Full player ratings for the Spain vs. Argentina World Cup final will be posted here at the final whistle Sunday — every starter and substitute from both teams, graded 1-10. Kickoff is 3 p.m. ET at MetLife Stadium; ratings land shortly after the trophy is lifted, extra time and penalties included if it comes to … Read more
The World Cup’s yellow card rules are built around one goal: making sure no star misses the final over an accumulation technicality. FIFA wipes all accumulated yellow cards after the quarterfinals, meaning every booking from the group stage through the quarters was erased before the semis. A single yellow in the semifinal carries no suspension … Read more
No — the World Cup final does not go straight to penalties. If Sunday’s Spain-Argentina final is tied after 90 minutes, the teams first play 30 minutes of extra time, split into two 15-minute halves with stoppage time added. Only if the score is still level after 120 minutes does the final go to a … Read more
If the World Cup final ends in a tie after 90 minutes, the teams play 30 minutes of extra time — two 15-minute periods, with stoppage time added to each and a sixth substitution unlocked. If it’s still level after 120 minutes, the champion is decided by a penalty shootout: best-of-five kicks, then sudden death. … Read more
Spain has reached exactly two World Cup finals in its history: the one it won in 2010, and the one it plays Sunday. The 2010 final in Johannesburg remains one of the tournament’s iconic endings — a brutal, card-strewn 0-0 against the Netherlands broken by Andrés Iniesta’s volley in the 116th minute, delivering La Roja’s … Read more
Lionel Messi’s World Cup finals record entering Sunday: two finals played, one won, one lost, three goals scored. He lost the 2014 final 1-0 to Germany on Mario Götze’s extra-time winner — and won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player anyway — then completed his career’s great unfinished business in 2022, scoring twice … Read more
Sunday’s World Cup final is a twenty-year age gap wearing two number 10-caliber talents: Lionel Messi, 39, playing his third final in what may be his last World Cup match, against Lamine Yamal, who turned 19 six days before the final and is playing his first. They were born twenty years and three weeks apart … Read more
The all-time record between Spain and Argentina reads 14 matches: six wins for Spain, six for Argentina, two draws. Neither side has ever led the series by more than the early Argentina run — La Albiceleste won the first three meetings before Spain’s first victory in 1961 — and neither has ever beaten the other … Read more
Spain and Argentina’s head-to-head record is dead level: 14 meetings, six wins each, two draws — and remarkably, Sunday’s World Cup final is only their second competitive match ever. The first was 60 years ago, a 2-1 Argentina win in the 1966 World Cup group stage in Birmingham, when Luis Artime’s brace overturned Pirri’s opener. … Read more
Spain enters Sunday’s World Cup final as the favorite — the consensus across sportsbooks and prediction markets — on the strength of the most dominant defensive tournament ever recorded: one goal conceded in seven games and a record six clean sheets. Argentina, the defending champion, is the live underdog with an attacking trump card: La … Read more