Spain's Rodri lifts the World Cup trophy alongside teammates as they celebrate their win on Sunday.Amanda Perobelli/Reuters
It took five weeks, billions of dollars and all the top soccer talent in the world, but FIFA finally managed it. It turned the biggest sports event in the world into a bad awards show.
For most of the planned running time of Sunday’s World Cup final, the focus wasn’t soccer. It was the pre-game show, the halftime show and the Donald Trump show, with an amateur karate demonstration interspersed in between.
But right as it was sliding into the reputational abyss, the World Cup saved the World Cup. An unwatchable regulation turned into a bonkers end game, a wild extra period and a two-fisted conclusion. How many times have you seen a player ejected after the game is over? Because that happened on Sunday.
Enzo Fernández was the first of two Argentine players to get tossed. In the 93rd minute, he tried to chop Spain’s Pau Cubarsí in half. He was the person sent off and the match could start. Shortly thereafter, Spain thought it had won, but an inadvertent stepping on toes cancelled its goal.
Spain scored early in the second half of added extra time – an emblematic Spanish move starting deep in its own end, featuring about a hundred passes, and a ball headed back across goal. It doesn’t matter who made the play. When Spain puts one in, they all did it.
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It was only at that point that Argentina kicked off another of its great escapes. It is the only team in World Cup final history to not register a shot on goal. But in the final minutes, it made every frantic effort. The defending champion nearly had its equalizer, but missed twice.
You almost couldn’t believe how much you couldn’t believe it. That is the level of faith Lionel Messi had created during his run in this tournament. But this time, he didn’t have it to give, and Argentina could not pull it out of him.
Spain won 1-0. It is world champion for the second time in its history, and will co-host the next World Cup.
After the final whistle, a full-on brawl broke out on the field. Not a soccer brawl, which is about as rough as a Muppet fight. The real thing. Punches swung and all. No need to guess who started it. Argentina’s Leandro Paredes was ejected. It was only about the 10th thing he’d done all day that warranted such harsh measures.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino (right) speaks to U.S. President Donald Trump as they walk offstage after presenting the FIFA World Cup Trophy to Spain on Sunday.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
About a half hour after it ended, U.S. President Donald Trump wandered out to award the trophy. He was flanked by FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum trailed behind at a respectful distance.
Trump was booed when he entered. He was booed again when the medals started flying. Maybe this is why he had Sheinbaum and Carney stand in the greeting line with him – spreading the blame around.
Argentina moved swiftly through the greeting line. Messi headed down to the other end of the pitch where the Argentine fans were thickest. For a moment, he was alone there, looking devastated, being serenaded as tears rolled down his cheeks.
When the time came to hand over the trophy – and in a break with tradition – Trump and Infantino carried it together. Trump appeared to be waiting for an invitation to join the Spain team photo. No such invitation was offered. He lingered on the margins for the exploding confetti photo, then left. In his way, he looked as forlorn as Messi.
Sunday’s game was a lot of things, but most notably it was a visual demonstration of the struggle for sport’s soul. It’s a cultural sacrament and it’s a business, and it’s getting harder to keep the two things separate.
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The afternoon was dedicated to business. They needed to cram in so many musical numbers that America the Beautiful was sung nearly an hour ahead of its usual spot. The crowd – largely foreign, and unfamiliar with America’s love songs to itself – didn’t bother standing up.
An anthem, two ringside announcers, Tom Cruise trying to do the big speech in Independence Day, soldiers from every branch of the service, a flyover – actually, two flyovers if you count a fleet of helicopters escorting the President low over the stadium.
The halftime show was unusual in the sense that once it ended, you didn’t think, ‘Actually, that wasn’t that bad.’ It was that bad. Madonna was ‘in’ it, but didn’t bother performing live. Instead, she appeared at a tunnel mouth, looking a little wobbly. Justin Bieber took a handoff from Ted Lasso and did an acoustic guitar number. What is this? Open mic night at the coffee shop? Only Shakira seemed to get the assignment. Also, the Muppets were there for some reason. Shades of what was to come.
Great credit to the crowd. Most refused to engage with the silliness. Many made a show of ignoring the halftime, chatting amongst themselves instead.
After an introduction from Jason Sudeikis acting as Ted Lasso, Justin Bieber performed during the World Cup halftime show on Sunday.Pamela Smith/The Associated Press
The attendees paid with their patience. Until the ending, what they got was a classic turtle and hare tale – if the turtle spent an hour and a half beating the hell out of the hare.
Early on, cameras caught shots of Trump fondling the World Cup trophy in his bulletproof luxury box, while Infantino leered toothily at him. Every time these two get together, it’s like an outtake from The Lord of the Rings.
If FIFA had its way, the World Cup final would be a concert with a soccer performance. Maybe Lionel Messi could hurry it up and do his usual two hours of work in 15 minutes, giving Bieber 90 minutes to do freestyle jazz.
But as it happened throughout this tournament, the soccer refused to stick to FIFA’s Broadway business plan. Ironically, it’s the enormous sporting success of this World Cup that will make that struggle with FIFA’s grasping even more difficult going forward.