Rainbows for Spain, teardrops for Argentina

Spain from Euro champs to world champions 

Argentina’s Lionel Messi took football to more people and inspired new players and could now take a bow, mission accomplished

The Final’s unsung player Argentina’s Emiliano Martinez with 11 saves

Ferran Torres broke the stalemate

The future of world football: Pau Cubasi the best young player of the tournament at age 19 reminiscent of the days of France’s Kylian Mbappe in 2018

The beautiful game may just have got a bit ugly on the big stage which could be understandable in the high stakes cyber age, but football won and eventually found a new champion as the old guard gave way to the dawn of another era.

That Spain beat Argentina 1-0 to lift the World Cup does not tell the actual story as the final ended in a scoreless stalemate with a tie-breaker in New York, USA being the factor that separated two entities, one a tried and tested horse and the other looking for new ground.

To the diehard football follower and the average common follower anywhere in the world, the final or the climax to what became the most followed or witnessed sporting event on the global stage, was a kind of an anti-climax.

Taking nothing away from Spain that deserved its goose, Argentina could not use the occasion to prove they cannot be written off as defending champions even though they were subjected to some vulnerable moments that only justified the pundits or the majority of independent followers who did not tip them as favourites.

But Spain, although not in a rousing way and a far cry from a clinical performance that knocked out the hottest contender France in the semifinals, had what was needed for a would-be champion. From the start the Spaniards kept pressing for the elusive match winning strike that came in the second 15-minute half of the tie-breaker time thanks to a goal by Ferran Torres.

In contrast Messi was a man completely isolated in the opposing camp although at the same time there was nothing more he could have given Argentina whose team he inspired into a world champion outfit four years ago when he showcased his best days.

But at least Messi can be as satisfied a player who braved the minefields and took his team right up to the final that made him in all probability take the final bow ending a career that showcased and took football to more people than any other in his generation when nothing short of the best is accepted.

If there was one player among the Argentines who was in the game, goal keeper Emiliano Martinez fits the bill for as many as 11 saves that at least kept his team in the running beyond the official duration and into the tiebreaker that not many on the field and in the stands will want.

France did for football what football needed. A new champ and a new breed of players whose average age was 26 years. Football would rather have a new unfamiliar champion than one that has had its days of glory.