2026 FIFA World Cup: FINAL - Argentina vs. Spain

Yes, and I agree. It's not too late for him to do that. He needs to be playing regularly, for sure.

 

It seems like just yesterday I was moaning about Almada lol what an utter waste of time we could have used that spot to actually incorporate someone who can make a difference

 

I was actually wondering that Dybala perhaps could have been really useful in the World Cup final.

Just imagine having Dybala and Di Maria with this team.

 

Flushed 3 finals down the hole and hired 4 incompetent managers
the only thing back to back we have are two corrupt presidents

Pero tenemos huevos verdad

 

Di Maria will absolutely makes big diffrence. ADM to Nico G is worst downgrade in history. As for Dybala we already have Nico Paz.

 

If Paz couldn’t get on the pitch then Paulo had no shot.

Di Maria perhaps helps us win our games in the KO a bit more easily. No ET. And also helps with the final. The crazy thing is that Fideo probably had some juice left but retired with a bit of dignity unlike few players who gave us nothing at this tournament.

 

back to back Copas people need to get a grip

 

For what its worth , i re watched the netflix final episode of captians of the world and feeling so much better now [at least for timebeing]

 

After the Copa América win, that would've been the perfect exit for many of the legends. Going for the World Cup was a genuinely risky call , back-to-back titles are brutally hard to pull off. Hard to say what was going through the players' minds at that point.

Any exit from any stage of the World Cup was always going to end in tears, and it would've been framed as the last moment for several of these players regardless of how far they went.

Reaching back-to-back finals was a huge achievement, especially with that win over England , but the Spain performance ends up overshadowing all of that effort, which isn't really fair, but that's recency bias at work. We just weigh the most recent outcome far more heavily than everything that led up to it.

 

I dont know if 7 straight wins and then losing 1-0 at ET in the final can be considered as a disaster... at all. Brazil has similar fate in 1998, but they were losing 3-0. And then you have Zidane who ended his second final with a red. Mind you that Netherlands escaped a red after a kungfu kick in 2010 final. What Enzo did was a merely a childplay in comparison.

There were times where even getting to QF feels good already, despite having talents like Bati, Ortega, Samuel, Aimar, Saviola, Simeone, Zanetti etc.

So many of us were in euphoric state in 2022 to the point where it feels that our goal as a football fans has been completed.

However, as time progressed, people tend to become less appreciative and the standard change from having a good deep run into a "must win" to be considered as successful. This campaign is waaay better than the 2014 where scoring 1 goal was a big feat.

 

I always believed that the CA should've been the time we began experimenting with players. Granted, Scaloni did take the likes of Carboni and Garnacho to the tournament, but I do not recall either one playing all that much(Sounds familiar does it not?). The likes of Otamendi were still lingering around, and when we knew it was the last time for Fideo, and when Messi called him and Otamendi over to hoist the trophy, I thought, maybe, just maybe, Otamendi will retire as well. But no, he carried on. Not only did he carry on, he was pretty much Cuti's partner in crime in the back when Licha was recovering. It was perhaps a time to use new defenders. That's one.

Second, a few years ago during Covid, the Chicago Bulls documentary came out, The Last Dance. Everybody fell in love with it, and rightfully so. It was amazing. I recall some of our players talking about this as well. They perhaps wanted their own Last Dance. In fact, this was used a lot in articles I saw about El último baile in different forms, either for Messi or this group... They wanted to go out on top very much like the Chicago Bulls. But the difference here was that the Bulls had Jordan, Pippen (who was injured for a chunk of the season), Rodman, and a mastermind of a manager. They willed themselves to victory.

We unfortunately had Messi and a bunch of players who had no real business being there, like De Paul and Otamendi. Don't get me started on players like Nico Gonzalez, Molina and Giuliano. Their only attribute was speed, and that's it... In fact, the more I think about it, the more upset I become. Scaloni would have messed this up in '22 if Tucu Correa had not gotten hurt... He no doubt would've been playing in critical moments, but I digress...

Of course, we had Cuti and Licha, Montiel, Tags, who all gave their hearts, and Enzo and Mac had their moments. I am not going to go down a list, but the memories are fresh, so we know who did what and who did nothing.

As was the case in 2014, all of the hard work we did to get to the final only to lose makes all of this feel hollow. I can't go back and watch clips from 2014 because I remember how all of it ended.

For this tournament... The sheer joy I had with Messi hitting that opening game hat trick. Having the game played at night and him just being on another level... Maybe we should've lost, and Scaloni would've made rapid changes. Then we had Austria, where we still managed to win against a tough group. And the final group game on a Saturday night, where we played with our B team for the most part. We won with a bit of ease, but throughout each of the three games there were cracks. We also had cracks in 22 but we managed to get through it. I naively thought we could potentially do it. Not as sure as I was in 22 but still hoped that we could by some miracle win it once more.

