The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.Good morning! Put a shot on goal today. At least one. Coming up:
Goodbyes: Please don’t leave, World CupFor 80 minutes, I thought an incredible World Cup would end with a docile whimper. An uber-talented Spain team choked the life out of the game, dominating possession while failing to finish. At the end of 90 minutes, Spain had 15 shots. Argentina had zero. But the final minutes of regulation and the first minutes of extra time reclaimed the Cup’s brilliant reputation. A red card on Enzo Fernández made things spicy. Ferran Torres’ goal in the 106th minute felt cathartic for everyone involved, because a ball had finally found the net. Argentina’s late charge made the game’s final moments ripe with tension. Spain 1, Argentina 0. Spain is a men’s World Cup champion for the second time. Argentina is denied a second straight World Cup title. Lionel Messi might be done with international soccer. His teammates started a fight after the game, too. President Trump got booed. But yesterday felt like more than a championship game. It was a goodbye to a moment in time, like each World Cup, but this was on American soil. For a month, this country fell in love with soccer. More on that in a moment. Darrian Traynor / Getty ImagesWe will have plenty of time to process the entire Cup, but I’d like to reflect for a moment this morning with the tournament officially behind us. In no particular order, my four favorite things: 1. The underdogs
