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Fifa’s gargantuan revenue influx from the tournament, with little left over for locals, will beget more exploitationYou do not, under any circumstance, have to hand it to Fifa.You do, however, have to acknowledge that the 2026 World Cup was successful in all of the ways it was intended to be successful. The soccer was interesting and competitive and dramatic, albeit mostly not great – not that this really a necessary ingredient for a compelling sporting product. People came and watched in overwhelming numbers. There was fun and folklore; underdog surprises; heroic storylines that might have been hackneyed had they been works of fiction. The whole thing made vast sums of money for its organizer. More money, by an order of billions, than even Fifa itself had projected, per the Guardian’s reporting.The tournament even went some way towards normalizing the controversial and mandatory hydration breaks, whether needed or not. This time around, we booed; next time, we’ll shrug. And while Fifa claims that it made no additional revenue from these glorified commercial breaks – the way Fox Sports chose to fill them in the United States, at any rate – you can be absolutely certain that the value created for broadcasters will be brought up in the next round of rights negotiations.The expanded field of 48 teams worked out fine, as the worst teams were, by and large, not the debutants. So fine, in fact, that a further bloating to 64 teams is now, in a growing number of rooms filled with sportocrats, evidently being talked about less as a fringe idea by heretics than as a not-unreasonable and even natural next step.In the end, it was all there. All of it happened the way it was supposed to.This fully Americanized World Cup took a great deal from the United States – the countdowns; the half-time show; the championship rings; the commercial breaks; the “let’s get ready to rumble” guy telling us to get ready to rumble; not starting either half of the final on time; the dynamic pricing; and more.But what did it give? What did it leave behind?Not all that long ago, Fifa still insisted the World Cup was about spreading the sport, conquering new lands, evangelizing in the emerging territories. Will a boring and quarrelsome final have a tail long enough for any sort of momentum to affix itself to it? Will we remember it at all in a few years? What will soccer look like in North American now that all is said and done?This is a three-pronged question. Mexico hosted the thing for a third time and will be broadly pleased with how it went. El Tri finally made it to the elusive “fifth game”, but nevertheless stranded at the same stage – the last 16 – they did at every World Cup from 1994 through 2018.Canada, who stood to gain or lose the most as the only first-time hosts, scaled new heights on the field and nevertheless felt good about what they had shown when they were trounced 3-0 by Morocco. The country had, after all, put on a series of good parties that its guests will long remember.And what of the United States? The legacy of the tournament may prove complicated here. The games were exclusive and inaccessible. And Fifa structured the thing in such a way that every penny of its mammoth haul will first head back to Switzerland. There will be no pot of money left over from the tournament for local organizers to reinvest up and down the game, the way there was in 1994. The US Soccer Federation was largely marginalized, in fact, and left to work around the edges in hopes of actually accomplishing something lasting and meaningful at the grassroots level.Did soccer make new fans? Probably not very many in the stadiums, since it’s doubtful that any significant number of people will have dropped several thousand dollars on a lark, hoping they might have a good time at this sport they’re just getting into. Certainly, the TV ratings suggest a raft of new viewers tuned in, but did they catch the soccer bug? It will be some years before we really know.Besides, soccer did not, and does not, have a popularity problem in the United States. It was already on a steep ascent. Certainly, any and all converts will be welcomed into the tent. But the global game was already very much a part of the American fabric.What soccer in the US has is an access problem. Access to a recreational youth game that hasn’t been devoured by the hypercapitalist, pay-to-play travel scene. Access, for those who do have talent and ambition, to the right coaches at the right ages, who prioritize development over winning. Access to fields and equipment and fresh air and a good old run-around.Will this World Cup help with any of those issues?As far as Fifa is concerned, this edition offered proof of concept. That it can expand without penalty. That it can get away with price-gouging, and that it will be rewarded enormously for it. That it will get away with all the extra contrivances and perversions and embellishments it can conjure up.By the same mechanism that allowed Gianni Infantino to engineer a 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, a return to the US in 2038 seems a strong possibility. There is talk, too, of hosting the Fifa Club World Cup in the US again in 2029, same as in 2025. A 2031 Women’s World Cup co-hosted here is all but a done deal.That, in the end, may be what Fifa has built here: a colony.Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.

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The Geopolitics World Cup is already fading from view, replaced by a thin July gruel of pre-season friendlies and transfer tales. But there’s still time to cast another look back over the 48-team, 104-game, 308-goal leviathan that has dominated the last six weeks of our lives. Without further ado, here are 48 reasons to cherish this year’s World Cup (minus the Geopolitics).The very first game between Mexico and South Africa saw three red cards dished out, ITV showing off their studio’s Manhattan backdrop, and a duck anointed as a national hero. Germany looked ominous, putting seven past Curaçao, whose solitary goal sent Telemundo commentators wild. Vozinha and Cape Verde had us wondering about Spain, and the giant keeper’s heroics helped his mum get over to watch him play.Another classy veteran, Lionel Messi, banged in six group-stage goals, (briefly) becoming the World Cup’s all-time top scorer. Cristiano Ronaldo was bad, then (briefly) “back”, and then gone again. Scotland fans left a far greater impression on the tournament than their team, making Boston their spiritual home. England put away Croatia with a dazzling display of attacking intent that was not to be repeated, while Anthony Barry expertly channeled a frustrated lower-league manager in his half-time interviews.It’s probably time for a hydration break, but Mauricio Pochettino just kicked over the Powerade. Poch did a great turn as a middle-aged actor playing a World Cup coach, and the US (briefly) looked