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Close your eyes and imagine Spain in a World Cup final. You see Andrés Iniesta ghost into the box in Johannesburg. You see Xavi direct, David Villa finish, Sergio Ramos fly down the right, Iker Casillas save Spain’s life against Arjen Robben. That team won everything from 2008 to 2012 and changed how the sport thinks about itself.
It was the team with the most recognizable style: Tiki-Taka.
This Spain is not that Spain. And after Tuesday at Dallas Stadium, it doesn’t have to be. Luis de la Fuente’s side dismantled France 2-0 in the semi-finals, and “dismantled” is kind to France.
A Mikel Oyarzabal penalty, won by Lamine Yamal, opened it in the 22nd minute. Pedro Porro, a right-back, played a give-and-go with Dani Olmo and scored the second in the 58th. Kylian Mbappé and the most feared attack of the tournament were held to next to nothing. It was a strangulation, administered in the Spanish manner.
Here’s the number that should scare Argentina or England on Sunday: 1. That’s how many goals Spain have conceded in six games. Italy arrived at the 2006 final with the same tally (granted, an own goal by Cristian Zaccardo against the USA) and walked away with the trophy.
(Photo by Hannah Peters – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Championship teams are usually built on this very foundation and nobody noticed that Spain were building it because everyone was too busy waiting for the fireworks at the other end.
Because let’s be honest about what we all expected: We thought Lamine Yamal was going to be one of the big stars of this tournament. Instead, the 19-year-old has just one goal in seven games and perhaps the lingering remnants of the injury he picked up during the La Liga season have prevented him from achieving his very best.
Read it again.
Spain is in a World Cup final and its biggest star’s only goal came way back in the group stage. If you had offered that scenario in May, you would have been looked at as if you had three heads. There’s still no true Yamal moment, as it’s doubtful we’ll topple over that goal against Saudi Arabia in 20 years. He has been dangerous, he won the penalty on Tuesday, he had a finish chalked off for offside.
But the eruption has not come. Even more impressively, Spain haven’t needed it.
That’s the point. This team hasn’t even played their best football yet and it’s one win away from the trophy.
One of the stars has been Rodri, who controlled the France match from start to finish and has been the tournament’s Mr. Reliable. The Captain doesn’t do highlight reels. He doesn’t go viral on TikTok. He doesn’t frost his tips. What Rodri does is make the game look easy for 90 minutes while the opposition slowly runs out of ideas.
And the defense deserves flowers. Pau Cubarsí, still a teenager himself who would not legally be able to celebrate these victories here in the United States with a beer, treated the French front line as a training exercise. Unai Simón has been unmatched. Marc Cucurella looked unfazed by the generational opponents running after him.
The full-backs bombed forward against the legendary French counter-attack all night and never seemed to worry about the space behind them. Pedro Porro’s goal was the reward. It requires either arrogance or total structural trust. With this Spain it is the latter.
Remember where this program was. From 2014 onwards, the World Cup became a house of horrors: A group stage exit as defending champions, then back-to-back rounds of 16 eliminations on penalties, the last against Morocco in 2022. A generation of Spanish teams sent the ball beautifully and went home early.
European Championship 2024 broke the spell. Sunday can bury it.
The Spanish team in 2010 remains the standard. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
The golden generation had more individual talent. No rational soul disputes that. But that team needed extra time to win its final. This one has been so effective, so ruthless at the back, that its best attacking player has taken a back seat to scoring, and that hardly matters.
Villa, Xavi, Iniesta, Ramos, Casillas. These names built a legacy. They created an international dynasty. On Sunday for the finals, the new kids on the block get the chance to start their own.
And if Yamal finally chooses that scene for his big moment, this story writes its perfect ending.