During the group stages, myself, like others, watched extremely closely to see who we may play, and we got quite a favorable draw. I'll be honest, I still believe if we had a "tougher" path, we would've still managed through will and determination. But again, this hollowness with the ET win against Cabo Verde and scoring three goals in the last 15 minutes to defeat Egypt... Julian's shot in ET vs the Swiss and that comeback for the ages against England. All of this feels empty to me. All of it.

Like, I have every single one of those games recorded. I can't get myself to even watch a single minute of them. I can't explain it. I know the boys fought tooth and nail to get to the final, and of course that is something I am grateful for, but the way all of it ended... I just don't know...

I am not sure if I could ever forgive Scaloni for the continued mistakes he made in the final. There is a saying that I love to say and live by, and it goes like this, "It takes years to build up a relationship/friendship, but it only takes a moment to destroy it." I know it may sound harsh, but I think Scaloni creditability took a massive hit last night. Everything that he build over the course of time came crumbling down. Scaloni can return and win maybe the next five Copa America's, this loss will always linger. As I mentioned yesterday, athletes and fans will always tell you, "It's not the ones that you win that you remember, it is the ones that you lose..."

Sorry for the long rant, just airing out my frustrations...

 

There's a reason no team has defended the world cup since 1962, it's bloody difficult. Multiple teams have reached back to back finals, including us in 1986 & 1990, (Germany played in 3 finals in a row, '82, '86 and '90) but no one has been able to take that final step. Messi dragged us to this final. We could really do with some fresh strikers coming through, at the moment our only realistic options are Lautaro and Alvarez. What worries me is without Messi who is going to be our difference maker, who?

 

There's only 4 games played in WC 1934 and 1938 and only 6 matches in WC 1958 and 1962.

When the WC started to become 7 matches tournament, no team manage to defend the title. This is the first time the tournament is extended into 8 matches and we managed won 7 in a row.

Speaking of difference maker, we didnt rely on Messi when winning CA 2024 at all, including the final when he barely had an impact. During the toughest round in qualifier , we beat Uruguay and Brazil without Messi aswell.

Remember that without Messi, the team will play better when not in possesion cause now you'll have 10 players running. Look how creative Enzo, Mac, Alvarez and even Almada when Messi wasnt there. With Messi playing, the other guys constantly looking for him to initiates the attack which can be predictable against a strong side like Spain.

 

This , this is exactly what's going through my mind right now. And I'm pretty sure it's the same for most of us, since we're all wired with a fairly similar thought process when it comes to stuff like this

 

If you want to go back in time a little bit, remember that we played better without Messi at the '24 CA. Nobody waited around looking for Messi to make a pass or to pass it to him. Messi wasn't fit for that tournament... Or look at how well we played against Brazil in the match without Messi. Granted, that Brazil team was hot garbage, but the way we swung the ball around, looked for gaps, and attacked them was a thing of beauty.

Look, Messi is science fiction. He does things that can change a game on a dime. But we need to move and think like a team, not look up and automatically pass to Messi... We shouldn't put ourselves in a position where we need a difference maker. The collective should be the difference maker, not the player.

I think Paz is one of the few attacking players we have that has world class potential. He needs to be given more responsibility with the seleccion. I know there will be those who will call him a pecho frío... but Paz has a very special thing about his game... I think Colo also has elite ability but I am not sure playing in the EPL is his best move. Maybe he gets loaned out to Spain or Italy. Masta has something about him as well. The issue with Masta is the club he's at. There is zero room for him to improve. He needs to move and not to England. Again, Italy would be a good place.

At the end of the day, we will always have elite level players. Messi is once ever. We're not in our lifetimes going to get something like him again. But you never know, people said the same thing about Diego.

I'll say this much and I would say this after every World Cup loss... One of the great joys for me was watching the youth teams and just looking out for players who had something special about them. But there will be players who just pop up out of nowhere, we have those as well. Perhaps that's the only thing that keeps me going with this game...

 

Like you I can't watch clips of 2014 because of how we lost in the final. And if we deserved to lose this final against Spain, which we did, we absolutely threw away the final against Germany, not just THAT miss by Higuain but so many others. I know going forward I won't be able to watch any highlights of this world cup because of the end, at a push I might watch the highlights of the game against England but that's it. I think Scaloni is far to attached to the players, it's good to have a bond between players and manager, but there also needs to be some emotional distance on the part of the manager. Because ultimately you should, in theory, be able to drop those players if required and pick other younger players. Look at Spain and Nico Williams, the guy had a stellar Euros, but he had a relatively poor season in La Liga and didn't start at this world cup, he also dropped Pedri to the bench. The way Scaloni cryed in the press conference after the game told me he is way to emotionally invested in the core of this group, managers don't react like that no matter how painful the defeat and how big the game.

