“O juremos con gloria morir”

When I envisioned this trilogy during the group stage, I had hoped to write a completely different ending; I had hoped the title would be the verse from Argentina’s national anthem, “Coronados de gloria vivamos” (Let us live crowned in glory), but it is the following one, “O juremos con gloria morir” (Or let us swear to die in glory). Thankfully, nobody died, but the warlike cry to fight to the bitter end, while fruitless, was what the team brought to the pitch last Sunday. There is never the ending we wish for; it’s the ending we get, and this was the coronation of Spain’s tiki-taka 2.0, which shut down Argentina completely in their 1-0 win. 

Spain, the rightful champion

In my second installment, I pointed out how Spain could turn the tables on possession against Argentina, a team not used to being without the ball. It was also true that Spain reached the final in much better form, while Argentina reached the last and most important game of the tournament running on fumes, having fought battles, physically diminished, endured the mental grind of every ridiculous conspiracy theory, and had to respond to every referee call since the group stage.

Nobody who watched the game closely could have expected the clarity of Spain’s victory. Argentina had to chase the ball all game and seemed deflated; still, a regularly low-scoring team like Spain looked in danger of giving up the advantage at the last breath. With Argentina completely gassed and their substitution windows exhausted, they still managed a last-ditch forward push, with Giuliano Simeone striking the ball over the crossbar and Messi’s shot blocked by the 11-man Spain defense. Argentina conceded a goal with zero subs left and one man down due to a red card on Enzo Fernández, and two visibly injured players: Nicolás Tagliafico and Giuliano Simeone.

At the final whistle, Spain still held a 1-0 lead, the smallest margin of victory in this sport, and that was enough to make them world champions. Rodri hit “send” on his application for a second Ballon d’Or, and a young Lamine Yamal, a player with the world at his feet at age 19, added a second major international trophy to his career with a superb World Cup performance, following Euro 2024. He wore #19, Messi’s first World Cup jersey with Argentina in 2006; this is no coincidence, and he will surely wear #10 when they open as current champions in 2030.

The trophy ceremony was every bit as cringe and embarrassing as expected, and Spain, just like Chelsea in the Club’s World Cup, had to edit President Donald Trump out of the picture. That will be yet another monster trying to hide under the bed of the biggest sporting event on the planet, as many others have done. It is just yet another ugly anecdote that only football knows how to dissociate from. 

Heated ending

The World Cup, unfortunately, ended as it started, with a giant magnifying glass on Argentina, heated reactions from players at the final whistle, and misinterpretation of players looking away from the trophy ceremony and facing their fans instead. While incidents are under investigation and sanctions are expected, there were ugly scenes involving Argentine defensive midfielder Leandro Paredes and some members of the Argentine coaching staff, who were locked in an altercation with some Spanish players. Some of them had done their fair share of heating up the game. While Paredes seems to have been provoked, there is no excuse for taking the bait.

Fixating on every bit of negativity, clickbait, or short-reel clips takes the spotlight off how impressive Spain’s World Cup victory has been. Remember when they were shut down in a goalless draw against Cape Verde, and pundits said Spain didn’t look that good? Then Cape Verde became the heroes, making Argentina sweat for their victory. US legend Landon Donovan noted, “Spain had flown under the radar”; the press was “too busy” with other teams. The bandwagon hype had forgotten that Spain had beaten France in their last three encounters before the semifinal. Spain hasn’t lost to France since 2021. Well, negativity pays with more clicks, and here we are again.

This tournament’s final saw about 30 young lads engage in a 120-minute battle for the biggest trophy on earth. When you play with so much passion, fire is the natural consequence. The images of players shaking hands (even Paredes, as emotions settled), the embrace by the coaches (who were teacher and alumni in coaching school), the Yamal and Messi passing-the-torch moment, and the post-match dialoging amongst players (most of them know each other from the European circuit, and some have been or still are teammates in their European clubs); none of that seems to matter. 

