I disagree. That was an elite, utterly dominant performance from Spain against a team that turned into a battering ram whenever it needed a goal.
Sometimes ball just doesn’t go in. They held the tournament’s leading scorers to no shots until the 118th minute. Spain had the lowest xG against in World Cup history by two goals, and did so while playing an extra game.
Spain is damn great. .they held opponents to total xG of around 2.6 entire damn tournament that is incredibly tough to do
Someone on the Australian channel SBS was caught on a hot mike saying "they are gonna edit him out" or something similar while Trump waddled out of the way
Waddled is both the correct verb and so ridiculously insulting. The new and improved Ozempic is working tho.
I get the frustration of the new World Cup I am not a fan of the hydration breaks, commercialization of the event, the distances of matches, the degrading treatment of certain teams, the politics behind his expanded money grab - but the World Cup - when you just look through myopic lense of sport - was pretty entertaining. Plenty of drama and classic matches. Honestly - I thought 90 final was boring as well and quite frankly the entire tournament was lukewarm.
Infantino “vendeu” a Copa pra ser reeleito na FIFA e o Tapia concordou em troca da pararem com as investigações sobre ele. Os jogadores ficaram sabendo pela manhã (minha teoria da conspiração).— カバ (@ippopotamo__) July 20, 2026
It was an utterly dominant defensive performance. Spain obviously had trouble scoring, and not just in this game, with Yamal not being 2024 Yamal.
The xG suggests that Portugal were the best side they faced. Or at least the one who could live with Spain. We'll never know the counterfactual of what might have been if Portugal decided to play with 11 players
I don’t know about xG for their game against France, but to a large degree that game was about game state, first the pk and then Saliba going down. Possession was 51-49, so they didn’t dominate possession the way they did against everyone else, shots were even with France having one more shot on target, but Spain’s two shots on target hit the back of the net, and Spain were credited with two last man tackles. Spain were the best team in the tournament, but football is often a game of fine margins and France gave them as good a game, if not better than Portugal did.
Spain were doing their grind, just like they did to beat Portugal. The game showed how one dimensional France were. It ought to be remembered that pre-tournament, when things were more sane, Spain were a clear favourite. Then all the cool kids got overly excited about teams like France and England's muscular post-positional goon ball. I also found myself believing that the attacking gravity has to win out. But then football reverted to type and midfield dominance counted for more than a star winning the game in a moment of brilliance. I agree it's fine margins though. Play these games 100s of times and in some of those games Mbappe, Olise, Bellingham, Kane or Messi win the game for you
I do think there are a lot of draw effects here. Portugal messed up, and were forgotten about when Spain ground them down. Whereas Argentina were gifted an armchair ride to the semis, plus a wild reffing tilt However clearly the Spain/France/Portugal side of the draw had much more quality as we now see. But also just based on the players in those sides. England will be kicking themselves, but to be fair to them, they had to get past the Azteca, and I recall before that game, Ted and co pointed out that the draw effect meant England would struggle to get to the final even if they could get past Mexico. Argentina became wildly overrated due to comebacks against sides they should have been able to beat most days. In any event, I think the main lesson of the tournament was under indexing on possession.
That part is true: Portugal were the only team who could match up with Spain in possession, but need someone who’s got the nerve to actually drop Ronaldo. Imagine if Portugal hire Pep.
The thing about goon ball is that’s the direction the game is moving in. Barcelona just signed Anthony Gordon.
Yeah. I actually thought Tuchel made the right decision not trying to integrate proper possession oriented players - simply too hard basket. And maybe he was right about that still. England's psychological and tactical collapse was super weird.
Good news: There does appear to be some principled people with spines still in FIFA/UEFA. Let's hope they resist the urge to facilitate and accept bribes and conduct shady business deals. UEFA president boycotts World Cup final in protest against FIFA
He’s not really goon. Rashford is more that than Gordon, if I understand what “goon ball” Means in this context. Gordon genuinely impressed me at the World Cup and I see why Arteta wanted him.
Any halfway athletic person is considered a "goon" to non-athletic people. In today's game, you really need both skill and athleticism. It's rare for a team full of nonathletes to compete in anything. But, we saw athletic teams like Cape Verde, Norway and Colombia punch above their weight. My takeways from the World Cup were that the two final teams went far without a proper #9. Also, many teams in the tournament played 3 in the back with good success. Everything else was par for the course. Overall, I enjoyed the World Cup even though FIFA tried to ruin it. The final sucked too, but you can't have it all.
"don’t do anything stupid, you’re already on a yellow"Enzo Fernández: pic.twitter.com/dI4iSEfNAJ— Therese 🇳🇴 (@ThereseUTD) July 21, 2026