The referees’ permissiveness throughout the tournament gave Argentina the chance to reach the 2026 World Cup final, which the current team may not have been capable of. And the result was seen on the field.
The scoreboard said Spain 1-0, but the real verdict was a number no World Cup final had produced before: for ninety minutes, Argentina did not take a single shot. They fouled, they stalled, they defended the draw and waited for penalties. Spain kept knocking, twenty shots to two, until the door gave in extra time. When the whistle went, Argentina’s players went looking for Spanish shirts to argue with rather than hands to shake.
Toni Kroos—a former German midfielder who beat Argentina in the 2014 final—needed only two words to describe what the final was about: “Football won.” I couldn’t agree more.
Had it gone to penalties, it would have been a defeat for football itself. But not yesterday. The football gods, attentive as ever, made sure Ferran Torres’ shot was too clean for VAR to touch, and all lovers of well-played and fair football could rest easy.
Yesterday, football could have lost, as perhaps some powerful people wanted. But thanks to ‘La Roja’, Football won again. ¡Gracias, España!
Leave a Reply