What's so annoying is the games against CV, Egypt, the Swiss were a clear warning sign to him that he needed to change things, whether that be personnel or formation or both. But he refused, perhaps believeing that ultimately the mental toughness and Messi would drag us to the world cup. Like you I thought that Otamendi for sure would retire after the Copa win, to be fair he didn't let us down when he came on at this world cup, but why wasn't Senisi ahead of him? And that is the issue, it was the same gang, Mac had a really poor season with Liverpool but he is picked again and again, now again he didn't really do anything particularly wrong, he grew into the tournament, but why not try Paz, certainly in the group games he shoud have played more.

Nico G and Almada are just not good enough, end of, they should be nowhere near the NT, the fact they took up 2 spots in the squad instead of Buendia and Soule or Buendia and Dybala is shocking, the fact Nico G started in the final, I have no words.

I don't really know what point I'm trying to make to be honest, like you said just a bit of a rambling rant, I don't see how Scaloni carries on, he more or less, openly said that he has an incredible bond with these players and he can't see himself having that same bond with another group. The next few years should be a time of change for the team, even if that means results not going our way. We need to give players such as Barco and Paz a chance and we need to find some youngsters, particularly out wide and upfront.

 

On top of all these , there are hell lot of videos circulating in social media , where our players were loosing simple passes and not willing to chase the ball etc. as if there are pressurized to surrender.
I know we all need to take with pinch of salt , but sad to see lot of these kind of videos

 

This is like saying that WC 1978, 1986 and 2022 as the only 3 WC you can watch. At the end of the day, football is an entertainment. I can still enjoy watching highlights of WC matches regardless the outcome for our team. Although I do admit I never watch the 2014 final highlights until we won in 2022.

Honestly, I dont like Scaloni's tone when he's talking about Finalissima few months back.. he jokingly said he'd be ok to lose to his former mentor and he'd be happy aswell if Spain achieve success because his wife and half of his family are Spanish. I'm sure you can still look up his exact quotes. He had too much respect for them.

 

I've kinda blocked out negativity, particularly from so-called "unbiased media..." It is one thing when we criticize our own, that I can stomach but when it comes from outsiders, it becomes a cut for me...

I know what videos you are talking about... This one caught my eye... Messi was wide open in the middle for a shot in the 90th minute... ********en imagine...

Que “hubiera” pasado si Julian Alvarez Se la daba a Messi en lugar de abrir a simeone?
De los mayores what if de la historia de este deporte pic.twitter.com/kLDX2xX5A0

— Lirio (@LirioMen1) July 20, 2026

Stuff like this will drive you insane...

 

Oho man , 2014 final was hurting because of wasted or missed opportunities but we given all in those matches.
But this is hitting on different level

 

I think he didn't play the ball to Messi, which was clearly on and Messi was calling for it, out of fear, he was frightened of giving the ball away and Spain having a counter attack so played the safe pass instead.

 

We had a much better team in 2014 than the one in 2026, but something happened in the knockout stages, we got to the final by scoring only 2 goals, 1 against the Swiss and 1 against Belgium, that's it. The turning point was Di Maria getting injured against Belgium and we never saw him again, despite him saying he could have played in the final he didn't even make the bench. Then Lavezzi had a really good first half but was subbed at half time. All very odd, to be honest I've pretty much wiped out 2014 from my mind.

 

Go rewatch the Netflix "Captains of the World" final episode , it gave me a real adrenaline shot to help recover from this. I'm sure it'll hit the same way for all of us.

 

Just sharing some thoughts. We didn't lose the match because we were defensive with a low block. We lost the match because we didn't have fitness and strength to win the ball and after running around..we didn't keep possession..there was no outlet ..so we couldn't play our passing game. Tried long ball but the team isn't built for that kind of play.

We did however lost the plot by taking a mid course action...weak midfield handed the game to Spanish midfield while we only had one runner in Nico. So there was 0 counter attack chances. So Spain could bring the ball to our penalty box and then they would snatch right back or we kick it to their defenders. This resulted in the horrible match. We didn't even bother to pass horizontally or back as the player were mentally and physically drained.

I don't blame the subs due to injury and red cards but I think where we missed the trick was not even playing horizontal passes and reducing their possession. At least we could conserve some energy and bring messi to play.

Knowing how Spain plays...defensive low block is fine but we needed to focus on one style of outlet... contest the midfield

I think if he had started rotating the players more ...he would have known his best 11 and also the players would have been rested. But since he didn't ..and each match becoming more important...he couldn't make a change even if he wanted to...but I think where he missed the ball was that his first choice players were not playing well...except the england game Max Enzo and rdp all had poor games ..except those headers. If he had played lo celso palacios paz simeone almada and barca in some matches...these main players could have got some rest ...this should have been the plan from the beginning .