RUSAGARA MUVUNANKIKO Valens
Sixteen years after lifting their only World Cup trophy, Spain are back in the final and they got there the hard way.
La Roja’s road to Sunday’s showpiece at MetLife Stadium wasn’t the easy journey many expected from a squad brimming with talent.
It started with a stumble. In their opening group match, Spain were held to a scoreless draw by Cape Verde, a result that raised early questions about a team many had picked as tournament favorites after their Euro 2024 triumph.
Instead of unraveling, though, Spain turned that shaky start into the foundation of something remarkable: a defense that would go on to be the stingiest in the entire tournament.
Match by match, the doubts faded. Spain ground out results against Uruguay and Portugal, then survived a tense quarterfinal against Belgium, the only team all tournament to find a way past Spain’s back line.
One goal conceded in seven matches. That’s the number that defines this Spanish side: not the flair of Lamine Yamal or the calm authority of a midfield stacked with talent, but a defensive discipline that suffocated even the most explosive attacks the world had to offer.
No performance made that clearer than Tuesday night in Dallas.
Spain walked into their semifinal against France as the underdog on paper. Les Bleus arrived in Texas as FIFA’s top-ranked team, carrying an attack that had produced a flood of goals throughout the tournament, spearheaded by Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé. France were chasing history of their own, a bid to become the first nation to reach three straight World Cup finals.
It never got going.
Spain struck first in the 22nd minute, when a foul on the electric young winger Lamine Yamal inside the box gave the Spanish a penalty. Mikel Oyarzabal stepped up and buried it, sending Spain into halftime with the lead against a France side unused to playing from behind.
The second goal arrived in the 58th minute, a slick give-and-go between Pedro Porro and Dani Olmo that ended with Porro finishing coolly past goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
From there, Spain’s defense did what it had done all tournament: closed the door. Mbappé, Dembélé, Olise, and the rest of France’s vaunted attack managed just a fraction of an expected goal across ten shots. The final whistle confirmed what had been apparent for most of the second half, this was not a coin-flip encounter, but a statement.
Spain 2, France 0. A team of destiny had made its case.
With the win, Spain secured a spot in their first World Cup final since that triumphant run in 2010, where they’ll face the winner of Argentina and England, who meet in the second semifinal in Atlanta. Whoever emerges, Spain will enter Sunday’s final in New Jersey as a side transformed no longer the shaky team held scoreless by Cape Verde in the group stage, but a battle-tested, defensively relentless contender that has silenced doubters at every turn.
From an underwhelming opener to a statement win over the tournament’s most feared attack, Spain’s path to the final tells a story of resilience as much as talent. Now, one match stands between this Spanish generation and a second star on their crest.
