A World Cup final of opposites: Spain’s control against Messi’s Argentina

When the World Cup final kicks off at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, it will put two ideas of how to win a tournament in the same 90 minutes. Spain have controlled their way here, strangling opponents with the ball and conceding almost nothing without it. Argentina have done it the hard way, living on the edge of their nerves and letting Lionel Messi drag them out of trouble whenever the game demands it. One final, two teams who could hardly be more different, and a winner that will tell us which approach travels furthest.

Spain’s defence has barely been breached

The headline number for Luis de la Fuente’s side is a single goal conceded across their run to the final. Seven games, one goal against. That is not the record of a team that defends deep and hangs on; it is what happens when a side keeps the ball for long stretches and presses hard the moment it loses it, so the opposition rarely gets a clean look at goal in the first place. Spain do not blow teams away, and they have scored fewer goals than the other semi-finalists, but they suffocate. Mikel Oyarzabal has been the man who turns all that control into the odd decisive goal, and his five for the tournament make him La Roja’s leading scorer.

The other reason Spain feel like the team of the moment is Lamine Yamal. The teenager has played without a trace of nerves, and the sight of him running at tired defenders in the closing stages of a final is not one Argentina will relish. He has already said he wanted this exact match, a shot at Messi on the biggest stage. He is about to get it.

Argentina keep finding a way

Lionel Scaloni’s champions have taken the scenic route. They have needed goals late in the day in every knockout round, and they keep finding them, which is either a worry or a strength depending on how you look at it. A team that panics does not win a World Cup; a team this comfortable in the closing minutes might just be the most dangerous kind of all.

At the centre of it, as ever, is Messi. He is 39 now, and this is almost certainly the last World Cup we will see him play, yet he arrives at the final as the joint-leading scorer with eight goals to go with four assists. Eight of Argentina’s 19 goals at the tournament have come from his boot. Spain will plan for him, double up on him, try to cut off his supply, and history says it will only work for so long. Stopping Messi over 90 minutes in a final is a tall order for any defence, even one as miserly as this Spanish back line.

A final that feels like a handover

There is a neat symmetry to the two names that will pull the eye on Sunday. Messi, in his last act on this stage, against Yamal, a 19-year-old playing like he owns it. The tournament’s past and its future in the same frame, chasing the same trophy. You do not script these things, but the draw has done a decent impression of it.

Spain go in as narrow favourites, and on the balance of the tournament that feels about right. Their defence has been the best thing in the competition, and finals are so often settled by whoever gives away the least. But Argentina have made a habit of ignoring what the odds say, and they have the one player capable of deciding a tight game on his own. If Spain’s control cracks even once, Messi is exactly the man to punish it.

Kick-off is at 12:30am IST on Monday for those watching in India, worth the late night for a final this evenly poised. The best defence in the tournament against its best player, control against chaos. Whichever way it falls, someone’s story ends the way they dreamed it would.

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