Spain won the 2026 World Cup on Sunday, beating Argentina 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Ferran Torres scored the only goal in the 106th minute, six minutes into the first period of extra time, in front of a crowd of roughly 80,663. It is Spain's second world title, 16 years after their first.
The scoreline understates how one-sided it was. Spain had 20 shots to Argentina's two, and Argentina did not put a single one of theirs on target across 120 minutes. Spain held about 65 percent of the ball and completed 762 passes to Argentina's 358. Measured by expected goals, the standard gauge of chance quality, the match finished 1.94 to 0.17 — a gap that describes a final in which one team was permitted to attack and the other was not.
The decisive moment arrived before extra time began. Enzo Fernández, who four days earlier had scored the 85th-minute equaliser that started Argentina's semi-final comeback against England, was shown a second yellow card in stoppage time at the end of normal time. Argentina played the additional half-hour a man short, and a side that had already managed only a handful of meaningful attacks in 90 minutes had no route back.
Torres settled it in the 106th. It was his first goal of the tournament and the third of his World Cup career — an unremarkable return for a forward, delivered at the least unremarkable moment available.
Emiliano Martínez kept Argentina alive for as long as anyone could. The goalkeeper made 11 saves, a total that in most finals would belong to the losing side in a rout rather than a one-goal defeat, and which is the clearest single measure of the pressure his team spent the evening under.
Spain finish the competition having conceded one goal. The only time they were beaten came against Belgium in the quarter-final, a match they won 2-1; they kept the sheet clean in every other game, including the final. Unai Simón went 650 consecutive minutes without conceding before the Belgian goal, a World Cup record. No previous winner of the tournament has allowed only a single goal across an entire campaign.
For Argentina the defeat leaves in place the oldest pattern in the tournament's history. They came to North America as holders, having won in 2022, chasing a title defence that only two countries have ever completed — Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962. Before kick-off that drought stood at 15 tournaments and 64 years. It now stands at 16, and it has outlasted the strongest field of contenders any defending champion has brought to a World Cup in a generation.
For Lionel Messi it was, in all likelihood, a last World Cup appearance. He had been the tournament's decisive figure for Argentina — the 83rd-minute equaliser against Egypt in the round of 16, both assists in the semi-final against England — and on Sunday he was given nothing. Spain's shape denied him the ball in the areas where he has spent two decades deciding matches.
Spain's first title came in 2010 in South Africa, and they had not returned to a final since. The team that ended that wait bears little resemblance to the one that started it: this side won the tournament without a single player from the 2010 squad, and did it by controlling matches rather than surviving them.
The Fold has followed this tournament since the opening match at SoFi Stadium on June 12 — through a round of 32 that carried the United States past Bosnia, a round of 16 that eliminated all three host nations and Brazil, and a semi-final week that removed France and England. England closed their campaign on Saturday by beating France 6-4 in the third-place play-off in Miami, the highest-scoring match of the competition and their best World Cup finish since 1966.
The first 48-team World Cup, and the first men's final played on American soil since 1994, ends with the side that conceded least. Spain played eight matches across five weeks and were behind for almost none of it.