like a really good team, before being derailed by something or other, we forget. Fellow co-hosts Canada earned their first-ever World Cup win in style, smashing six past Sunday League’s Qatar, who earned two red cards. Also sent off: discretion’s Miguel Almirón, for covering his mouth while talking – not that it helped Turkey, who crashed out after two games despite taking 1,057 shots on goal.Group E saw Japan being tidy on and off the field, an inconsistent Sweden winning and losing 5-1, and Herve Rénard showing up for some reason. Ecuador’s “touchline dreamboat” Sebastián Beccacece turned heads, while Marcelo Bielsa could only shake his dome sorrowfully as Uruguay fell apart in real time. Riyad Mahrez confused everyone by putting Algeria 3-2 up against Austria, who immediately equalised and doubled the torment for Iran, already denied a dramatic winner against Egypt by VAR.Time for another hydro-break, brought to you by the sweet elixir of goals. Cape Verde’s Sidny Lopes Cabral delivered the goal and celebration of the tournament against Argentina, who brought extra-time magic of their own thanks to Julián Alvarez. Haiti’s Wilson Isidor and Uzbekistan striker Eldor Shomurodov joined the pantheon of great forgotten World Cup goals, while Egypt’s brilliant breakaway against Argentina was cruelly disallowed. Their manager, combustible hardman Hossam Hassan, responded accordingly.The knockouts brought a sharper edge, with Germany bundled out by ‘housery’s Paraguay and the Dutch denied by a Morocco team who lived up to their billing. Portugal v Croatia was absolute psychodrama, and Belgium looked more likely to fight among themselves than find a way back against Senegal. The Battle of the Azteca was a belter. England players threw their heads at everything, Javier Aguirre delivered the GWC’s best touchline moment, and Harry Kane lost his voice. Brazil’s fragile, vibes-based journey was shattered by Erling Haaland’s merciless precision as Norway rowed on in (almost) perfect unison, with Haaland dominating defences and Social Media Disgraces alike. Neymar, meanwhile, won the Mark Corrigan award for winning in the most minor way possible.On to the quarter-finals, where Kylian Mbappé dictated the play as France (briefly) looked unstoppable, and Spain conceded a goal (Charles De Ketelaere becoming an eternal pub quiz answer). Breel Embolo’s needless dive was exposed in 4K, England got a little help from on high against Norway, Gabriel Clarke stirred the pot, and Danny Murphy continued the sobering tale of Bob the Cat. The semis can be summed up in two key moments – Lamine Yamal turning Lucas Digne’s brain inside-out, and seven defenders failing to close down Enzo Fernández. Oh, England!The game of the tournament came in the third-place playoff, a ridiculous knockabout affair won 6-4 by England, with Mbappé stat-padding his way to the Golden Boot. The final was not nearly as much fun, with Wayne Rooney neatly summarising the chaotic half-time show, and Fernández’s bone-headed second yellow card summing up Argentina’s reductive efforts. There’s no bigger moment than the one that wins it all, though, so take a bow, Ferran Torres.Finally, after a tournament of tedious celebrity-spotting, it was nice to see Javier Bardem and Carlos Alcaraz genuinely celebrating Spain’s success, before Keyne Yamal made the pitch his playground. Ominously, Luis de la Fuente’s red-and-gold army are co-hosts next time, when we may have to rattle off 64 memorable moments. We’ll get to work on that, you can start making your predictions and we’ll do it all again in 2030.Tributes have poured in over the last 24 hours to Kevin Keegan after his death at the age of 75. His playing career was remarkable – he remains (and will surely remain for a long time) the only British player to be twice named European Footballer of the Year, he won the title three times with Liverpool (and the European Cup), the Bundesliga with Hamburg and was an England stalwart for a decade. But through TV appearances, adverts, even a top 40 hit, his impact as one of football’s early celebrity breakout stars can’t be measured by medals alone. And that’s before we get to his wild managerial career, remembered mostly – for good or ill – by his blow-up at Alex Ferguson in 1996. “Kevin carried the love of the game on his sleeve, there’s no question about that, and that carried right on to the fans, to the players,” said Ferguson on Tuesday. “That period at Newcastle was of emotion, it was excitement. They brought these great players to the club too and they added to it, and it gave Newcastle – I think – their best ever team.” Amid a deluge of other tributes, Alan Shearer perhaps summed up his feelings most succinctly: “My hero. My manager. My friend. Sleep easy Boss.”For more on Keegan’s remarkable career as a player and manager, here’s Rob Draper’s wonderful tribute, Richard Williams’s obituary, Louise Taylor on his three eras at Newcastle and his life in pictures.“As time goes by, you realise there is something much bigger than just a result. For years, this group has represented the team in the best possible way. It teaches that competing isn’t just about winning; it’s about giving your all for the jersey and never giving up. It has been a privilege to be part of a group that always stepped up, competed at the highest level, and defended these colours with pride, humility, and commitment” – despite their showing in the GWC final, Enzo Fernández hypes up Argentina’s performance without fully grasping the meaning of the words “pride” and “humility” as they return home.Big Website: on BlueSpace, TikBook, Instachat, you name it.double quotation markPresident Trump confused (yesterday’s Football Daily)? Maybe that was down to someone telling him that Spain, who he has relentlessly criticised for not spending enough on defence, actually had the best one of all the GWC participants” – John Myles.double quotation markDespite your rather mixed review (yesterday’s Football Daily), I actually thought the GWC was quite good. My main focus was the Golden Boot race. Forget match quality or results. With so many elite scorers doing loads of goals it was quite intriguing to see who would come out on top. And for a wee while one of my countrymen, Elijah Just, had the impertinence to be in the mix with his three goals for New Zealand. Exciting” – Rod de Lisle.double quotation markSo the third-place game was 90 minutes of pointless action and the final was a shot-for-shot remake of the 2010 version? How fittingly American” – Rowan Sweeney.If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day goes to … John Myles. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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Our cartoonist looks back at the final game of the 2026 World Cup as Donald Trump watched Spain triumph againBuy David’s cartoons | Some of his favourite worksAnd his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now Continue reading...

