Lionel Messi<\/a>, the reigning champions, will be seeking to become the first to repeat in 64 years while Spain will be playing in the title game for just the second time ever. And the similarities to its first trip, in 2010, are uncanny.<\/p>\nSixteen years ago Spain became just the second reigning European champion to win a World Cup. It will enter Sunday\u2019s game as the reigning European champion.<\/p>\n
In the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, Spain ran off a 35-game unbeaten streak, which matched the longest in history at the time. La Roja will enter Sunday\u2019s game with a 37-game unbeaten streak, which matches the current longest streak in history.<\/p>\n
And that 2010 team was known for an absence of ego and a depth of character, a blue-collar collection of quiet superstars built around a core of Andr\u00e9s Iniesta, Xavi Hern\u00e1ndez and Carles Puyol, players who emphasized humility, unity and selflessness.<\/p>\n
This team? It\u2019s the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re one big family,\u201d center back Pau Cubars\u00ed said in Spanish.<\/p>\n
A family that has already achieved its goal, according to coach Luis de la Fuente. So while Argentina may be feeling the pressure of chasing World Cup history, De la Fuente said his team is playing with house money<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in the idea that finals are there to be won. They\u2019re there to be enjoyed,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s to come could be the icing on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course a cake is nothing without the icing. But then Spain hasn\u2019t had to separate joy from success in this World Cup, enjoying an unbeaten run to the final whose only blemish has been a tournament-opening draw with Cape Verde.<\/p>\n
That was the first of six clean sheets for Spanish keeper Unai Sim\u00f3n, though it\u2019s really been a group effort with Sim\u00f3n facing an average of just two shots on goal a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team never ceases to amaze me,\u201d De la Fuente said. \u201cThe scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
De la Fuente, 65, whose only senior international appearance as a player came in the 1988 Olympics, coached Spain\u2019s U-23 team to a silver medal in the Tokyo Games in 2021 then took over the national team a year later, after it crashed out of a second straight World Cup in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
De la Fuente spent nearly two decades coaching at the youth level, including nine years with Spain\u2019s U19 and U21 national teams. But seven months after taking over the senior team, he led later Spain to its first UEFA Nations League title and a year after that it won its first Champions League title in more than a decade. La Roja has lost just twice in 48 games under De la Fuente, who has the highest winning percentage of any man who has managed more than nine games for Spain.<\/p>\n
Given his background, De la Fuente trusts young players \u2014 with an average age of 26.7, Spain has the sixth-youngest roster in the World Cup \u2014 and his starting lineup includes two teenagers in Cubars\u00ed and forward Lamine Yamal. The core of the team \u2014 Sim\u00f3n, Mikel Merino, Dani Olmo, Rodri, Mikel Oyarzabal, Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz \u2014 are players he coached to European youth-level championships and ones he has known for half their lives.<\/p>\n
That has given the team a level of familiarity and trust that goes both ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team never ceases to amaze me,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThe scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
And they\u2019ve gotten there, said right back Pedro Porro, another product of De la Fuente\u2019s youth teams, by all pulling in the same direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the very first day we got here \u2014 not just me, but the whole team \u2014 we\u2019ve been working toward a common goal,\u201d Porro said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the process. There are no excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n
That, too, is something De la Fuente brought to the job, though it\u2019s not an original concept for Spain. It\u2019s more like deja vu all over again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are ordinary, generous people,\u201d the coach said. \u201cWe\u2019ve recaptured the spirit of 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0If something happened once, it can happen again. That\u2019s kind of what Yogi Berra was getting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[40502,150,152,151,15516,132809,339,2419,132807,5045,73139,10749,9611,52304,5046,132808,3692,7741],"class_list":["post-375582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-argentina","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-champion","tag-coach-luis","tag-goal","tag-history","tag-la-fuente","tag-player","tag-process","tag-simon","tag-spain","tag-sunday","tag-team","tag-title-game","tag-world-cup","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}