Six Takeaways From Spain’s Deserved, History-Shaking World Cup Title Win

La Roja dethroned La Albiceleste to win its second-ever World Cup title.

Spain was by far the best team at the 2026 World Cup. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

In a match Spain dominated from the start, La Roja defeated Argentina 1–0 after extra time to dethrone the monarch and win their second-ever World Cup title on Sunday afternoon.

Luis de la Fuente’s side was the only team interested in attacking from the moment the game started. Spain outclassed Argentina in every aspect of the game, except where it matters most: the scoreline. La Roja looked on the verge of a breakthrough for much of the game, but it simply wouldn’t arrive. The final remained scoreless after 90 minutes.

Argentina’s mission of trying to win the match in a shootout looked almost complete, until Lamine Yamal floated a cross that Nico Williams headed back into the heart of the penalty area, where Ferran Torres arrived and didn’t squander his date with immortality, tucking Spain’s winner into the roof of the net in the 106th minute.

Don’t let the scoreline fool you, Spain categorically dominated Argentina and could’ve easily won by more. Staying true to its style, La Roja deservedly lifted its second World Cup title. It was the perfect ending to a sensational summer precisely because the best team in the tournament was the one celebrating with the trophy at MetLife Stadium.

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De la Fuente’s Messi Plan Worked

Spain completely shut Lionel Messi down. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

“We won’t man-mark [Messi], but we’ll be vigilant,” De la Fuente said in the lead-up to the final. The manager didn’t try to hide his game-plan. He told the entire world the truth, and it worked to perfection.

Álex Baena, Marc Cucurella, Aymeric Laporte, Fabián Ruiz and Rodri all contributed to not only mark Messi, but block passing lanes for it to be nearly impossible for the ball to even reach him. Frustrated Argentina players looked up only to see Messi constantly surrounded and behind a player in red.

Disconnected from the No. 10, Argentina settled for Emiliano Martínez or Lisandro Martínez long balls for Nicolás González as the only route to try to generate danger—Spain will take that all day. Whenever Messi did get involved, it was usually near the halfway line and far from dangerous areas, plus, he often drifted to the left, the area where he is least comfortable.

Spain’s press was equally key to nullify Messi’s impact. La Roja allowed Argentina’s center backs to have the ball, but the midfield outlets were marked perfectly—more on that later.

By the time the first half ended, Messi had just 15 touches and nine completed passes, none of which came in the final third, let alone inside Spain’s box.

The greatest player of all time only came alive during the final minutes of extra time when Argentina pushed forward with more heart than clear ideas. Still, it was too little, too late, even for Messi.

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Spain Dominated in Trademark Fashion

Spain executed its plan to perfection, playing according to the style it dominates. | Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Aided by Lionel Scaloni’s decision to introduce the speedy González, leaving Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister as Argentina’s only central midfielders, Spain had a field day in midfield.

Between Rodri, Ruiz, Dani Olmo, and Baena, La Roja crowded the middle of the park and suffocated La Albiceleste. Out of possession, they pressed tirelessly but well-organized, and Argentina could barely string together three passes. On the ball, Spain’s fluid midfield confused Argentine markers.

Rodri had the license to drop deep to build-up from the back. If Mac Allister went after him, there were gaping holes between the lines for Pau Cubarsí to find an unmarked Olmo. If Mac Allister didn’t follow Rodri, the Manchester City man had all the time in the world to turn around and quarterback Spain’s possessions. Between Olmo, Ruiz and Baena and Mikel Oyarzabal dropping deep, they dragged center backs with them, forcing them to run aimlessly behind them—it’s no surprise that both Lisandro Martínez and Cristian Roméro had to exit the pitch with apparent injuries, the physical toll was too much.

Argentina improved ever so slightly when Leandro Paredes was introduced at the break, but it didn‘t take long before La Roja started dominating again. Pedri hadn’t performed up to his characteristic level all World Cup, but from the moment he came on just past the hour-mark—along with match-winner Torres—he was excellent and helped Spain up the pressure until the end.

Only one team showed up and tried to play the final, and it was Spain. The reigning World Cup champion and back-to-back Copa América winner played the final trying to get to penalties from the moment the starting whistle sounded.

Staying true to its style, La Roja suffocated and erased Argentina from the pitch at MetLife Stadium.

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Déjà Vu for Spain

Torres screamed and ran to the same corner Andrés Iniesta did in 2010. | Tullio Puglia/FIFA/Getty Images

Spain’s second World Cup title came in eerily similar fashion to it’s first. Sixteen years ago, La Roja emphatically outplayed a Netherlands team that, despite boasting quality players, spent the entire 2010 final looking to destroy rather than create—often with unnecessarily rough fouls. Despite the superiority, it took an Andrés Iniesta goal deep into extra time for La Roja to win the final. Sound familiar?