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If you thought the 2026 tournament was sprawling, think again with six host countries over three continents getting involved in four years’ timeIf the 2026 World Cup was the tournament’s largest edition yet – featuring 48 teams for the first time in its 96-year history, being played in three different countries – the 2030 World Cup is going to have an even bigger footprint.Technically three. The tournament is set to be jointly hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain, marking the first time the World Cup will be held in more than one confederation and the first time it will visit north Africa.In addition, though, and in honour of the World Cup’s 100-year anniversary, a special match is scheduled to be held at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay – the stadium that hosted the 1930 World Cup final. There will also be one match each in Argentina and Paraguay.The bidding process for the 2030 World Cup began in earnest in 2022, with the host to be officially selected at the 2024 Fifa congress. The governing body’s rules for rotating the tournament between continents meant that football federations from Asia (AFC) and North America (Concacaf) were ineligible to host following the Qatar 2022 and North America 2026 bids respectively.In October 2023, the Fifa council unanimously selected the Morocco-Portugal-Spain bid over the South American bid.The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, announced that Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay would host one match each to celebrate the centenary of the World Cup “in the most appropriate way”. Uruguay hosted – and won – the tournament’s inaugural edition with Argentina beaten 4-2 in the final. A game will also be played in Paraguay in recognition of the country’s role as the home of Conmebol, the only confederation in existence in 1930.Initially the idea was for it to be 48 teams again, but during this World Cup Infantino raised to prospect of it being expanded with a further 16 nations.“That’s definitely ​an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” Infantino said. “When organising ⁠a World Cup, it’s important to organise it for the whole world – not just Europe and South America – but effectively the ⁠entire world.An expansion had already been suggested in 2025 when the Conmebol president, Alejandro Domínguez, put forth an official proposal to expand the number of participating teams to 64 in honour of the tournament’s centennial. “[It] will be unique because 100 years are celebrated only once,” Domínguez said.Spain last hosted the World Cup in 1982, the final of which involved Italy defeating West Germany in the Bernabéu. Co-hosts Portugal and Morocco have hosted various major sporting events, among them the 2004 Euros and the 2025 Afcon.The 2030 World Cup will take place across 17 host cities – one more than the 2026 edition – with 11 of the proposed 20 stadiums located in Spain. Among the 17 host cities are Marrakech and Tangier in Morocco, Porto and Lisbon in Portugal and Barcelona, Madrid and San Sebastián in Spain.Without a doubt the inclusion of the centenary match hosts. By rejecting the South American host bid but declaring that Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay would host one match each Fifa ensured that Conmebol would be ineligible to bid for the 2034 World Cup with Asia and Oceania the only two continents able to host. (The 2034 edition has since been awarded to Saudi Arabia, a decision that has been heavily criticised by human rights groups).Well, who knows? After the shenanigans of Donald Trump’s intervention and Folarin Balogun’s red card being suspended, could we see the Spanish king, Felipe VI, get involved after an over-zealous Lamine Yamal tackle in the last 64? With these guys in charge, nothing is off the table.

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The two substitutes combined on the World Cup winning goal not by changing the game, but by offering it what it needed, when it was neededAs Spain built into the second half of extra-time of Sunday’s World Cup final, it was already clear that Argentina hoped to make them suffer. Every challenge left no stud unshown. Their defenders labored to prevent striker Mikel Oyarzabal from his typical lanes of service, with Spain taking eleven of their 20 attempts from beyond the box.Lionel Scaloni’s side may have been aggressive, but they were also just structured enough to withstand the endless monsoon of Spanish pressure. Ever since the 62nd minute, when Luis de la Fuente brought his first two charges off of the bench, Spain had adapted to find new avenues to attack, adjusting with Enzo Fernández’s sending off near the end of normal time.In his 106th minute at right-back, and with Lamine Yamal sizing up Argentina’s defensive shape at the edge of the box, Pedro Porro looked at the developing scrum outside the box. Fresh from the kickoff, his teammates were largely running parallel to him, but were just restrained enough in their movement to create precious yards of open terrain beyond the backline. As Yamal passed back to his flank-side running mate, many in the stadium thought it was another of countless recirculations to start an approach up another pathway.Instead, Porro lobbed in a cross. The Tottenham defender bent it to perfection, powerful enough for some defenders to be in two minds about how to react but not so overhit that it risked crossing the byline. Nico Williams was quick to it, finding that his supporting numbers were trailing a bit beyond the ball for late arrivals into the box.Williams spent far more of his time at the 2026 World Cup watching on from the sideline than he would’ve liked. A starter for all six games of Spain’s triumphant run through Euro 2024, Williams arrived stateside with a groin strain and hamstring issues incurred late in the La Liga season before leaving the group stage finale against Uruguay with an adductor injury.The Athletic Club winger never started a game at this World Cup, with his 45-minute shift against Argentina being his longest of the tournament. On Sunday, his entrance promised greater verve and unpredictability than the winger he replaced, Alex Baena, who had largely been ineffective as an outlet before exiting.Better late than never, Williams did not waste his opportunity once it finally arrived. As Porro’s cross fell back to Earth, the 24-year-old got his head to the ball not to square right into the heart of the six-yard box, but instead to deftly doff it beyond the nearby defenders and into the stride of another second-half substitute, Ferran Torres. It was a goal borne of preternatural assessments of space, the only way Spain could break down a dogged Argentine side desperate to get Emiliano Martínez into penalties.Like Williams, Torres had checked into try exploiting Argentina’s approach to the final. While Oyarzabal proved invaluable for a possession-dominant Spain, able to drop deep and help with buildup while backing himself to find seams along the backline to move into, Argentina had structured themselves to allow that, but prevent him from getting the ball any closer to goal. Torres offered a bit more finesse, more of a natural off-ball mover in the game’s most dynamic phases, but also came on with more gas in the tank that helped him stay sharp against a rapidly tiring group of Argentine veterans.In a final of clattering challenges, Torres’ run went entirely unchecked. Giuliano Simeone, the player closest to Torres, had almost cartoonishly taken himself out of the play right as Torres blew past him. Just before Williams kept the ball from going out of play, Simeone had assessed the pass to have come in overcooked and was already bent over to adjust his sock as Williams’ header bounced to Torres. Three Argentine defenders had glommed on to Mikel Merino, who scored match-winners against Portugal and Belgium, leaving Torres with equally unusual time and a void of defensive pressure to finally get Spain on track for their second men’s World Cup title.Throughout the tournament’s business end, Spain were discussed as being the best team of the tournament. The collective approach had become so cohesive that, even if they didn’t score, the team’s focus on their buildup seldom waned. Players had gotten so confident in their mettle under de la Fuente that each seemed eager to embrace their role even if it meant less of an individual spotlight in a World Cup headlined by its stars.That’s a rare balance in modern international soccer. While the club side of the game has gotten meticulously curated, with every pressing trigger and passing sequence being carefully rehearsed, playing for a national team is usually where stars go to enjoy their game with a team largely built to account for their strengths in weaknesses. Thomas Tuchel tried to foster a similar culture with his squad selections, but found himself light on midfielders after Jordan Henderson’s klutzy celebration.It makes it all too easy to distill teams down to the star they’re designed to support. When it works, as it largely did for Messi’s Argentina, few question the wisdom of the approach. When it doesn’t, as we saw with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, it’s an equally obvious problem that the coach was unwilling to solve.Like the world’s best clubs, de la Fuente was able to change Spain’s approach during games by bringing in players who could occupy identical spaces to the starters they would replace because each interpreted their role differently. Williams's approach on the wing gave him greater license to put the opponent on the back foot than Baena’s; Torres came into the game and would later successfully stretch a shorthanded Argentina. Even Pedri – who checked in with Torres just after the hour mark – made life more difficult for Argentina, as a more dribbly midfield complement to Rodri than Fabián Ruiz.While Argentina looked to labor in the mid-afternoon New Jersey sun, Spain adapted. Their continued to morph to find new methods to make the defending champions sweat further. And, with an expert looping cross, a brilliant and deft header, and an opportunistic scamper into space, it’s Spain who will enter the 2030 World Cup cycle at the pinnacle of the sport.

