Ferran Torres came off the bench and won the World Cup. The Spanish forward, a 62nd-minute substitute, scored the only goal of the final in the 106th minute at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday afternoon, US time, and Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time to take a second world title, 16 years after their first.
Australians who set the alarm for the 5am AEST kickoff on SBS watched Spain control almost everything except the scoreboard, with 20 attempts to Argentina's two and around two-thirds of possession. Emiliano Martinez kept the game scoreless with 11 saves, and a Nico Williams strike was ruled out for a foul by Mikel Merino on Nicolas Otamendi in the build-up. The game turned in added time at the end of the 90 minutes, when Enzo Fernandez collected a second yellow card and left Argentina to play the extra half hour with ten men. Torres made the numbers count, and his goal survived the wait for full-time.
“It was a goal scored by 47 million people, it wasn't even mine or from the 26 players," Torres said afterwards. "It was destined to happen; it was meant to be a winner." His coach Luis de la Fuente thought the margin flattered the losers: "Dibu's great saves prevented us from winning the game sooner," he said, before conceding that "even with 10 men, you have to suffer at the end".”
For Argentina and Lionel Messi, the ending was as hard as they come. The 39-year-old, widely expected to have played his final World Cup match, was in tears after collecting his runners-up medal and sat on the pitch while Spain celebrated, having finished the tournament without an individual award. He made no announcement about his future. "Sadness, but knowing that we left everything out there," coach Lionel Scaloni said. "We're great in victory, and we have to show that we're great in defeat too."
The records belong to Spain. They are the first team to concede just once across an entire World Cup, they came into the final unbeaten in 37 matches, and they have now twice followed a European Championship with a world title, something no other nation has done once. Captain Rodri took the Golden Ball as player of the tournament, goalkeeper Unai Simon the Golden Glove after seven clean sheets, and 19-year-old defender Pau Cubarsi the best young player award ahead of teammate Lamine Yamal. France's Kylian Mbappe won the Golden Boot with 10 goals, the first player to claim it at consecutive World Cups.
The occasion around the football was all American scale. An 80,000-strong crowd saw the first half-time show in the tournament's 96-year history, with Madonna, Shakira, BTS and Justin Bieber sharing the bill and Coldplay closing it, and US President Donald Trump was booed as he joined FIFA president Gianni Infantino to hand Rodri the trophy. The 2026 tournament is done; the next World Cup arrives in 2030, its centenary year, and Spain will be there twice over, as champions and as co-hosts with Portugal and Morocco.
