Spain meets Argentina in a historic World Cup final on Sunday which sees the reigning champions of Europe and South America battle for football’s ultimate prize.
Holders Argentina are bidding to become the first team in 64 years to successfully defend the title, in what is almost certainly the final World Cup match of captain Lionel Messi’s career.
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Spain are aiming to thwart those ambitions by clinching the country’s second World Cup crown following their maiden victory in 2010.
US President Donald Trump will be among a star-studded crowd of just over 80,000 spectators at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey as the largest World Cup in history reaches its climax.
World Cup officials have said they are “monitoring closely” air quality from Canadian wildfires affecting the region around the final, which kicks off at 5am AEST on Monday morning.
Here are the biggest talking points ahead of the World Cup final!
Air quality concern ahead of WC Final | 05:07
ARGENTINA’S CONTROVERSIAL RUN TO THE FINAL
The narrative that just will not go away this World Cup has been the conspiracy theory that FIFA favoured Argentina to ensure they reached the final.
There were accusations of the reigning champions being handed an easier draw given they met Cabo Verde, Egypt and Switzerland in the knockout stages before meeting England in the semi-final.
That was easily explained by FIFA introducing seedings to guarantee that the top four ranked nations could not meet each other until the final four as long as they topped their groups, which Argentina, Spain, England and France all did.
The quality of their earlier opponents was also determined by upsets.
Cabo Verde were given a one per cent chance of finishing second in their group, while Egypt enjoyed their best ever World Cup campaign.
Switzerland got to the quarter-finals after overcoming Colombia on penalties.
But the accusation that grew loudest was Argentina being aided by the referees and VAR.
The murmurs began when Lionel Messi was not sent off for a careless challenge in their opening game against Algeria when VAR has stepped in on other occasions to give offenders their marching orders.
They then exploded after the Egypt game when the North Africans had a goal disallowed for a foul in the build-up during a wild game in which Argentina came from 2-0 down to win in regulation time.
“Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running,” Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said after the game.
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Hassan’s claim outraged FIFA’s refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina.
“Constructive discussion about decisions will always be part of football, but unfounded allegations have no place in our sport,” the Italian said.
“Nobody can claim that FIFA refereeing can be influenced by anyone, not even by the FIFA president.”
Collina’s comments eluded to Gianni Infantino’s involvement in the tournament.
The FIFA president gave US President Donald Trump his wish in ensuring Folarin Balogun’s red card was overturned, making the USA striker free to play in the co-host’s 4-1 Round of 16 loss to Belgium.
While Infantino has also been ridiculed online for appearing to be supporting Argentina at their games.
He has a history of bending the rules to suit Messi with his Inter Miami added to last year’s expanded Club World Cup despite not being the MLS champions.
The accusations reached boiling point again in the first half of the win against England with Enzo Fernandez, who went on to score an 85th minute equaliser, not being booked for crashing into back of England midfielder Elliot Anderson and collecting the back of his head in the process.
“I believe this is a situation, maybe it’s not as brutal, but maybe any other nation it would be looked at by VAR,” former Ghana international Kevin-Prince Boateng said on SBS.
“But I see Argentina is favoured by the referees.”
Such suggestions anger the Argentines, who say their run of incredible comebacks has not received any external assistance.
Cabo Verde took them to extra-time.
They were two goals down against Egypt.
They were level with Switzerland when Breel Embolo was sent off in a case of mistaken identity when he was given a second yellow for simulation.
Argentina then broke down the ten men Swiss in extra-time.
And of course they trailed England until the 85th minute.
Switzerland’s Embolo sent off for dive | 00:22
Messi asked about such questions of the legitimacy of his team’s escape acts after the semi-final victory.
The legend was having none of it.
“It’s crazy what we have achieved… this can make someone sad, they can say whatever they want,” Messi told reporters.
“This group shows no one is giving us anything for free.”
His manager Lionel Scaloni shared the same view.
“Honestly, people have been saying those kinds of things about Argentina for a very long time,” he said. “Social media magnifies everything. That’s where the debates begin. But there hasn’t been any favouritism.”
Instead, Scaloni puts down their success to an elite mentality.
“This group is difficult to explain,” he said. “It is a show of the collectiveness, the brotherhood that we are in, the willingness to fight to the very end.
“I know the guys. They fear nothing.”
Argentina STUN England with late goals | 02:54
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE HALF-TIME SHOW?
Another thing that has had football fans up in arms this World Cup is reports FIFA will introduce of a 30-minute half-time break for the final to accommodate a Super Bowl-style half-time show.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the performance from the likes of Justin Bieber, Madonna and Shakira, and is being curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, will be “definitely the biggest stage ever”, with “a couple of billion” people expected to watch.
The show will go for 11 minutes with the half an hour break to also accommodate 15 minutes of analysis by the broadcasters.
