Spain Beats 10-Man Argentina in Extra Time to Win the World Cup
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., July 19 - Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute on Sunday to give Spain a 1-0 win over defending champion Argentina in the World Cup final, sealing Spain's second men's World Cup title at MetLife Stadium.
By Sana Whitfield, Culture, Science & Life
· 2 min read
The essentials
- •Torres, a substitute, finished a move that began with a cross from Pedro Porro and was nodded back across the area by Nico Williams.
- •Argentina played the final stretch with 10 men after Enzo Fernandez was sent off in stoppage time of regular play after a second yellow card for a foul on Pau Cubarsi.
- •It is the first World Cup final held in the United States since 1994, and the first in a tournament co-hosted by three countries, with Canada and Mexico also staging matches.
- •Spain held most of the ball through 90 minutes but could not find a goal, and the game went to extra time.
The short answer
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., July 19 - Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute on Sunday to give Spain a 1-0 win over defending champion Argentina in the World Cup final, sealing Spain's second men's World Cup title at MetLife Stadium. Torres, a substitute, finished a move that began with a cross from Pedro Porro and was nodded back across the area by Nico Williams.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., July 19 - Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute on Sunday to give Spain a 1-0 win over defending champion Argentina in the World Cup final, sealing Spain's second men's World Cup title at MetLife Stadium.
Torres, a substitute, finished a move that began with a cross from Pedro Porro and was nodded back across the area by Nico Williams. The goal broke a deadlock that Spain had pressed all night in front of a crowd of about 80,000. Williams earlier had a goal ruled out, and Torres had a second one disallowed for offside in the second half of extra time.
Argentina played the final stretch with 10 men after Enzo Fernandez was sent off in stoppage time of regular play after a second yellow card for a foul on Pau Cubarsi. Lionel Messi, 39, was unable to find a way through.
The win gives Spain a rare double. The country's women's team won the World Cup in 2023, so Spain now holds both the men's and women's titles at the same time, the first nation to do so.
It is the first World Cup final held in the United States since 1994, and the first in a tournament co-hosted by three countries, with Canada and Mexico also staging matches. It was also the largest World Cup so far, with 48 teams for the first time, 104 matches, and a final at one of the New York area's biggest venues.
What happened: Spain held most of the ball through 90 minutes but could not find a goal, and the game went to extra time. The winner came 16 minutes into the extra period.
In Buenos Aires, fans gathered at the Obelisk and stayed upbeat despite the loss.
Sources
- 012026 FIFA World Cup final, Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- 02When, where, and how Spain won the World Cup final against Argentina, Al Jazeeraaljazeera.com
- 03Spain's 1-0 result over Argentina a strangely old-fashioned conclusion to a high-wire World Cup, The Irish Timesirishtimes.com
Corrections
No corrections have been made to this article.
About the reporter
Culture, Science & Life Reporter, Trestlewire
I started a science blog in 2005, back when that was a slightly embarrassing thing to admit at parties, mostly to complain about how badly sleep studies got summarized in the papers. It turned into a job. I have been writing about culture and the science of everyday life ever since, through the arrival of social media, the smartphone, the wellness boom, and roughly four hundred viral productivity hacks.
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