Spain break down Argentina to claim their second World Cup

**James Richardson** (0:01)
From Los Angeles, one last time, it's The Totally Show, and it's the end of the World Cup as we know it. After six weeks, over 100 games, around 300 goals, one large red card controversy, one large half-time break, and so, so much hydration, we finally have our champions.
Congratulations, Spain. 1-0 winners over Argentina after a couple of arduous hours on Sunday afternoon. We look back on what will surely go down as the Tony Soprano final, rubbish in New Jersey with the looming threat of a shootout and both teams struggling to gabagool. Plus, we'll play Remember When with some of the brilliant and bizarre events of these six weeks of the 2026 World Cup. Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles and away we go with the final Totally at the World Cup for this tournament. At least Tom Williams is with us. Tim Spears is also with us. Bring it all full circle. Duncan Alexander joins us from a long way away. All right, Duncan, how are you?

**Duncan Alexander** (1:08)
Hello. I am good, thank you. How are you?

**James Richardson** (1:10)
Yeah, I think we're all well.

**Tom Williams** (1:12)
Really big time, Duncan. Back for the final. I've got to do some cycling. Oh, the final podcast. Yeah, I'll do that. Where was he when we were in the trenches watching Columbia versus Switzerland? That's what I want to know.

**James Richardson** (1:23)
There was nothing more arduous than the final that we've all just witnessed. We've got Pol Ballus, who's been right all along, as it turned out about Spain. He'll be joining us with a few words about that, of course, very, very soon. But let's just get a word or two from you guys and Duncan, because we have our champions after a game at Italy that reminded us why we enjoyed the last World Cup final so much, but Spain, world champs, Tom.

**Tom Williams** (1:48)
Spain, deserving champions, the best team at the tournament. It felt like this game was likely to be a bit of a letdown after yesterday and the third place playoff, which is the most absurd knockabout game of football that I think any of us had seen in a long time. As it proved, the final was, as finals often are in World Cups, enormously underwhelming, but the best team won, the right team won.

**James Richardson** (2:12)
There was something epic about it as well. All the way through Argentina had been building this bad guy reputation. These never say die, you can't kill villains. But Spain finally slew the dragon.

**Tim Spiers** (2:24)
Yeah, I mean, it was the least funny conclusion, I guess.
But you know, football was the winner ultimately. And yeah, Spain were the ones who obviously proved undefeatable. But even in the final, when you know, Argentina, they took so long to have a shot, remarkably, what was it, 115 minutes? Well, they finally had a shot. And Messi unleashes it. And how does it stop? Moreno just puts his face like fully in it, like, no, you shall not pass.

**James Richardson** (2:49)
115 minutes it was.
That's a big number in football, of course, 115 But 115 minutes Spain finally got a goal. They'd had one previously disallowed for a foul, probably.

**Tom Williams** (3:02)
I mean, it occurred to us around that point that Argentina might be 15 minutes away, I guess, plus penalties from winning the World Cup despite having not had a shot, which would have been quite the feat.

**James Richardson** (3:13)
Well, they already became the first team ever, not just in a World Cup final, but I think in a World Cup, to have no shots on or off target in the course of a match, which is pretty remarkable.

**Duncan Alexander** (3:26)
And people who don't like XG would have been delighted because they didn't have any XG in the slightest. Yeah, it was a remarkable display. And I think in some ways that made it good. I think to sort of lean in to the sort of good guys be bad guys thing, Spain trying to play football and have shots in Argentina, seemingly with no interest in doing that. And like you say, it nearly worked out for them. And obviously they did then muster a few shots towards the end when they kind of had to.
But yeah, Spain deservedly hung on.

**James Richardson** (4:00)
OK, Argentina, the first ever World Cup finalist, I'm reading, to not have a shot in the 90 minutes. Another great stat, Emiliano Martinez, the goalkeeper, had more touches and attempted more passes than any of his Argentina teammates. That tells you a lot about how the game went. Of course, Argentina weren't helped by the fact that Enzo Fernandes picked up a red card during the game. But I'm not sure that would have made any difference to their game plan. What say you, Duncan?