In doing so, FIFA are breaking their own laws, which state that a half-time break cannot be longer than 15 minutes.
But they showed their hand during last year’s Club World Cup final at the same venue by having a 25-minute break to stage a half-time show.
Doubt still surrounds the length of the break with new reports emerging over the weekend saying the show will still be 11 minutes but the interval will only be 17 minutes.
Regardless, it has been incredibly unpopular with football purists.
There will also be a closing ceremony 90 minutes before kick off to give a double dose of entertainment.
“FIFA appears to be on a mission to Americanise football into soccer,” The Telegraph’s Jason Burt wrote.
“The headliners are, and always should be, out on the pitch wearing shirts, shorts, socks and football boots and kicking a ball with the aim of scoring a goal.
“That is it. That is all that matters. If it was not the case, football would not be so popular. The rest is greed with football in danger of eating itself.”
While football journalist Seb Stafford-Bloor took to social media to raise concerns about the impact such a lengthy pause will have on performance.
“A 30 minute half time show is obviously nonsense for all sorts of conditioning and legislative reasons, but in plain terms it’s yet another instance of the football coming second,” he wrote.
Not everyone is against the idea, however, with industry leaders backing FIFA’s big call.
“The people complaining are missing the point,” Michael Gietzen, CEO of events and PR firm Identity, told The Independent.
“Football has its own rhythm and its own rules and of course that matters. But a World Cup final isn’t ‘most of the time.’ It happens once every four years, in front of the biggest audience any single sporting event can pull. Treating it like a normal weekend fixture is the mistake, not the half-time show.
“A good half-time show isn’t a distraction from the football. It’s part of the reason people remember exactly where they were when they watched it. A few extra minutes to get that right isn’t a compromise, it’s FIFA recognising that the final is a cultural event as much as a sporting one.
“Purists may call that a dilution. I’d call it FIFA catching up to what a decent proportion of audiences have wanted for years. A final like this comes round once every four years. Play it safe and you waste the moment.”
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France STUNNED by supreme Spain | 02:20
MESSI’S BATTLE WITH HEIR TO THRONE
On the pitch, the star attraction is going to be the battle between Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal.
Barcelona’s greatest ever player bizarrely gave the Catalan giants’ new star boy a bath nearly two decades ago.
The odds of them then meeting in a World Cup final had to be slim.
“It’s unbelievable,” Yamal’s teammate Mikel Merino said. “The first time I saw it, I thought it was AI. It’s funny how life works sometimes. You have these situations you think is scripted by someone. But it’s just how life works, the coincidences of life.”
Anyway, here we are with a battle of generations to play out in New Jersey.
There are two years between the pair with 39-year-old Messi becoming the oldest outfield player to ever play in a World Cup final.
While Yamal, who turned 19 earlier this week, is looking to follow in the footsteps of Pele, Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe being become a world champion as a teenager.
Their respective performances on Monday morning could also decided the game’s biggest individual honour.
“The World Cup is the decisive point for the Ballon d’Or,” former Spain midfielder Gaizka Mendieta told goal.com.
“For the same reasons Harry Kane might have secured it, Lamine Yamal could still do so. He had an amazing season despite injuries and was very important for Barcelona. He remains vital for Spain.
“If Spain wins, we must look at their squad for candidates. Mikel Oyarzabal is another fantastic player people have discovered. If Argentina win, Messi will win it.”
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La Liga champions Barcelona are basking in the glory of having a huge footprint on the final, while superstars from their rivals Real Madrid, Mbappe and Jude Bellingham, had to settle for a third-place playoff.
Both Messi and Yamal emerged from Barca’s world famous academy, La Masia, while seven of Yamal’s club teammates are in Spain’s World Cup squad.
“Messi has also reached the final, and I’m delighted,” Barcelona president Joan Laporta told RAC1.
“He’s a source of pride for La Masia. Messi is the past and the present, and Lamine is the present and the future. We’re very happy to have what is the genuine Barca style of play.
“As president, I’m proud to have developed these two players at home, and if we add Joan Garcia, Eric Garcia, [Pau] Cubarsi, who’s having a spectacular World Cup, [Dani] Olmo, Gavi, Pedri, Ferran [Torres]… It’s spectacular.”
The rivalry between Messi and Yamal also a respectful one.
There has been no barbs, only admiration between one another.
“In every match he shows that he is the best player in history,” Yamal told a Spanish newspaper when asked about Messi.
“If someone has doubts, it is because they are looking for them. There is nothing more to say there. For me, he is the best.”
While Messi identified Yamal as the best of the new generation before the World Cup kicked off.
“There is a new generation of footballers who are very good and who have many years ahead of them. But if I have to choose one because of age, for what he has done so far and for the future he may have, it is Lamine,” Messi told the Spanish sports journal Diario Sport in May.
“There’s no doubt, for me, he’s the best.”
