2026 FIFA World Cup: FINAL - Argentina vs. Spain

Had France beat us in 2022 final on penalties, nobody would say Argentina should have won it just because they've outplayed them for 80 minutes straight. Spain dominated and completed countless passes against Italy in Euro 21, Morocco in WC 2022, Russia in WC 2018 and did you see people claiming Spain should have won? no, the bandwagonners were saying how courageous those teams were!

 

Well, still doesnt disprove all the fishiness that happened within our camp before and during the game.

Also, I wouldnt be surprise if thousands of those hate posts towards Argentina also came from AI bots thats flooding the social media in last few years. Many of them has 0 friends/followers , dont even have profile pic.

 

The two biggest reason why Leo didnt win it....

Firstly, just by looking at the pre match footage of our team and how the match went, you could tell FIFA folded to the pressure and didnt want Argentina to win.

Secondly, Leo is notorious for being dismissive about individual award. Conmebol had to awarded the golden ball to Sanchez in CA 2016 because Messi refused. I mean he had 5 goals & 4 assists in 5 games there.

 

Way to go go, Boomer!

 

If those two remains on the field, the scoreline most likely would stays at 0-0.

 

Guys, let’s not go into this entire conspiracy theory that the players were threatened or etc… If that was the case, nobody would’ve taken the field… I think what happened was all the conspiracy things that had been hatched up about us over the entire tournament. Not to mention, several of Spanish had comments that really pissed off the players. I think what happened was the players wanted to win this so badly, to give the haters a big F U. I think they got so caught in all of this, it became way too emotional for many of the players. I think this is what happened to Enzo, who thought “I can’t lose this, I’ll let down my family, friends and my country.” Or you had hot heads like Paredes who just wanted to fight everyone. If there was a giant conspiracy, then why the hell did we come so close to score?

Occam’s razor… Scaloni basically messed up by not rotating players throughout the tournament. He relied on far too many players that had no business being there in the midfield. If and only if, our midfield was stronger and had used Paz and Colo, our attack would’ve killed games off earlier and our defenders like Cuti and Licha did not have to be in constant danger.

Somebody asked where was Messi’s wife and kids? There was a video of them leaving the stadium. I forgot which kid it was, he had been obviously been crying. They were there.

Nothing happened. Scaloni’s ********ed up by not rotating players throughout the tournament.

Oh, and I’m writing this against my will since FIFA made me!

 

This is why you don't read social media in the middle of a tournament.

 

🚨 BREAKING: Early reports indicate that the AFA is considering BIG legal action over the misinformation campaign targeting Argentina’s players during the World Cup.

The potential defamation lawsuits would reportedly focus on false allegations, manipulated or unverified images,… pic.twitter.com/MA9EFVTdjs

— All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 (@AlbicelesteTalk) July 21, 2026

I mean good luck suing a bunch of loser trolls.

 

Yeah, this entire thing with the British media, and Cuti and Licha going after them in the presser. It’s one thing to have bulletin board material, it’s another where you are consumed by it. Scaloni should’ve taken their phones away or something. Just give them phones where they can make calls and that’s it… Their focus was lost.

Let us the fans and our media deal with the nonsense. You go out and just play ball.

 

@SupaMario how much did they pay you for this post?

And yes social media should be banned for players especially during this last phase of the tourney.

 

To be honest, I don’t believe in the claims that the team was threatened - but what I do believe in is that the players did not look alright right before the game, AI or not.

Unless Messi’s pregame warm up is also AI-generated (very well could be), I have never seen him so bad in the warmup.

I also don’t think it was just social media that got the players upset. That happened before the England game and other games. They came out fired up in that game.

This was completely different.

 

And damn, this one hurts a lot, with a 120th minute draw being inevitable if not for, like some say, the greatest defensive clearance of all time given the magnitude of what it meant. If we had scored that one goal on one shot, it could have tilted the momentum in our favor right at the right time.

This clearance from Cubarsí in the 120 minute may go down as the greatest defensive play in World Cup history.

Just imagine if Argentina had scored in stoppage time and taken the game to penalties—a situation they specialize in. They could very well have gone on to win the World…

— Appie Culé (@appiecule) July 20, 2026

 

Imagine living for decades and still think everything that go against your opinions are conspiracies. The 1990 final proof that mafia influenced is real. And then you have Calciopoly in 2006, but I guess that was conspiracy aswell! The refereeing between S Korea vs Italy for intense, nothing fishy at all...

Didnt we all scream in unison about the farce refereeing in 2019 semi?
Nevermind, its just a conspiracy!

