{"id":812397,"date":"2026-07-20T14:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812397\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:40:11","slug":"a-unique-collective-experience-spain-media-hail-teams-world-cup-triumph-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812397\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A unique collective experience\u2019: Spain media hail team\u2019s World Cup triumph | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes football is about more than just football. As Spain\u2019s still-breathless media pointed out on Monday, the national side\u2019s victory against Argentina<\/a> the previous night was an epochal event that had transcended talk of tactics, grumbles over hydration breaks and displays of distinctly ungentlemanly conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the triumph of Luis de la Fuente and of an extraordinary group of footballers who \u2013 in a sport of stars and social media divas \u2013 have prioritised team values, joint intelligence, and the conviction of hard work,\u201d said an editorial in El Pa\u00eds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, the paper added, it had also yielded a moment of much-needed \u201ccollective emotion\u201d for Spain<\/a> and given it so much to be proud of at a turbulent political time: \u201cIt\u2019s easy to see in this team, in its diversity of origins and regions, in the character of its stars, in its style of play, and in its ability to connect with fans and citizens alike, a reflection of what this country is, and what it can be, in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

El Mundo couldn\u2019t have agreed more. \u201cOur country has lived a unique collective experience,\u201d it said in a leader<\/a>. \u201cThanks to a group of young people who are as dazzling as they are relatable, we have seen the finest values of a Spain that is modern, exciting and capable of looking to the future with huge confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABC, which opted for the succinct and undeniably true headline of \u201cEspa\u00f1a Invencible\u201d, was also in celebratory mood. But it couldn\u2019t help contrasting Spain\u2019s behaviour with that of its graceless opponents, describing Argentina\u2019s conduct as \u201cthuggish\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rub\u00e9n Ca\u00f1izares wrote: \u201cUnlike Argentina, De la Fuente\u2019s team had the courtesy to give Argentina a guard of honour as the \u2018worthy\u2019 runner-up \u2026 and even Sergio Ramos, who was in charge of carrying the World Cup<\/a> trophy to the stage where Infantino and Trump presented it, embraced Messi in a warm, consoling hug, as Messi began to dissolve in a sea of tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the sports daily Marca, Jos\u00e9 I P\u00e9rez set about the not particularly difficult task of explaining how Spain had come to lift the trophy for a second time. \u201cSpain had more possession, created more chances, had more shots than Argentina, and looked more dangerous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team was the better side in the final \u2026 Argentina, like all the other teams in the tournament except Belgium, couldn\u2019t score against Spain, who have only conceded one goal in their eight World Cup matches. It\u2019s a spectacular record. It\u2019s unprecedented in the World Cup for a winning team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in La Vanguardia<\/a>, Jordi Bast\u00e9 said that Spain\u2019s persistence and purity had somehow managed to cut through the whole ridiculous, vulgar circus of the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf a Martian had landed on Earth yesterday and turned on the television, he would scarcely have guessed that the World Cup final was about to begin,\u201d Bast\u00e9 wrote. \u201cHe would have thought he was watching the opening of a casino or billionaires\u2019 convention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the distractions of Donald Trump, assorted celebrities and hydration breaks, he wrote, \u201cthe Spanish national team was the only one that understood what this was all about\u201d, adding: \u201cBecause when the noise dies down, when the drones are withdrawn, when the VIP boxes empty, all that\u2019s left is the game. And in that respect, the Spanish team was the best in the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes football is about more than just football. As Spain\u2019s still-breathless media pointed out on Monday, the national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-812397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}