Spain used to be a nation of soccer underachievement, one that could produce spectacular teams at the club level and had plenty of talent but fell short at the highest international level.
World Cup 2026
They won an out-of-nowhere Euro 1964 title thanks to Chus Pereda, Luis Suárez (the original one) and a pretty easy draw. But in the 42 years that followed, they made it past the quarterfinals of just one major tournament. But they’ve won four major tournaments in the past 18 years, and in Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final, they’ll have a chance to make it five in five finals appearances in that span. (If you’re a “The UEFA Nations League is a major tournament, too!” person, add another title and thr
Spain got to the World Cup final as the anti-Argentina. They don’t create increasingly elaborate straightjackets to Houdini themselves out of, and they don’t pursue drama and emotion at all times. They simply win. They control the ball, they play some of the most complete defense the World Cup has ever seen, and at some point they get around to scoring a winner. Sometimes it happens early — they went ahead for good in the 10th minute against Saudi Arabia, 22nd against France, 36th against Austr
Through a disappointing start, the underdog-driven group stage, France’s bursts of brilliance and Argentina’s aforementioned thirst for drama, Spain, the pre-tournament favorite, somehow reached the final almost under the radar. But while Argentina have the GOAT, France have the glamour and England have the Premier League in their backyard, Spain enter Sunday as the favorites to take home the World Cup title. Through perfect defense, a perfectly crafted system and the perfect choice to top the o
Match Details
The closest you can get to defensive perfection
There are basically two ways to produce excellent defensive numbers. If you have the talent to deploy a strong, modern possession game, you can tilt the pitch in your favor, keep your opponent as far away from your own goal as possible, counterpress in all the typical, effective ways and basically prevent your opponent from generating any sort of shot quantity whatsoever. With varying degrees of risk and aggression, this is what nearly every rich, successful club tries to pull off in mid-2020s c
If you can’t do that, there’s Option B: Create a nice, cluttered box, allow your opponent as many hopeless long-range shots as they could possibly want, and spend 90 minutes making sure they don’t get a single, clean look at the goal. This was the approach we saw from quite a few successful World Cup underdogs, and it’s one of the tenets that allow overachieving clubs like Athletic Club to, well, overachieve.
Tournament Impact
Spain have figured out a third option at the World Cup: do both brilliantly.
Spain rank first among the 48 World Cup teams in both shots allowed per possession and xG allowed per shot.
They help themselves with an excellent pressing game — they rank first in percentage of their possessions starting in the attacking third (12.1%), third in high turnovers forced (12.9 per 90 minutes) and third in passes allowed per defensive action (9.0). They give opponents little peace, and their defense starts up top with particularly solid contributions from center forward Mikel Oyarzabal and winger Álex Baena, neither of whom was chosen for their roles because of extreme scoring capabiliti
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