Perhaps the most glaring difference is that this version of Spain was even more dominant. La Roja peppered Martínez’s goal with 20 total shots, Argentina only mustered two, neither on goal, and both of them came after the 117th minute.

Like the Netherlands in 2010, Argentina eventually suffered the consequences of an aggressive, rough game-plan. Sixteen years ago, Johnny Heitinga was sent off early into the second period of extra time. This time, it was Fernández who saw red in stoppage time, sentencing Argentina to play undermanned the entirety of extra time.

It was Iniesta in 2010 with the iconic strike in the 117th minute to win Spain’s first title. Now, it was Torres who struck just 11 minutes earlier to finally break the deadlock and guide La Roja to glory. The fact it was Torres who buried the winner, is a major feel-good story.

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Ferran Torres: A Deserved Hero

Ferran Torres played Spain’s hero. | Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Argentina could see the promise land in the form of a penalty shootout. With that threat getting larger and larger, Spain needed a hero. Who better than Ferran Torres, a player that after enduring plenty of often-deserved criticism but also undeserved insults and ridiculing, has carved his name in golden letters with the second-most important goal in Spain’s history.

Few players in Spain have been subjected to harsher criticism—bordering on ridiculing—in recent years than Torres. During the 2022 World Cup, the criticism got so loud that there was a campaign suggesting he was only part of the national team because he was in a relationship with the daughter of then-Spain manager Luis Enrique. Torres has since been open about his mental health struggles.

It‘s no secret that Torres is an imperfect player. He’s a streaky striker, a player that can score a screamer or miss an open goal from a yard out. During this World Cup, he resembled more of the latter version, and his confidence looked shot—even getting mocked earlier in the tournament when a replay caught him wording out “please, please, let it be a goal” during a VAR review that disallowed his goal.

Still, Torres’s undeniable quality when attacking space, his energy and his underrated vision often helped change games for Spain during his cameos off the bench. His stoppage time assist for Merino’s winner against Portugal in the round of 16 is the clearest example. Still, goals evaded Torres this summer, until the most important moment 106 minutes into the final.

Nico Williams headed a back-pass that feel invitingly for Torres to meet on the bounce. With his weaker left, "The Shark” beautifully used the inside of his foot to guide a powerful but mostly precise shot into the roof of the net to win the World Cup for Spain.

In an instant, Torres morphed from a meme into an everlasting national hero.

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Spain’s Top Two Players Recognized With Awards

Rodri comfortably sits on the table of the best midfielders of all time. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

What Rodri did across the 2026 World Cup simply confirmed his status as one of the greatest midfielders of all time. The champion team played at the rhythm Rodri dictated, and he’s a deserving 2026 World Cup Golden Ball award winner.

Since the start of the decade, Rodri has been the engine of Manchester City’s treble-conquering side, won the 2024 Euros with Spain and the Ballon d’Or later that year. Now, he’s a World Cup champion and recognized as the player of the tournament.

An argument could be made that no midfielder in the history of the sport—not even Spain’s legendary maestros—has a better individual résumé than Rodri.

Equally flawless all tournament was 19-year-old Pau Cubarsí. People thought a 2007 born talent was going to steal the show for Spain this summer, and they were right, only it was Cubarsí, not Yamal, who dominated.

The Barcelona defender didn’t put a foot wrong all summer, helping Spain keep a clean sheet in seven of eight World Cup games and conceding only once. On the ball, Cubarsí never got tired of threading incisive passes between the lines, or trying his luck from range whenever possible. Winning the Best Young Player award was the most obvious outcome possible.

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The Heir to Messi’s Throne Has Completed International Soccer at 19

Lamine Yamal was won it all with Spain three years into his career. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

It’s true that many might be underwhelmed with Yamal’s World Cup performance, but that’s because he entered the summer with already considered the best player in the world before he even turned 19.

The hamstring injury that ended his club season in April clearly affected him, making him look a step slower, lack explosiveness and be uncharacteristically erratic on the ball. He looked rusty and lacked confidence, clearly showing signs that the hamstring issue hasn’t fully disappeared.

Still, his tournament was far from poor, and his performance in the final also wasn’t. His presence alone forces teams to gravitate toward him, using multiple markers to diminish his threat, granting space elsewhere. Although he was mostly contained, no player completed more dribbles in the final than Yamal’s five.

But beyond his performance, the bigger picture is what’s most impressive. Yamal is now a World Cup winner and European champion with Spain. In other words, he has now completed international soccer before he even turns 20 and only three full seasons into his professional career. There’s a strong chance he now becomes the youngest-ever Ballon d’Or winner in history later this year as well.

In the first and probably only competitive game Yamal will share a pitch with Lionel Messi, it felt like a past vs. future match with the present on the line. Spain and Yamal defeating Messi’s Argentina means that the future has arrived, in a clear passing of the sport’s torch.

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