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Luis de la Fuente’s team was the best at the tournament by some margin but are not satisfied yet with focus now on ‘the next game in September’On the night that Spain won their first World Cup in 2010, Rodrigo Hernández was on camp somewhere lost in the woods of Connecticut. He had been canoeing when the selección beat Germany in the semi-final, upset to have missed it, and for the final he convinced one of the supervisors to let him watch, alone, on a mini-laptop in the hut where the staff slept. When Andrés Iniesta scored the winning goal in the 116th minute, he ran off screaming, doing laps of the lake. He was 14.On the night that Spain won their second World Cup 16 years later, Rodrigo Hernández was back in the USA, not so far from there. When Ferran Torres scored the winning goal in the 106th minute, he ran off screaming in a straighter line and accompanied this time: towards the corner where his other family were. And then, when it ended, when the fighting finished too, he collected the trophy, pausing just long enough for Donald Trump to leave centre stage before lifting it, his timing perfect even here.It wasn’t the only trophy he had, but those could be handed over and this could not. By the time Rodri departed at 9.38pm eastern time, the last man out of the dressing room at the New Jersey New York Stadium, he couldn’t carry them all: walking with him, just ahead, Ladis had to lend a hand. A football team is never just the players, nor even just the coaches. When he departed the dressing room nine minutes earlier, the same happened for Pau Cubarsí. Nuria helped him, their boy: just 19, looking like a kid down here in the stadium in real life but not on the pitch where he’s a leader. Luis de la Fuente was accompanied by Paloma.Rodri came with the trophy for the tournament’s best player too. Cubarsí had the young player award, Unai Simón the Golden Glove. They also had two World Cups, every Spain player did: a replica of their own in a black Louis Vuitton trophy trunk, not easy to fit under an arm, and another in Lego. Rodri had three: both of those and the cup. They departed laden down, great big plastic bags full, pieces of the history they made. Shirts, in red and yellow and blue and white. Balls, boots. They had cut the net and taken pieces of that too. They had been given rings, NBA style.Before the final began, Marc Cucurella had sneaked off towards the touchline and buried a coin in the pitch, like that other left-back Joan Capdevila had done in 2010. Iniesta had been out there, his name chanted, as he showed the cup to the stands. After it, Sergio Ramos brought it back again. Dashing out, excitedly kissing it, he placed it on the plinth for this new generation, achieving the impossible in emulating them, to go and collect. One by one they passed, Borja Iglesias and Lamine Yamal among the most evasive in shaking Trump’s hand, until Rodri took the trophy and lifted it to the sky.Nico Williams went to find his mum in the front row and handed over his medal. Lamine Yamal had made his way across to Lionel Messi, who was sitting but who stood for him, embracing the boy in the bath, the successor: a rite of passage, an image that will be for ever. The actor Javier Bardem was hugging Iglesias, his new friend and idol. Ferran Torres was talking about a “great liberation”: he had suffered, felt how cruel this game could be, how people could be too, but he said: “destiny is written: God gives to those who deserve.” And Keyne was, well, Keyne. In the dressing room – the same one, Cucurella noted, where he had been at last year’s Club World Cup – the champagne was cracked open.It was brief – the flight to Spain was scheduled for 11pm and they wanted to get back – and soon they were on their way again. Behind the screen, along the corridor they came, way down in the depths and the half-light of the stadium. The president, the staff, all the players; the many, many people who made this so. Iglesias carried a bag so big it was like he was a student taking his washing home, and he was struggling to stop that box slipping. In the other hand he wheeled a big red speaker. Now playing: Dirty Cash (Money Talks) by PAWSA & Adventures of Stevie V. Lamine Yamal came, via the anti-doping room, in orange sunglasses, four chains, black cap on backwards. He didn’t wear his medal, but most did, thick discs round their necks. And commemorative shirts, ordered up in case.Back in Dallas, at a celebration after the semi-final victory, someone had joked to the federation president, Rafael Louzán, that the shirts should say world champions on one side and Finalissima winners on the other, two trophies in one. Tempting, but these bore just the one trophy, “Spain 26” on the back. The war in the Middle East had prevented the Finalissima from going ahead in Doha as scheduled in March and every time another option was offered, Argentina said no, the impression that of a team, a federation, running scared. “Good job we didn’t play,” Emi Martínez had said then, after they scraped past Mauritania in a hastily arranged friendly that filled the hole. “If we had played [Spain] like this …”Something like this might have happened. Not just because Argentina played like this but because Spain made them play like this. “We gave them a battering,” came the verdict from one of those heading out of the dressing room. This wasn’t just a win; this was more. Has a 1-0 ever been as dominant? There was a moment late in the game, still at 0-0, when the Spain fans chanted: “Look at them! Look at them! How they shit themselves!” and they weren’t wrong. Argentina could not get out all game; as Spain turned the screw, still less, the goal seemingly inevitable; the surprise was that it hadn’t come yet, that there would be just one. When it did it came as a liberation but also an act of irresistible logic.Torres’s shot was Spain’s 20th. Argentina didn’t manage one until the 115th minute. They didn’t manage any on target, all game. Across 900 World Cup games for which Opta has the stats, it is only the third time that a team has failed to shoot. And this in the final. They had done to Argentina what they did to France