Three Key Factors That Make Spain the World’s Best Team

La Roja is a game away from its second-ever World Cup triumph.

Spain has hardly put a foot wrong on the road to the final. | David Ramos/Getty Images

Going into Sunday’s 2026 World Cup final, Spain is the strong favorite to lift international soccer’s biggest prize.

Opta’s supercomputer gives La Roja a healthy 59% chance of victory over defending champion Argentina, while most betting markets solidly lean towards Luis de la Fuente’s side.

While other teams have shone brighter in moments, Spain has kept it consistent but somewhat out of the spotlight for much of this summer. That was, at least until the semifinal, when a dominant dismantling of a Kylian Mbappé-led France alerted the world to something truly special.

This is a very different Spain team to the one that lifted the trophy 16 years ago in South Africa, but there are parallels to be drawn between that great side and this one.

One more match stands between De la Fuente’s men and sporting immortality, but how have they done it? And what makes them so hard to stop?

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System Over Stars

Players seem to raise their game for Spain. | Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images

How many of Spain’s starting lineup from the France game would you name in a hypothetical ‘World XI’? For that matter, how many would you have named in Spain’s best XI pre-tournament?

One of the key strengths of De la Fuente’s team is how it is not tied to any particular player.

Pedri not at his best today? In comes Fabián Ruiz, or Dani Olmo. Or both.

Álex Baena, Pedro Porro and Mikel Merino are three more who have played major roles despite not usually being considered automatic starters.

Even the ongoing fitness problems of wingers Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, seen as a major issue early on, has scarcely been noticed—with width and pace fears almost totally negated by a watertight system that seems to help players raise their game when on international duty.

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Pass Masters

Rodri has been imperious in the center of the park. | Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

A defining principle of Spain’s first World Cup success in 2010 was that if the opposition doesn’t have the ball, it can’t score. It has become a tenet of the class of 2026, too.

No team that made it beyond the round of 32 has averaged a higher share of possession than Spain (63.8%), while the top three passers at the tournament all are Spanish—Rodri, Aymeric Laporte and Pau Cubarsí. 2024 Ballon d’Or winner Rodri’s 694 passes is a tournament high since records began in 1966.

In the semifinal, faced with the tournament’s best attack, Spain simply put France on a carousel it couldn’t get off, dizzying Mbappé, Michael Olise and more into submission.

Across seven games played, Spain has conceded a single goal and faced an astoundingly small xG of 2.1. Of the other semifinalists, Argentina faced an xG of 4, France 5.5 and England 6.5 (via FotMob).

A regular complaint of Spain is that the passing can be overcooked, with the attack becoming a horizontal bore-fest, unable to penetrate a low block. However, that has rarely been the case this summer—with the exceptional result against Cabo Verde in the group stage opener looking less embarrassing in hindsight given the African nation’s subsequent displays.

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Consistent Approach

Luis de la Fuente just keeps winning at all levels. | Jose Miguel Fernandez/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The other major factor in Spain’s ascension has been De la Fuente himself.

The 65-year-old has almost no experience as a club-level manager but is a true international specialist who worked his way up through the age groups before taking the top job.

As a result, he has been able to instill his philosophy and build a winning mentality from the Under-19s to the senior team, having worked with many of the same players on his journey through the ranks over the last decade.

De la Fuente’s record of success is near-unmatched, having lifted the European Under-19 Championship in 2015, European Under-21 Championship in 2019, a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the Nations League in 2022–23 and the 2024 Euros.

Five of the Under-21 Euro-winning roster and eight of the Olympic team are part of this summer’s squad.

With limited time constraints during international camps restricting how much a coach can typically impress on a side, Spain’s approach has yielded a consistency, familiarity and understanding that few nations can ever hope for.

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