Argentina lost more than a World Cup final. It

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — This summer time’s World Cup shall be remembered for a lot of issues.

It was the first to be performed in three international locations, the first with 48 groups, and the general attendance practically doubled the earlier file. Norway’s Erling Haaland and Cape Verde’s Vozinha have been charming while Egypt and Canada both gained World Cup video games for the first time, advancing to the spherical of 16.

And Spain, wonderful Spain, gave up just one purpose in eight video games to dethrone the reigning champions and turn out to be the first nation in historical past to own both the boys’s and girls’s World Cup titles at the same time.

But the match will also be remembered for a classless and churlish Argentina, which without end stained itself with a thuggish efficiency in the sport and an ungracious one afterward.

If La Albiceleste had merely stored its composure, it will have secured a place next to Brazil and Germany, the only other international locations to attain three finals in 4 World Cups, as one of the best groups of all time. Instead, some of its gamers turned the postgame handshakes into a brawl, with Argentine midfielder Leandro Paredes drawing a purple card for grabbing Spain’s Eric Garcia by the throat and shoving him to the turf.

It was believed to be the only purple card ever handed out after a World Cup remaining, and the ignominy it introduced was well-deserved. But the childishness was just starting. When Spain assembled on the rostrum to settle for the World Cup trophy, which had been Argentina’s moments earlier, the South Americans turned their backs.

More than an hour later Lionel Messi, who has cemented his stature as the best participant in World Cup historical past, dirty that standing by main the gamers out of the locker room and through a back exit to the staff bus, avoiding the media many had been so keen to converse with during the staff’s unbeaten run to the ultimate.

It was an assault on class and decorum as effectively as violation of FIFA guidelines, which require gamers to go away the stadium through a “mixed zone” accessible to media. They are usually not required to stop or converse, but actually somebody owed some accountability to the tens of hundreds of followers in Argentine jerseys who packed Times Square and MetLife Stadium over the weekend and the hundreds of thousands in Argentina who stuffed plazas and city squares to watch the staff play.

“We’ve been great in victory and we need to be great in defeat,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said moments after Paredes was booked for assault. “We have shown today that we know how to lose too. We lost the game and we accept that.”

Scaloni, who did handle the media, later broke down in tears.

“I already cried all the tears I had in the dressing room,” he said in Spanish.

Scaloni, 48, could also be out of a job when his contract expires in December, but his message for the followers was don’t cry for me, Argentina.

“It is hard to ask people to enjoy this equally. It is very hard to convince people that this is a triumph,” said Scaloni, who has lost just twice in 15 World Cup video games.

“When you win, not everything is good. When you lose, not everything is bad.”

But while Argentina was being petty and petulant, Spain was virtually excellent in every means. Not only did it concede just one purpose in the match, but it also held Argentina without a shot into additional time Sunday — the first time that’s ever occurred in a World Cup remaining — and ran its unbeaten streak to a file 38 video games general.

The win, which got here on substitute Ferran Torres’ purpose moments into the second extra-time period — and less than 20 minutes after Argentina was diminished to 10 males when Enzo Fernández was given a second yellow card for a silly deal with — not only made Spain the first nation to be the boys’s and girls’s world champion at the same time, but also made it the first to be the boys’s world, European and Olympic champion at the same time.

No nation in historical past has dominated the game as Spain is dominating it now. And since Spain is the second-youngest staff to win the World Cup in 56 years, La Roja might be on top for some time.

“After the match, some of the players who have been with us the longest asked me, ‘Coach, what is left for us [to] win? We’ve won everything,’” said Spain’s supervisor Luis de la Fuente. “I told them, well the next match in September.”

That’s a UEFA Nations League match with England, which completed third in this World Cup. Just a little additional down the street is the 2030 World Cup, which Spain will co-host, making it the first nation in historical past to defend its title at home.

“When you arrive at a moment like today and think about the journey we’ve taken, you realize the importance of that process,” said De la Fuente, a former youth national staff coach who managed many of the gamers on the World Cup staff — among them Dani Olmo, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal, Unai Simón, the match’s top goalkeeper, and Rodri, match’s top participant — to U19 and U21 European titles.

“We certainly wouldn’t be here today — we wouldn’t have achieved anything — without the journey we’ve shared with these players,” the coach continued. “We have that raw material, those wonderful Spanish footballers. And the way they compete, that is what brought us here.

“That goes back many years.”

De la Fuente, soft-spoken and professorial, is also scrupulously well mannered, an instance many of his gamers observe. And while it’s undoubtedly simpler to show grace and dignity in victory than it’s in defeat, the distinction in the best way Argentina and Spain exited the World Cup was far larger than the hole that separated them on the scoreboard, one thing De la Fuente unwittingly highlighted in talking about his staff late Sunday.

“It seems people were surprised that, alongside talent and brilliance, good people can also play the game,” he said. “This proves that it is possible; that good, supportive, generous people with strong values can form a genuine team.

“We played against the best national teams in the world, yet we were the best team. We demonstrated that a team built on good people — supportive people, people who hold values and principles that prioritize the common good over individual interests. Traveling with people like that makes for a better, safer journey.”

In Spain’s case, it also makes a World Cup champion.

Times employees writers Eduard Cauich and Jad El Reda contributed to this story.