New Jersey Stadium but it took close to full time for gameplay to heat up on the pitch.
After 49 minutes of bitsy, defensive play, the two sides were locked on 0-0 when they cleared the pitch for the half-time show. The score would not budge until well after the 90-minute mark.
As the clock wound down, chaos broke out around Spain's net — Messi taking back-to-back corners, Argentina making breathless attempt after attempt that they were unable to manoeuvre past Spain's formidable defensive line.
Spain dominated early, using their 67 per cent possession to show off their skills in the midfield and taunt Argentina, but the defending European champions only managed to convert three of those plays into attempts on goal going into the entertainment.
Around the five-minute mark, Lamine Yamal played a one-two in the box, collecting at the near post and getting a shot off that was saved by Emiliano Martinez.
Despite the early excitement, the first half wore on with few significant breaks. While Spain looked in control, neither side looked concerned.
After the first hydration break, Messi began dropping deeper and deeper into the midfield to pick up the play, only for Spain's defence to sweep him up every time.
The 39-year-old, eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi would have hoped for this final game to help him to at least nudge back into equal position with France's Kylian Mbappé as a top World Cup goal scorer.
Going into the match, the bowed-out Mbappé had 22 World Cup goals under his belt, compared to Messi's 21. But another wasn't to be, and with this largely rumoured to be his last time at the tournament, that is probably where his still mighty legacy will remain.
An apparent injury saw off Argentine centre-back Lisandro Martínez in the 43rd minute, to be replaced by Nicolás Otamendi.
The second half immediately marked a shift in play for both sides. When the teams returned from the not-quite-regulation 25-minute half-time break, they were both much livelier, but it wasn't enough to shift the game's play.
Some 43 seconds in, Spain's Alejandro Baena took an early chance on target — that was comfortably saved — before Argentina decided they had had enough of that and started taking more possession.
Despite more zest, the start-stop play that dominated the first half returned and Argentina remained defensive— the attacking side that came out of the gates swinging in the second half against England in the semi-final nowhere to be seen.
Spain continued to notch up attempts on goal, getting increasingly dangerous — but not dangerous enough — by attempt eight: A cross from Yamal offered Torres the chance to fling a header at speed into Martinez's waiting hands.
It offered a rare glimmer of excitement but it was not enough to change the pace as both teams headed into the tournament's last hydration break, increasingly tense and locked at nil-nil.
Off the back of the hydration break a frenzied feeling settled into play but not enough to change the score. Spain continued to make attempts on goal, but each one on target is saved without hesitation or fumble by Martínez.
Messi’s influence was almost completely negated time and time again by the well-organised and controlling Spanish midfield. Spain's midfield acted like a curtain until, in the 92nd minute — halfway through stoppage time— when Argentina made its first serious attack, only one of two it would make across the entire match.
As the game moved into extra time Argentina's side looked threadbare — down to just 10 men after Enzo Fernandez was sent off on a second yellow card; Messi the only attacker after Fernandez was sent off for an out-of-control tackle and Julian Alvarez came off in extra time.
The first goal of the game came well past the 90-minute mark, when Williams punted a defended ball into the net, only for it to be ruled out off the back of a penalty Mikel Merino incurred by standing on Nicolás Otamendi’s foot.
Nine minutes later, they nearly doubled their lead after Torres got a one-on-one with Martinez, but the offside flag was up, and it was thrown out.
Spain finished with 20 attempts, 12 on target, compared to Argentina's two off-target attempts.
Speaking after the game, Torres and his manager were candid about the game's slow evolution.
"Well, in the end, all finals are difficult, and when you have Messi on the opposing team, you always get nervous," Torres said.
"But ultimately, we've always depended on ourselves, on playing our style of football, and I think we demonstrated that once again today."
"Yes, I think the game should have been decided much earlier," de la Fuente added.
"Dibu's great saves prevented us from winning the game sooner. We could have taken a more comfortable lead. But this is a world championship final, and even with 10 men, you have to suffer at the end. But since we like to suffer, we've shown once again that we're ready for anything."
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni admitted Spain were the better side but said he was proud of his side.
"They were better, that’s the truth. But I’ll hold on to an enormous memory of what they’ve done, of what it’s worth to get this far," he said.
"We're great in victory, and we have to be great in defeat.
"Today we're showing that we know how to lose. We lost the match, and we're owning it.
"But that doesn’t mean we’ll stop remembering everything we did to get here.
Scaloni said he hadn't spoken with Messi about his future, but his tournament had been "unbelievable".
"He's 39 years old now," Scaloni said.
"I hope that everyone feels proud of him, of what he's achieved, because he's the best football player ever to set foot on a pitch. I have no doubt about this, and what he did during this World Cup was incredible. But also what he did before this."
— With additional reporting by Reuters news agency.
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