Before the final outburst, the roar of collective ecstasy, at the Dallas stadium, land of rodeos, olés were heard. Several minutes of olés while Spain distracted the ball and France, the most celebrated team of the World Cup, watched in dismay the end of a prodigious football display. La Roja qualified for the second World Cup final in its history with a memorable performance that left Deschamps’ team, the only team that had won all its matches, scoreless for the first time in the tournament. Until they met Spain, the day Spain showed its commanding and beautiful version. Like in the Eurocup, but different, because it doesn’t need Nico Williams or Lamine. Luis de la Fuente’s team now operates with an unattainable script that will be definitively tested on Sunday in New Jersey, in the World Cup final, against England or Argentina (21:00, La1 and Dazn).
They started as two teams measuring each other with a certain solemnity, that of the occasion, on the penultimate step to the World Cup, and that of respect from those who have fought fiercely for decades very close to the top. Each with their manual, which they even showed in the initial reconnaissance phase. Spain clung to touch and mobility. France lived on the lookout, always ready to unleash the electric discharge of vertigo. What was announced. What was also expected: in a way, the world also asked this semifinal to settle the dispute of style. If there was something capable of minimizing the speed of Deschamps’ pack. If control through play allowed the slow to be faster than the fast.
Two schools, almost philosophical, of speed faced each other. The French have that of the athletic and dazzling individual, the top speed of one. One by one. The Spanish sharpen that of the ball, which surpasses any pair of legs, even those of Usain Bolt, who occupied one of the boxes. It is the speed of the swarm, which had France watching the coming and going of the ball, the subtle choreography of footballers who appeared and disappeared from nonexistent spaces just half a second before.
They were two giants in their field, in a balance at the same time perfect and deceptive, tremendously unstable although it appeared otherwise. Spain touched and France waited. Nothing seemed to happen and everything was being gestated in the underground cavities. In the middle, Rodri, Baena, Olmo, and Fabián entertained themselves with the ball, who again started at the beginning for Pedri. The PSG midfielder plays with dazzling cleanliness. He leaves the impression that he always does the easy thing, but almost never chooses the most obvious. Although he executes it simply, tac-tac, tac-tac.
Deschamps assigned Olise to watch Rodri, but not even that obstructs the pipes through which La Roja’s football flows. France lived with a finger on the trigger. It needed very little to release an electric discharge, the gallops of Mbappé and Barcola, who started in Doué’s place. Everything seemed controlled, and at the same time about to get out of hand. A well-synchronized long pass from Rabiot to Mbappé was enough to unleash panic. Spain defended against those scares like a swarm. Three players immediately fell on the rival to suffocate him.
With so much vigilance and orthodox chalkboard tactics, the shock came from the outskirts of the game. Cucurella sent a cross into the area that was a bit of a “let’s see what happens.” Oyarzabal was entering towards the goal, but the ball went over him and fell on the other side, a play destined to evaporate. Or not. Lamine lunged for the ball, which Digne thought was his. Or not. The Blaugrana touched it a bit, so it was no longer there when the Frenchman went to kick it, who kicked Lamine. Penalty. And Oyarzabal’s fifth goal in the World Cup, a tremendous shot at 120 kilometers per hour unreachable for Maignan.
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The goal, the hydration break that followed, and Saliba’s immediate injury closed the probing phase. France tried to accelerate and Mbappé began to accumulate offsides. Speed always skirts out of control. Also the scare. Unai had to come out ten meters from his area to throw himself at Mbappé’s feet and defuse the threat. Nothing exceptional against such a team despite Laporte commanding and correcting with overwhelming authority in a very lively defense, with Cubarsí, Cucurella, and Porro very attentive and vigorous.
Each team accelerated in its own way. Although France could try very few times, because Spain had handcuffed itself to the ball, delighted with the rhythm and occasional fantasy of La Roja. Olmo even pulled out the wand. He gifted a backheel to Lamine that almost ended in a goal by Fabián, and completed a devastating wall pass with Porro while a defender brought him down on the edge of the area. The Blaugrana saw from the ground how the ball came cleanly to the fullback, and then into the net.
France found itself in an unusual situation. Better: Spain had placed France in an unusual situation, two goals behind and without a clue how to turn the afternoon around. Mbappé tried to emerge from the shipwreck. He dropped back to collect the ball further back, ready to do everything, as in the 2022 final against Argentina in Qatar.
Deschamps also maneuvered from the bench. He took off Olise, who had disappeared, and that disappearance of the most flashy player of the World Cup also measured the collapse Spain had caused France. Cherki came in, as Doué had come in for Barcola. Fearsome pieces in the tournament, tamed by De la Fuente’s group.
Spain also knew how to play that last stretch against a desperate opponent. They held on and touched a little more, under minutes of olés, heading to another World Cup final with a prodigious display.