and to everyone, choking them. For the whole tournament Spain had an xG against of 0.3 per game. “If my gloves could talk, they would say they didn’t have much work to do,” Simón said. “Many teams depend too much on the back line,” Laporte said, but not Spain.This was the triumph of a collective, of a group; it ended in New York, but it was built in Chattanooga and beyond, over 51 days. It is the triumph of an idea, a conviction and of a coach too: a victory for Luis de la Fuente and the system he leads and the system that made him. He began his coaching career at Deportivo Alavés in the third tier, where he lasted just 11 games. It was November 2011 when he left and he has not had a club job since. For months, no one returned his calls. He was on the dole for a year and a half until he saw an advert for a job: the Spanish federation was looking for a coach for the youth system. He started in the under-17s. He won the European Championship with the under-19s and the under-21s. Then he won it with the senior side; now he has won the World Cup.“They asked me what there is left to win; we said the next game in September because they’re insatiable,” he insisted afterwards. Simón said: “The manager is outstanding; he has been our leader.” Cucurella, meanwhile, was in trouble. He had promised that if Spain won the World Cup, he would get a tattoo of De la Fuente’s face and now he had to decide where to put it to minimise the damage, the flight home an opportunity to think. Not least to think what a fool he had been.“I said: ‘You made a bad mistake’,” the coach joked. “But it’s not like I am so horrendously ugly that you have to put it somewhere it can’t be seen. And they are men of their word.” For all the laughs, that final line really mattered, and he knows: 10 of them played with him at junior level. The first title he ever won was the Under-19 Euros in 2015. In the middle of his midfield that day was Rodrigo Hernández.Eleven years on, 16 since he watched Spain’s first World Cup win, motivation sought and identification found in what they achieved, Rodri was back in the US. The embodiment of that idea, a player who approached perfection here, no one played more passes nor made more tackles than him. No one had his weight either, the captain leading Spain out and leading them back too. Like so many of his teammates at a tournament that was an expression of justice and vindication too, he had suffered for this, a torn cruciate ligament overcome.“It doesn’t matter if you fall, there’s always a reason to get up again,” he said and now he had it right here in his hands. It was 9.40pm when he boarded the bus bound for the airport, carrying the actual World Cup.

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Midfielder’s supreme passing was too much for Argentina to handle in the final but his work without the ball proved just as crucialRodri is back to his best after multiple injury problems. The former Ballon d’Or winner has started only 22 games since rupturing his ACL in September 2024 but you would have no idea from his performances at the World Cup that he had suffered so badly in the previous two years.The 30-year-old was already leading several statistical categories coming into Sunday’s final. He pushed them higher than perhaps even Luis de la Fuente could have hoped. Opta noted ahead of the game that Rodri’s 94.0 completed passes per 90 minutes played was the highest average anyone with at least 400 minutes had ever recorded at a single World Cup. He led the standings for line-breaking passes too.To some extent this is the inevitable result of playing in central midfield for the team that averaged the most passes per match this summer. The accuracy is even more impressive than the volume, though. Rodri completed 93.2% of his passes at the tournament, with his 95.3% success rate against Argentina his highest from any of the eight matches. The Manchester City man misplaced only five of his 106 passes in the final.Rodri’s accuracy barely dropped in dangerous areas. He led the World Cup for passes completed in the final third (204) by completing 91.9% of the 222 he attempted. His excellent ball retention helped Spain to concede an incredibly low 2.37 expected goals in the tournament, a mere 0.28 per 90 minutes (and only 0.22 in the 120-minute final).Rodri’s work when his side didn’t have the ball was just as crucial. He made 26 tackles, the most of any player in the competition. Again, he was above his World Cup average in the final, with four, and was not dribbled past as he had been in four of the preceding six matches.The varied locations of Rodri’s defensive work was impressive. He tackled Enzo Fernández in the Argentina box, Julián Alvarez near the centre circle and Nico González on the edge of Spain’s defensive third. Most crucially, he dispossessed Lionel Messi in the 92nd minute of normal time as he approached the penalty area. There’s a plausible alternate universe in which missing that challenge allows Argentina to retain their title.Tackles represent part of the ground duels metric, which also incorporates dribbles and fouls. The average success rate is 50%, as for a duel to be won there has to be an opponent on the losing side. Rodri was the victor in 63.3% of his 60 ground duels at the World Cup, markedly above his team’s below par rate of 48.6%. None of the other 27 players who contested more than 46 for any country were as successful as often either. As with his passing, the Golden Ball winner exceeded his tournament average to win 80% of his ground duels in the final.Rodri’s influence is best highlighted by Spain’s record with Opta-defined big chances. They only allowed five in their eight matches. Cape Verde’s one came from a corner after Rodri had been substituted, while Darwin Núñez failed to make proper contact when another came his way in the Uruguay match.The other three, none of which occurred after the quarter-final, were all headers. For two, the creating cross came from Spain’s left, not Rodri’s side. Teams very occasionally played around their midfield but never through it. Not even Argentina with the trophy on the line. Rodri was a worthy player of the tournament, better still in the final.

