World Cup saved as Spain overcome anti-football Argentina
James Cox
The World Cup was saved by Spain overcoming anti-football Argentina in one of the worst finals ever, and certainly the worst in living memory.
It was a shame for a tournament that saw such good football played to end like this.
Before last night, it was a great advertisement for the game but if any Americans only tuned in for the final, they will have been left scratching their heads over the appeal of 'soccer'.
From the first minute at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, it was clear only one team were there to play football. Minutes into the game, Lamine Yamal had a brilliant opportunity denied by Emiliano Martinez.
Luis de la Fuente's side played the ball around expertly, while Lionel Scaloni's side sought only to hurt and disrupt their technically superior opponents.
Statistics do not always tell the full story of a football match, the game is not played on a spread sheet.
However, in this case, they did.
Spain had 20 shots to Argentina's three (11 on target to 0), 68 per cent of the possession and 803 passes to Argentina's 445.
Alexis Mac Allister's ugly challenge on Dani Olmo early on set the tone for what was to come.
Slovenian referee Slavko VinÄiÄ was undoubtedly trying to take the significance of the occasion and the players' high emotions into account. However, his display did nothing to quell the fury over the favourable decisions Argentina have received throughout the tournament.
It was a miracle that they finished the game with 10 men and not fewer, although Leandro Paredes was sent off for his post-match antics... more on that later.
Enzo Fernandez was first booked for dissent, and lucky it was not worse as he sarcastically applauded the referee. He had a rush of blood to the head and received his marching orders for a clear second yellow, as he upended Pau Cubarsi in second-half stoppage time.
Paredes came on as a substitute and was the biggest example of Argentina's negative tactics. He commited foul after foul, and somehow remained on a yellow despite about seven offences.
After the full-time whistle it was worse, Paredes grabbed Eric Garcia by the throat and landed a punch on Gavi. The sore loser eventually received his red card, but it marked an ugly end to an ugly team display.
The sight of Lionel Messi in tears after full-time was a sad one for football fans. However, Argentina set up to let him play while 10 men sat behind the ball and even that was too much for a living legend of the game.
Even Messi wasn't innocent of the bad sportsmanship.
Defender Marc Cucurella briefly covered his mouth during a heated exchange of words, after another Argentinian foul, however, it looked accidental rather than deliberate.
The new, but inconsistent, Fifa rule warrants a red card for player's deliberately covering their mouths.
Messi reacted by putting his hand up to appeal to the referee like a school child snitching on a classmate.
Spain's eventual winner was a long time coming, arriving just as the second half of extra-time started.
Pedro Porro's high cross was headed down by Nico Williams before Ferran Torres fired the ball into the back of the net.
Argentina had received another slice of luck in the first half of extra-time. Williams scored from a brilliantly worked attacking move only for VAR to disallow the goal for an apparent foul by Mikel Merino in the buildup.
Torres had the ball in the net again, only for it to be ruled marginally offside after he was let loose by a Yamal through ball.
If the game had of reached penalties, as Argentina hoped, all bets were off. In truth, it seemed like this was their only hope of victory... which is mad to sya about any team including Lionel Messi.
In the end, football was the big winner as Spain claimed their second World Cup triumph.
