Hero, zero and more from Spain’s win over Argentina in the World Cup final Sunday at MetLife Stadium:
Hero
With one kick, Ferran Torres wrote the first line of his obituary.
Roughly 10 minutes after having a go-ahead goal controversially wiped away, Spain’s Nico Williams headed a cross backward from the byline, finding Torres — who came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute — for the World Cup-winning goal in the 106th minute.
Torres’ first goal of the tournament gave Spain its second World Cup title (2010).
Zero
Argentina looked like it had fewer players nearly the entire match.
Then, Enzo Fernández truly left his nation short-handed.
Fernández, who first received a yellow card in the 82nd minute for dissent, essentially sealed his team’s fate when he was booked for another yellow card — equaling a red card — in stoppage time, leaving Argentina to play extra time with only 10 players.
Unsung hero
Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez — who made the Cup-winning save four years earlier — did everything in his power to make up for an Argentina squad that was outplayed and outmanned, making 11 saves in the 1-0 loss, which marked the most in a World Cup final in at least 60 years.
Key stat: 0
Official shots on goal for Argentina.
Lionel Messi and the defending champs failed to register a shot, while Spain recorded 12 shots on target.
Argentina became the first team in 60 years to take zero shots of any kind through the first 90 minutes of the final.
Quote of the day
“All finals are difficult, but when you have Messi on the other team, you always get nervous. But we always depended on ourselves, our football, and we’ve shown it again. Destiny was written today. We were going to win.”
— Ferran Torres