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This was a good rather than great World Cup on the field. In the background, things were a lot less edifyingPerhaps it’s too early, with the shreds of gold tape still fluttering through the New Jersey sky, to make a proper assessment. That will only come when everything has sunk in properly, when memories have had the chance to settle and shape themselves, when the consequences of certain events have become clear. But let’s try anyway to make some sort of assessment of where the World Cup that ended with Leandro Paredes grappling with Gavi ranks historically.The Balogun Affair could yet have major consequences. At the moment, it feels that the world has moved on, but that’s the nature of tournaments. They have a momentum of their own, a drive towards the finish that tends to sweep everything else aside. But there can be little doubt that the bending before political pressure, sweeping aside 64 years of precedent to ensure a particular player could take the stage, just as Gianni Infantino had done with Cristiano Ronaldo, just as he had done in gerrymandering the qualification criteria for the Club World Cup to ensure Lionel Messi played, represents a milestone.Perhaps in the future we will simply accept the principle that famous players get dispensation because making money is more important than justice or the good of the game – the prioritisation of revenue generation has been a feature of the 2026 tournament – or perhaps this will stiffen the sinews of opposition to Infantino; it’s been notable, for instance, how many British politicians – and some American ones – have taken to criticising Fifa and its president. An immediate consequence could be the expansion of the World Cup to 64 teams as Infantino looks to shore up his base, particularly given the damage US (and Canadian) immigration policy has done to his claims to be a champion of the global south.Other issues that have sunk into the mulch of games will surely resurface. The treatment of Iran, for instance, was scandalous, and sets a worrying precedent. Ticket prices may be lower at the 2030 World Cup, but the idea that a reasonable proportion should be available to the regular fans who go to league football every week is now gone. The World Cup is no longer a mass movement but a luxury event.The price paid by the host cities, similarly, will only become truly apparent in retrospect. That is financial, but it’s also social. In the US and Canada, there have been street sweeps of the homeless, people with very little deprived of what few possessions they have, ID and medication. In Mexico, there has been an outcry about water extraction and environmental damage linked to World Cup projects.The Italian newspaper la Gazzetta dello Sport ran a double page on Saturday calling the World Cup a “disaster”, outlining certain major issues: ticket prices, Balogun, the weather, the increase in games, the decrease of rest. That may be an overstatement, but what followed really was a disaster as the newspaper found its ticket allocation for the final slashed from five to two. It’s not entirely clear whether the two were linked, but the idea that a media outlet could be denied access for rejecting the official narrative that this World Cup has been the greatest ever is dystopian.That fitted the generally contemptuous attitude of Fifa towards the media at this tournament. While some venues – notably Houston and Atlanta – went out of their way to be welcoming, basic organisation and facilities were the worst for at least six World Cups. Quite understandably, nobody in the real world cares about journalists and whether the wifi works, but it’s indicative of a more general approach: fans are revenue units to be milked mercilessly; the media an irritating imposition.The football, meanwhile, was good but not great. There were a number of fine and dramatic games – Brazil v Japan, Morocco v the Netherlands, England v Mexico, Argentina v Cape Verde, Norway v Côte d’Ivoire, Belgium v Senegal, Norway v Brazil, Argentina v Egypt – but unfortunately almost all of them were in the last 32 or last 16. The quarter-finals were not especially inspiring. Argentina’s win over England in the semi was thrilling and involved a collapse that will be discussed for years, but Spain’s win over France was almost too easy; Spain quickly established a degree of superiority over the French that was never really challenged.And the final was dismal, an awful affair. The right team won, in their familiar bloodless way, but the grim spectacle was a direct consequence of the indulgence shown Argentina earlier in the tournament. The ending, inevitably, colours what went before, and drags this tournament behind 2022 and 2018, let alone the glorious World Cups of the 1980s or 1998. Posterity can judge where exactly in the middle rank it sits, whether above or below 2014 and 2006. It was not great but it was good and, beyond the Fifa bluster, that’s fine.This is an extract from Soccer Desk, a newsletter from the Guardian. Subscribe for free here.

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Kazakhs cheering Uzbeks, Bengalis wild for Argentina … This tournament was once a playground for nationalism. Now it shows how flimsy that allegiance isIt’s the World Cup final, so you pick a side. And don’t worry if you happen to be part of the 98.9% of the human race that is neither Spanish nor Argentinian – just make something up. Maybe you like the Spain kit. Maybe you’ve always been an admirer of Lionel Messi. Maybe you’re still raw about the Falklands or Diego Maradona, maybe you disagree with the Pedro Sánchez government’s stance on Palestine/Israel, maybe you once ate a dodgy empanada on your gap year. Nobody needs to see your working. Only two rules really apply: be partisan and be quick about it.The MetLife Stadium on Sunday night was a melting pot of colliding incongruities and temporary identities. The former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was wearing an Argentina shirt. The comedian Trevor Noah wore a Spain shirt. Indeed, ticket sales data suggests that an overwhelming proportion of the crowd was American. The most consequential fixture in international sport was, as it turned out, little more than a grand cosplay for the New Jersey leisure market.And beyond the final, perhaps this has been one of the hidden stories of the World Cup: the gradual reimagining of national allegiance as a kind of single-use consumer brand. For six weeks, the entire nation of Bangladesh went crazy for Argentina. A group of central Asian friends in north London put aside their internecine rivalries to cheer for Uzbekistan. The Arab diaspora swung firmly behind Morocco and Egypt as the tournament progressed. Leftwing progressives who revile the cross of St George when painted on a mini-roundabout were suddenly daubing it on their cheeks.All of which upends what we have been told for decades about the World Cup, and international sport in general. A tournament that should in theory be the ultimate playground for nationalism has in fact demonstrated the very opposite: the increasing fragility of nationhood as an idea. What the social psychologist Michael Billig termed banal nationalism – the subliminal everyday symbols of nationhood – has now become so banal as to be in