 

So, what do you think happened? I know the players looked off but what happened? If something did happen, I sense it would’ve leaked by now… We had 30+ people in that locker room, and you know they talked to loved ones… I’m just curious what people think happened prior to kickoff…

 

For now, let's set aside the rumors and stick to the facts on the table:

1: Scaloni didn't rotate the squad , for a month-long tournament like this, we need to actually use the full roster. Isn't that the whole point of carrying a big squad in the first place?

2: He relied on the same starting XI from start to finish, and a number of players ended up dealing with injuries and fatigue as a result

3: The England match essentially became our final in every sense but name , for a lot of the coaching staff and players, that's the game we treated as the real decider.

4: There were multiple visible signs throughout the tournament that RDP and Nico weren't fit to start, and yet we kept going with them anyway.

 

I don’t know. But the full video of the walk has been released. There’s a point in there where Messi turns back and says Enzo should stay back, away from the camera.


Look, I know Diego was a drug addict - but something fishy went on in the 1990 World Cup final. I wouldn’t put anything past FIFA.

Maradona: Italia tenía que jugar la final con Alemania, y Argentina tenía que dejar que Italia "gane fácil" pero no les dieron bola y jugaron a la final contra Alemania. Grondona les advirtió que no podían ganar la final, y la amenaza fue más fuerte. pic.twitter.com/tweNHiymkc

— Lulis 🧉 🐾 (@Lulisky_7) July 21, 2026

I am not saying it was a full blown conspiracy. Spain were the better team, and they deserved to win. They probably beat us with our best version too.


But Brazil played dazed in the 1998 World Cup final, and so did we. Maybe it was some injuries that they were hiding; maybe it was something minor.

But I personally don’t think that they were just upset about social media.


How in the world did Spain not receive any yellow cards, with Oyarzabal’s kick to Messi’s knee, or Simeone being dumped down.


Or Cucurella not getting a red card for covering his mouth.

 

Here's the full video of the walkout

El video completo de la arenga de Messi y el camino hacia la cancha:

“Vamos Nico, lo vas a borrar todo el partido”.
“Vamos Dibu, firme en todas”.
“Hoy es mi día, hoy será para la historia”.

No parecen frases de un grupo que saliera a perder. pic.twitter.com/FqqZtfXpV5

— Los Herederos de Alberdi (@LHDA16) July 21, 2026

 

I started thinking about this last night - and couldn't sleep again! If any of these two moments (this one plus the one missed by Simeone) was converted the game would've gone to penalties and I have no doubts we'd win them, given that Dibu was on fire that day. This would've been the most BAD ASS World Cup win in history, even more so than Uruguay in 1950! Messi magic plus immense grit of this legendary team! Such a shame!

 

Obviously, I don’t understand Spanish 100%, but here are some of the comments underneath this thread:

 

I honestly didn't even see Romero get injured or go off the field. Any news on what their injuries were?

 

It's not even a conspiracy anymore, Argentina team were forced to throw the Final away! This whole Final is Fishy, There are plenty of visible signs 😨 pic.twitter.com/iGQbpApwo5

— SHR (@alazar_av) July 21, 2026

I don’t think we were forced to throw the final away, but look at the side-by-side video from 2022 v 2026. It’s like night and day.

 

Lol, I don't think anyone is "forced " to throw a world cup final. Rather our team was exhausted, Scaloni didn't freshen it up and, in my opinion, the players didn't look like they believed they could beat Spain. I think the England game took a lot out of them emotionally and physically. But it's gone now, and even though I say that I will keep thinking about it, it's time to move on and look ahead.

 

Well, we all have been saying those things for a while now, so its obvious the fans like us knew Scaloni pretty much mismanaged the team since we entered the KO stage .

Yea, the England game feels like a final due to big history between the two sides. The players pretty much would do anything to win that one. Spain historically has no rivalry with Argentina , I think we beat them once at WC in the old days & thats it. Other clashes has been in friendlies or youth level.

But as for the weirdness prior & during the final, there's no doubt there's big question mark there.

Does anyone here ever say Brazil deserved to win the round 16 final because they dominated that game for 80 mins? No, all we care is Maradona & Caniggia sent them home.

 

This is well written, though her punctuation could use some improvement. AI? Who knows.
The message is clear, and one I see far too often. You can see when the bot farms have been mobilized in so many ways politically, on both ends of the spectrum, and in sport too.

https://t.co/F2G1usjT2E

— rosie (@therosieum) July 20, 2026