Argentina was the villain, from AI-doctored clip campaigns with links to Polymarket and Kashi to influence their prediction market system to this frustrating human tendency to jump on a hate bandwagon. That, unfortunately, comes with the territory of being one of the best teams in the world, of a country that has given the world some of the best footballers and has time and again rebuilt from one generation to the next, managing to stay competitive. 

Banter is expected in football, but in the rise of the AI-fueled social media era, it has been amplified to an unprecedented extent for the first time. The halftime show and hydration/snacks commercial breaks haven’t done as much damage to the game as all these bad-faith influencers trying to affect the monetization of sports in future markets have. That is something that needs to be regulated; this is the game’s, any game’s, worst enemy.

Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini, there will not be another one. 

But enough of those who use football to spotlight the ugliest of our humanity. Allow me to return to what inspired this trilogy, the man I am not afraid to cross bias to say he is, the unarguably best player of all time. Lio, “la pulga atomica,” known as “la pulga,” “the flea,” for his short stature, “atomic” for his lethality. Spain’s defensive half, Mikel Merino, blocked a shot with his face in the 117th minute; in a game where Messi couldn’t shine, he still managed to get his last word. Unfortunately, it was a whisper, not the statement fans were longing for.  

That might have been his last show in FIFA, but nobody is ready to see him go. Many dream of seeing him play a few minutes in the Copa America coming in 2028, but the reality is that we can ask him for nothing more. He has done enough. As the Argentina national anthem says, he lives crowned in glory, and (not “or”) proved that he was ready to die with glory. Messi has done every human bit and more, enduring critics, injuries, defeats, and a lot of bad faith. 

Even at 39, he did more than the tournament’s MVP, Rodri (Spain); he carried his team; he was just two goals shy of Mbappe for the golden boot; and while his final match was quiet, he still managed to have the last say. This contrasts with Zinedine Zidane, who, in his last FIFA tournament, was awarded the tournament’s MVP despite receiving a straight red card for headbutting an opposing player in the loss to Italy in the final at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was right to ask, “What else did Messi have to do?” and to accuse FIFA of moving the goalposts again for Messi: “Standards are always different when it comes to Messi.” Zlatan compared Luka Modrić earning the 2018 MVP without winning the trophy for his nation, Croatia, which lost to France, and asked, “What changed now?” And I want to add to that: where does this fit into any conspiracy theory? There will be no complaint from Lionel; he was not interested in another individual award when the most important trophy on the planet just slipped away. 

After the noise settles and some time goes by, the hope is that fans in the US market understand that every game, every goal, every assist Messi does in MLS is living football legend happening in our national tournament every week. However, don’t expect him on the pitch until August, following the mandated 21-day rest period by FIFA and FIFPRO (the players’ union).

The end of 2026, and the beginning of 2030

“No nos vamos nada” (we are not leaving, no way!). It is one of dozens of chants heard among Argentinian supporters; it’s usually heard when celebrating, when they are expected to leave orderly, and it never works. Argentina took to the streets to thank the national team for this journey that connects all of us around the world. The watch party I attended at Portland’s Argentine cafe Baires Home, with a few hundred people, also saw a significant portion of fans stay, play drums, chant, and commune one last time until 2030. One fan told me, “I am not sad because we lost; I am sad because it is the end of this,” pointing at the party that followed the final. 

Meanwhile, in basements worldwide, the petition demanding that Argentina be banned from the World Cup and not allowed to play in the final was now closed. Argentinaout.com read, “Thank you, Spain,” with 23,3 million signatures, had broken the Guinness World Record for most signatures on a petition, and the world’s biggest tantrum. 

“No nos vamos nada”

The petition has no official standing, and while investigations and sanctions are underway for specific players in concrete incidents, this squad isn’t going anywhere. This team will still have half of its current squad in their prime by the centennial 2030 World Cup. Even with Messi out of the equation, they promise to give those 23.3 million plenty more to hate on until their scrolling fingers require surgery. 

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