By
Will Leitch,
a contributing editor covering sports and film at New York since 2008
and the author of six books, including the novels 'How Lucky' and 'The Time Has Come.'
Before we talk about the end of the World Cup, we have to talk about the actual end of the World Cup, which featured Spain beating Argentina 1-0 thanks to an extra-time goal from Fernan Torres in the 106th minute.The final, it has to be said, was a mess. It featured a dog’s breakfast of a halftime show that went on twice as long as it was supposed to and made you feel, to paraphrase Matt Damon’s Odysseus, like it had been 10 years on this fucking pitch. Spain earned its second World Cup and first since 2010, but the game was a completely one-sided affair in which Argentina not only posted 0.09 Expected Goals (as opposed to 1.72 for Spain), but didn’t even muster a single shot until the 120th minute. They were the first team with that unfortunate distinction in a World Cup game — not a final, just any game — since Costa Rica in 2022. (Costa Rica lost that one 7-0.)