essence disposable. If national identity is now something that can be slipped on and off as easily as a football shirt, then what use is it, really?We live in an age where the boundaries of nationhood are both ever-more piercingly evoked and ever-more hazily defined. Again, football illustrates this confusion better than almost any other human endeavour. Across western Europe, far-right voices preach the doctrine of nationalism while reviling their own national teams for having too many black players. In Colombia and Brazil, many leftwing fans have chosen to spurn the national team shirt as a result of its appropriation by rightwing populists.This is before we even address the teams themselves: in many cases not so much cogent expressions of national identity or even recognisable products of a system as they are snapshots of a sprawling diaspora at a particular moment in time, splintered on multiple planes by globalisation and migration, assembled out of convenience and expediency. Forty of the 48 competing nations contained a player born overseas. Only one member of the Curaçao squad was actually born on the Caribbean island. The Cape Verde squad that held the eventual champions, Spain, to a heroic 0-0 draw in the group phase featured more players born in Rotterdam than in the country’s capital.And so the modern World Cup serves two abrupt functions. First, it forces us to confront the idea that most of us have multiple identities cutting across or even against national boundaries, that everywhere is the product of everywhere. Second, it interrogates the criteria by which we pledge allegiance to a country, a process that most of the time lies latent and unspoken, only bursting to the surface in the form of an urgent binary question: “Who do I support for this game?” The historian Eric Hobsbawm’s famous quote about football gestating an “imagined community of millions” takes on a subtly different resonance when you realise that very often this is a community with no defined borders or polity, a community that for 90 minutes draws its number from every corner of the planet.Weirdly, this is a phenomenon that has become neither exclusively left- nor right-coded. If nationalism was long regarded as the preserve of the populist right and internationalism as the preserve of the intellectual left, these days the picture is far more nuanced. Today’s rightwing agitators are as likely to pledge allegiance to Donald Trump or wave an Israeli flag as they are to champion the country they’re actually from. The Trump administration has consistently demonstrated greater solidarity with white South Africans than with Black Americans. Across the English-speaking world, conservative outlets freely make alliances across national borders and appeal to abstract concepts such as “Judeo-Christian values” or “western civilisation” while denouncing and dehumanising many of their fellow citizens as traitors and scum.Football’s role as a nation builder is often overstated. France’s World Cup triumph in 1998 was hailed as a vindication of the country’s multiethnic identity, but four years later it sent Jean-Marie Le Pen into the final round of the presidential election. Argentina’s 1978 victory on home soil generated a surge of popularity for the country’s military dictatorship, but by 1983 it had collapsed. England’s run to the European Championship final in 2021 did not, for all the good vibes and open letters, arrest our wider descent into gutter politics and culture war.But occasionally it can hold up a mirror. And perhaps what this World Cup reflects back at us is a kind of messy hope: that a world of hardening physical borders is doomed to disintegrate on contact with reality. That for all the flags and pageantry, nationality is ultimately little more than a brand, a consumer choice, a piece of content – a mask anyone can happily wear for six weeks, and shed just as easily.

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Squad arrived home at 2.30pm local time on MondayVictory festivities to centre around the Plaza de CibelesLa Roja, who beat Argentina 1-0 in the final in New Jersey on Sunday night, were afforded the first of many heroes’ welcomes when they touched down at Madrid’s Barajas airport at 2.30pm local time on Monday.Spain’s captain, Rodri, waved the trophy aloft as he emerged from the plane, his medal from the previous night around his neck. The team posed for a photo before heading into terminal four where hundreds of delighted fans, many in Spain strips and carrying the country’s red-and-yellow rojigualda flag, waited and hoped for a glimpse of the freshly minted champions.The team’s first official stop is the Zarzuela palace, northwest of Madrid, where the players and staff will be received by King Felipe and Queen Letizia at about 4.30pm. After that, they are due to head to the Moncloa palace – the office and residence of the prime minister – for a meet-and greet with Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, at around 6pm.The victory parade will then kick off in earnest, with the team travelling into town by bus from Moncloa. The focus of the festivities, which will feature music and are expected to draw massive crowds, will be the Plaza de Cibeles just outside Madrid city hall.Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, told Radio Nacional de España that the capital was working to give the team the homecoming they deserved. He also hailed the peaceful and joyous scenes that had greeted Spain’s victory.“Even though there were thousands and thousands of people on the streets last night, there were practically no incidents in the city,” he said.“We’re getting everything ready for tonight and the musical events should start at Cibeles from about 6pm, with the parade scheduled to start at 7pm – but all this is depends on various factors … The thing we’re focusing on is how to celebrate and greet a team that will live for ever in our memory.”The victory – Spain’s second men’s World Cup win after their triumph against the Netherlands in South Africa in 2010 – was seen by hundreds of thousand of Spaniards who followed the match in bars, parks, fairgrounds, bullrings, and on giant screens in the centre of Madrid. The Spanish press have hailed it as “a unique collective experience” made possible by a young team that reflects all that is best about a modern, diverse and determined country.The win has also been enthusiastically hailed by the country’s political class.“WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!” Sánchez wrote in a social media post. “What an amazing national squad. Thank you, team.”Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party, was equally free with the capital letters. “Well-deserved WORLD CHAMPIONS! Values, hard work, humility, and faith. You have made history. There are no limits for this team … Long live Spain!!!” he wrote on X.Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, also offered his congratulations to the team for carrying “the flag of Spain so far and so high”.The Spanish postal service, Correos, has announced the creation of a special stamp to commemorate what it called “one of the greatest achievements in the history of Spanish sport”. The red-coloured stamp will bear the word CAMPEONES and feature two stars – one for each of Spain’s World Cup victories.