Argentina fans react to epic comeback | 02:26
ANOTHER PHYSICAL BATTLE ON THE CARDS
Spain captain Rodri is bracing for a “physical” battle with reigning champions Argentina.
Manchester City superstar Rodri told a packed press conference in Manhattan that Spain will aim to ignore any possible “provocations” by their South American opponents and instead concentrate on imposing Spain’s game plan.
The 2024 Ballon D’Or winner who has excelled at the heart of Spain’s midfield during the World Cup, said he expects the final to be unlike any other game the European champions have faced.
“I think Sunday’s match will be quite different,” he told reporters.
“It will be a more physical one, and we must be prepared. But I believe that if we are known for something in this national team, it is that we know how to play different games based on the moment.
“So we can adapt to having to defend, counter-attacking, to attacking. We are a very complete team, and that is why we are here.”
When asked if he expected Argentina to resort to “provocative” tactics like Lionel Scaloni’s men were accused as scuffles broke out in the early stage of their bruising semi-final victory against England, Rodri replied: “Well, that’s a part of football.
“We will see how the game plays out. I like to think that (Argentina) are a national team that gives their utmost, and they don’t go that down that route.
“But if we enter such a stage of the game, obviously we must ignore that and try to play our game, so that we don’t fall into provocations.”
The Spanish skipper meanwhile saluted Argentina counterpart Lionel Messi — almost certainly playing in the final World Cup match of his career — as “the greatest of all times”.
But Rodri warned that Argentina were more than a one-man band.
“It goes beyond words what Messi means as a player and what he means for Argentina,” Rodri said.
“Obviously, for me, he’s the greatest of all times. But Argentina is far more than Messi. They’ve proven that they’re a very complete team with top players.
“So of course, we need to be mindful of Leo, but many other players.”
Argentina reached the final after a roller coaster journey through the knockout rounds which included an extra-time defeats of Cabo Verde and Switzerland as well as dramatic come-from-behind wins over Egypt and England.
Rodri believes those results underscore Argentina’s mental durability.
“That speaks volumes for their very competitive character as a national team,” he said.
“They are able to come back in the face of adversity and we take that into consideration.
But he added: “We know the sort of team they are. We will try to hurt them in the way we can hurt them.”
Spain reached Sunday’s final by stunning tournament favourites France in the semi-finals, shutting down Les Bleus’ vaunted attack and outclassing the French in midfield.
Rodri said while that display was “one of the best” the current Spanish side had ever produced, they would need to scale new heights to defeat Argentina.
“I think we have to raise the level because they are the champions,” he said. “And I’m really confident that we can do.”
Wild scenes in Argentina for SF win | 01:13
WHAT’S GOING WITH THE PITCH?
Football purists will also be worried about the state of the pitch at MetLife Stadium.
The temporary grass surface was ridiculed earlier in the tournament for being in poor condition after FIFA spent millions of dollars to bring pitches across the US up to standard.
After Brazil’s group stage draw with Morocco, Vinicius Jr told TNT Sports Brazil that the surface impacted his team’s performance.
“Because of the weather and the heat, the grass dries out quickly and the game ends up being very slow,” he said.
“We can’t build up a rhythm. That makes things difficult because we want to play. We want to move the ball from one side to the other, and this disrupts our game. But we have to adapt because I believe it will be like this all tournament. Everyone will have to play on the same surfaces.”
French midfielder Adrien Rabiot was far more scathing after his side’s 3-1 win against Senegal.
“The pitch — I don’t even know if you can call it that,” he said.
“It felt more like an artificial surface. Quite hard and quite rigid.”
While France head coach Didier Deschamps clearly expected his team to reach the final when asked for his thoughts on the pitch.
“We need to get used to this, for sure,” he said. “There might be some cement below the grass. You have very short blades of grass here.”
FIFA’s senior pitch management manager Alan Ferguson told The Athletic that those early problems were due to a gamble they governing body took which they believe will pay off for the final.
FIFA opted to install “warm-season” grass in preparation for scorching summer temperatures, but early in the tournament, it was cooler than expected and the grass needed the warmth to respond.
Ferguson is confident that has been in the case in the past fortnight with the home of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets not hosting a World Cup match since Norway stunned Brazil in the Round of 16.
“There has never been a schedule as intense as this anywhere, and I think all those who were credited with putting the schedule together, they really thought about it and listened,” Ferguson said.
“You need to give the pitch and the team (working on it) every chance, so to put a gap in the schedule is absolutely the right thing to do. It allowed my guys to do a little bit of work on the pitch, and that has now been done.”
As for the condition of the pitch, he said: “We’re not perfect; I’m not going to say that, but I think we’re 95 per cent of where we wanted to be.
“Over a tournament with this size of footprint and diverse climate, I would have snapped somebody’s hand off eight years ago if they’d offered me to be sitting in this position today.”