Why Spain’s Refusal to Follow 2026 World Cup Script Is Its Best Shot at Glory

While Spain waits for Lamine Yamal to kick into high gear, Luis de la Fuente has been forced to rely on areas of the team without the same fizz and flash.

Mikel Merino scored the decisive goal. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Even Javier Bardem couldn’t get the crowd going.

There was an understated air to the build-up for Spain’s World Cup quarterfinal with Belgium on Friday. Under an oppressive morning sun, a soporific feel pervaded through the midday kickoff.

While both European nations were well represented at SoFi Stadium, the swarm of red was diluted by a kaleidoscope of nylon fabric. Anyone to have caught the World Cup bug this summer appeared to have filtered into the ground to see the last game in Los Angeles, whether they were wearing Dutch orange, Colombian yellow or even a few sheepish red and white stripes.

Try as he might, Bardem couldn’t harness his celebrity into much of a roar from the multinational crowd. It was a fitting response. Spain’s progress through the tournament has been deceptively quiet. While everyone fawns over France, marvels at the madness of Argentina or gawks at the firepower boasted by England and Norway, the defending European champion has been patiently building to the tournament’s crescendo.

They wouldn't have it any other way.

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Spain Stands Alone

It's becoming routine. pic.twitter.com/k20sfEP81g

— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) July 10, 2026

So much of this World Cup has been played out in a haze of magical realism. This has been a tournament where Kings and Queens have danced with goalkeepers from the Portuguese second tier, where countries with the population of minor U.S. towns have pushed Lionel Messi to the brink, where whatever madness you’d call England’s escape from the Estadio Azteca can get lost in the shuffle of a dizzying news cycle.

Spain has had no interest in any of that.

Try to pick one memorable moment from the team’s matches. It’s tough. Aside from Spain’s two goals, both of which came from cheap spills by a pair of goalkeepers, what even stood out against Belgium? Lamine Yamal hasn’t caught alight like so many other stars this summer, and Nico Williams has barely been fit enough to get onto the pitch. The team’s top scorer is far less famous than Yamal’s little brother.

Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph was a revolution; the possession game of the nation’s golden years from 2008–12 injected with two of the most exciting and direct wingers on the planet. Thanks largely to circumstances out of Luis de la Fuente’s control, Spain has reverted towards the more restrained approach of 2010.

Plenty weren’t thrilled by it then. “Spain’s football is like love without the sex,” France’s 1998 World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu famously quipped at the time, “It lacks a bit of spice.” But it made sense, as it does now.

A team with the spine of Mikel Oyarzabal, Rodri and Aymeric Laporte, three players with quicker minds than feet, is never going to be suited to a match of concussive transitions. Argentina has shown how destructive fast breaks can be for a side with a naturally slow tempo. Unlike the defending champion, Spain’s defensive structure hasn’t crumbled yet.

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Imperious Parsimony

Aymeric Laporte has only been on the pitch to concede one goal. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

Nothing is less sexy than a stout defense. “We’re the villains, there to stop the goals that football lives off,” Unai Simón has said. Spain’s goalkeeper couldn’t stop Charles De Ketelaere on Friday, but it was another parsimonious showing from the block of scurrying red shirts in front of him.

“We needed Lady Luck to be on our side,” Red Devils boss Rudi Garcia fretted, “but she wasn’t smiling at Belgium.” Fortune had little to do with Friday’s outcome.

Belgium mustered just two shots on target, which doesn’t sound like a lot (because it’s not) but represents the joint-most any nation has managed against Spain this summer.

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Spain’s Ridiculous Rearguard

Opponent	Shots Conceded (on Target)	xG Conceded
Cabo Verde	6 (1)	0.20
Saudi Arabia	3 (1)	0.14
Uruguay	5 (1)	0.20
Austria	5 (0)	0.32
Portugal	10 (2)	0.63
Belgium	5 (2)	0.38

Stats via FBref.

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Spain has turned this most emotional of sports into a question of cold mathematics. Reduce the opposition’s share of possession, and they have fewer chances to shoot which in turn leads to fewer goals. It’s simple, effective but not always entirely exciting.

“It might not look like we’re playing beautiful soccer,” Yamal conceded on Friday, “but the reality is that no team has really gone toe-to-toe with us.”

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Remarkable Depth

Fabián Ruiz (left) enjoyed his opening goal. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

Most sides would never consider dropping arguably the best central midfielder in the world. Yet, De la Fuente had no hesitation sending Pedri to the bench. When the player who can replace him starts for the back-to-back Champions League winners, that sort of decision is easier to make.

Fabián Ruiz justified his selection with the first goal of the game, bursting into the box in precisely the way that Pedri would not have. When De la Fuente sought more control in the middle of the pitch in the second half, he had the luxury of swapping out Fabián with Barcelona’s metronome.

Dani Olmo has been battling for his spot this summer with Mikel Merino, who emerged off the bench to snatch another match-winning strike in the 88th minute, his second in as many games.

De la Fuente has the luxury of shuffling his pack when Rodri is there to sweep up. The ballast at the base of midfield has crept back towards his best this summer. He is the one with his hand on the rope, tightening the noose to suffocate the opposition with Spain’s feverish counter-press as soon as possession is lost.

A player hailed by his manager as “the perfect computer” is a fitting figurehead for this calculating iteration of Spain. At a time when every fan wants nothing more than full throttle soccer, Rodri is the one dialling down the temperature. “When the ball comes to me and we need to apply a pause, I’m not going to accelerate the play.”

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More to Come

Lamine Yamal is yet to fully catch alight. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

Spain’s reward for its bloodless march through the tournament is a direct clash with the team that has inspired the precise opposition reaction, France.

In each of his previous international tournament appearances, France boss Didier Deschamps has been the bane of the neutral, applying the handbrake with the religious zeal of a terrified driving instructor. Yet, this summer has seen a newfound sense of attacking freedom enliven Les Bleus, with all four glittering forwards retained even against the tough test of Morocco. There is a joie de vivre which France has so often lacked under Deschamps.

To frame Spain as the ultimate anthesis to that flair is not entirely unfair. Although that could still change.

Yamal is tentatively growing into this tournament. The winger’s only goal remains the opener against Saudi Arabia back in the group stage and for all the flashes of ingenuity which he demonstrated against Belgium, he couldn’t quite live up to his lofty billing. “The best is yet to come, as he hasn’t quite reached that level of brilliance we’re expecting yet,” De la Fuente conceded.

Despite his form, Yamal was certainly confident when looking ahead to the clash with France. “I think if there’s anyone they should fear, it’s us,” the winger grinned, harking back to Euro 2024, “We’re the ones who knocked them out.”

Spain is a different team to that European champion. Less fun, less flashy, but they could still be just as successful.

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