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Maybe Donald Trump was simply confused. He must have seen the ticker tape, a group of men cavorting around an American field clad in red and thought he’d stumbled into one of his Maga rallies. That is the only logical explanation for his bizarre behaviour on the champions’ plinth in (a stadium near) New York as Spain hoisted their freshly won trophy aloft, Trump having to be dragged off the stage by notorious wallflower Gianni Infantino as Rodri exhibited his trademark composure, patiently waiting to bask in his team’s glory moment. This is the way the Geopolitics World Cup ends, not with a bang but a desperate grab for attention from the US president. The GWC final had already witnessed its own on-field disgrace of course, in the shape of Argentina’s shameful performance. La Albiceleste tarnished their proud footballing history with a display completely devoid of ambition, pride and, well, quality. No shots in regulation time, no shots on target in the entire 120 minutes and Enzo Fernández sent off in ignominy. Even Lionel Messi embarrassed himself for snitching to Slavko Vincic, pleading with the referee to brandish a red card after Marc Cucurella dared to put his hand to his mouth. The full-time scenes were even more debasing for Argentina, losing their heads in such a manner it made their first-half roughhouse tactics in the semi-final against England look like child’s play. This is the way the Geopolitics World Cup ends, not with a bang but a thump from Leandro Paredes. Stay classy, lads. With no little hyperbole, Trump proudly proclaimed the GWC to have been “one of the greatest events of any kind ever held”. Does that sentiment hold muster? Well, it’s certainly been the biggest World Cup ever, with more teams, more matches, even more hosts than ever before. But of the 104 games (up from 64 in 2022), many have felt like a slog. UK readers, can you look Football Daily in the eye and truthfully say you stayed up until 3am to watch the conclusion of Ecuador 0-0 Curaçao? There has been plenty to enjoy, of course. Cape Verde were a genuine breath of fresh air, the only nation to play Spain and come away unscathed, while their near-miss in the last 32 against Argentina will be forever etched in World Cup folklore – oh what might have been but for Messi’s genius. We hope to see the Cape Verde lads back in 2030. Belgium’s late comeback to down Senegal was pure cinema, while England’s 6-4 win over France will live longer in the memory than a third-place playoff should simply for its pure weirdness.Speaking of the Three Lions, who will ever forget Mexico and the Battle of the Azteca? Not Dan Burn and certainly not us. FD also enjoyed Mauricio Pochettino’s swashbuckling USA USA USA side in this tournament before Trump’s attempted assist for Folarin Balogun backfired spectacularly and the co-hosts became co-toast. Ultimately, perhaps a tired final in which the better team were stifled by one that refused to play the game entirely was fitting of the tournament as a whole. It was both exhaustive and exhausting and, as a footballing public we have discovered there is such a thing as too much football. The fatigue is real. Thank god it’s all over …. Now, who fancies watching South Shields versus Harrogate in pre-season on Tuesday? Anyone?There’s no more live football for a little bit, so for now you’ll have to make do with the GWC farewell news blog.“I like a lot of them artists, but I thought it was crap” – Wayne Rooney with a magnificently succinct live review of the GWC half-time show.double quotation markFootball 1-0 Sh!thousery. Thank god anti-football failed” – Paul Landaw.double quotation markCan you start a Stop Argentina campaign? – Gordon MacLeod.double quotation markWhen will the photograph of Donald Trump giving a baby Gianni Infantino a bath surface?” – Krishna Moorthy.If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day goes to … Gordon MacLeod. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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Much of what Rodri does is indefinable – his great skill is simply being, existing in the right spacesYou don’t need to be long in the US before somebody, finding you’re here to cover “the Fifa” as so many Americans so demoralisingly call it, will tell you that the USA would obviously win it all the time if only their best athletes weren’t distracted by more local pursuits: American football, basketball, eating enormous sandwiches and the like. If you’re really lucky they’ll start shouting names at you with a detailed rundown of height, weight, sprint speed, what they can bench and other fascinating statistics.At which you wonder whether the 5ft 7in Lionel Messi has ever done a bench press. Rodri probably has, but he’s still nobody’s idea of a great athlete. He’s tall without being physically imposing. He’s not quick. He ambles about games being in the right place. Occasionally he leans into people or passes the ball 10 yards. It would be difficult to put together a highlights reel of his performance in the World Cup final that would convince a neophyte that he was the defining player – but he was, and was rightly named player of the tournament as well.This has been a World Cup in which individual stars shone. Kylian Mbappé topped the goalscoring charts, followed by Messi, Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Ousmane Dembélé. In the most heavily marketed World Cup ever, there were plenty of faces to market: “Look at this celebrity, scoring a goal!” But in the end the parade of goalscorers ended up marching in the shadow of the great controller.Mauricio Pochettino made the point last year that there were two problems with a US system that in effect forces a parent who wants their child to play soccer to pay thousands of dollars a year to belong to a club. The first is that it means huge swathes of the population are excluded for basic financial reasons. The second is less obvious but perhaps almost as insidious: parents at the end of the year will demand to see progress, to know what they’ve got for their money.The two most important attributes for an elite footballer – technical ability and tactical awareness – are extremely difficult to measure. And so coaches tend to tell parent that their charge has knocked a fraction off their sprint time, or is lifting 20 pounds more. That’s measurable; it satisfies the need to see a return on investment. The result is a focus on physicality rather than the nebulous but vital skills that define the best players, something reflected in how the US play. Carli Lloyd made a similar point, and a series of youth coaches I’ve spoken to over the past month have agreed.There is no American Rodri, and perhaps in the present system there cannot be one. But then there is no English Rodri, or French Rodri, or Argentinian Rodri, or German Rodri. Rodri is a very Spanish type. He comes from the line of Sergio Busquets, and the closest player to him in the modern game is Martín Zubimendi. In an environment in which football is becoming increasing physical, they have found a role for the cerebral.Much of what Rodri does is indefinable. He didn’t score a goal or register an assist at this World Cup. A pass completion rate of 93.2% is obviously very good, but it was only the 44th best in the tournament. Even if you filter out centre-backs, who play a lot of short simple, unpressured passes, Rodri is 18th. He ranked 22nd for tackles per game and 450th for interceptions. Even at fouling, at which, following in the proud Manchester City lineage of Fernandinho, Rodri is a master, has was only 97th. Although he completed a record 756 passes at this tournament, his great skill is simply being. By existing in the right spaces, Rodri lubricates and distributes and, by somehow combining that with a capacity to draw matter towards him, he discourages opponents from passing in his zone. He, as much as anyone, was the reason Lionel Messi was so little involved in the final.Yet as recently as the end of the domestic season – which admittedly doesn’t feel that recent after 104 World Cup games, but was only two months ago – there were doubts about whether Rodri would ever be quite the same again. It was only 10 weeks after being named player of the tournament at Euro 2024 that Rodri sustained the anterior crucial ligament injury that kept him out for the 2024-25 season. City’s decline in his absence told its own story.His return was not straightforward. He struggled during the Club World Cup, forced off during the defeat by Al-Hilal. He started only 17 league games last season. Pep Guardiola suggested that the best of Rodri wouldn’t be seen until the World Cup. That’s been a recurring theme; most of the best players at this tournament were those who had not slogged through 50+ high-intensity games last season.In that sense, Rodri’s is a great redemption story, a player returning after two very difficult seasons to add World Cup honours to his European award. But there’s also an undeniable irony that in a country that celebrates the individual like no other, in a World Cup that has relentlessly promoted celebrities, the defining player ends up being the most unflashy team-oriented candidate imaginable, the first non-creator to win the Golden Ball in 24 years.