Morning all, welcome to a brand new week. Spain are the World Cup winners, and deservedly so, after a 1-0 win over Argentina last night. This was, I think it’s fair to say, a pretty dreadful game of football. There was only one side who tried to play in a way that might bring about a goal, while the other spent most of the 120 minutes focused on niggly, dirty antics which were designed spoil any kind of footballing spectacle. If Spain had better finishers, this would have been over as a contest well before it was. Emi Martinez broke a record for making the most saves in a World Cup final, but the story really is about how toothless Argentina were in attack. They didn’t have their first shot until the 116th minute, while Spain had had 20 attempts on goal by that point, and they went through the 120 minutes (plus some mad added time), without a single shot on target. This a team with Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez et al. Spain should have been ahead before Ferran Torres’ fine finish early in the second period of extra-time. They had a goal disallowed which, had this game gone the other way in a penalty shoot-out for example, would have been one of the great injustices in football. The ref blew for a foul on Nicolas Otamendi, but replays showed there was nothing to justify the denial of a goal. VARgentina got a very generous decision – far from the first one they’ve received during this tournament too. Substitute Mikel Merino also had a glorious chance to score and complete a hat-trick of late winners at this World Cup, but he headed wide from the kind of position you’d absolutely back him to score. You could see he knew that was a real moment for him and for Spain, and the longer it went on the longer you worried they wouldn’t find the breakthrough against the 10 men. Enzo Fernandez was deservedly sent off, picking up a second yellow card for a stupid challenge on Pau Cubarsi, but if it wasn’t him (and I’m glad it was because he is such a little prick), it ought to have been someone else. How Leandro Paredes stayed on is beyond me, he spent the entire game making foul after foul, while this one in the first half from Nicolas Tagliafico was borderline red and it wasn’t even a yellow. Merino did make up for his miss with a really good block from a Lionel Messi shot. So often you see players instinctively turn their back but he stood up and made sure he got in the way. At the final whistle, the way Argentina reacted summed them up. We can all understand disappointment and unhappiness at losing a final, but grabbing opponents by the throat and throwing sly digs is just pathetic and nasty. They didn’t deserve a single thing from this game, and I’m glad they got exactly what that performance merited: nothing. It won’t be remembered as a classic, in truth it was one of the worst World Cup finals I’ve ever seen, but Spain won’t care, and congrats to Merino, Martin Zubimendi and David Raya who finish this tournament as world champions. The trophy presentation took place, even Gianni Infantino had the self-awareness to usher Donald Trump away after he tried to milk the limelight in typically gormless fashion, and I very much enjoyed Merino taking the mick as the former star of The Apprentice walked past him. Afterwards, the Arsenal man spoke to ITV and said: It was a difficult game because they are very, very competitive side and they know how to make the game difficult for you. I think the team was outstanding today. And yeah, we deserved it. I don’t think anyone could argue with that. There were tears at the end for Argentina, but if you play the way they did, you don’t deserve a drop of sympathy. Lionel Messi might well be the greatest player ever, and he has produced such magic for club and country, but when your team is set up to spoil the way they were by Lionel Scaloni, you’ve taken a gamble and when it doesn’t pay off, there should be nothing but recrimination and regret. They’ve behaved with a level of hubris and entitlement throughout this tournament, and I’m glad it ultimately came to naught. Anyway, hopefully the Arsenal lads enjoyed a good party last night. They’ll obviously have a homecoming to show off the trophy, and then they can go and get some rest ahead of the new season. None of them have been overly burdened by this World Cup. Raya didn’t play at all (but I loved his embrace with Unai Simon afterwards), Zubi got his first minutes in yesterday’s game, and Merino’s playing time came after months out with that foot injury. So I don’t think we need to worry about physical fatigue for these guys, but some kind of mental reset will be necessary. — Stepping back a bit though, and I did find the build up to this game pretty hard to watch. I want to be clear, if I talk about the Americanisation of this game and this tournament, it’s not a criticism of America or American sports where this kind of thing is par for the course. I also understand very well that American soccer fans (to make it distinct from American Football) find much of this stuff distasteful too. There’s a reason people connect with football from all over the world, and none of it has anything to do with Robbie Williams or Madonna, countdowns to kick off, or the centre-circle sponsored by Aramco. It’s about FIFA, it’s about Infantino, and his obsequiousness and obsession with Trump, a man who thinks anything that’s gold is amazing. If you spray painted a turd his eyes would light up even if his nose told him the truth. There’s just such a superficiality about all of it. The pre-game show was interminable; the fact the World Cup trophy was presented in a box made by a sponsor was repulsive, there isn’t anything that Infantino won’t try to monetise; the ‘Let’s get ready to rumble’ wrestling dude on the mic in the build-up to kick-off was pathetic; Tom Cruise standing on a box making some bland, insipid speech was toe-curling; and while I obviously didn’t watch the completely unnecessary and risible half-time show, the break between the end of the first half and the start of the second was 27 minutes. It’s just not right. Football doesn’t need any of it. Over the course of the month, the football itself has provided us with some fantastic stuff, because of course it does. We love this game for many reasons, but chief among them is how it can create moments of joy and beauty and unity – far beyond any kind of FIFA slogan. On the pitch we’ve seen some brilliant games and incredible individual and collective stories by virtue of this being the greatest sport on earth. Off the pitch we’ve had that too as fans and host cities have demonstrated that, despite what the politicians keep telling you, people of all kinds can exist together quite happily. We’ve seen fans come together in victory and defeat, the power of community and the human spirit at the forefront of everything – even as those in power foster division from their ivory towers. This is the spirit of the game. It’s an affront to all of what’s good about it that FIFA and Infantino operate the way they do. You cannot try and piggy-back off everything that’s beautiful about football, and take credit for the beautiful things it generates, while you’re complicit in political cuntery because of the very public relationships you cultivate for your own power and profile. I’ve enjoyed much of this World Cup, as I have with every tournament I can remember going back as far as 1978 (just about), but there’s a lot not to like about how the game is run and who is running it. Some people may say that’s just the way of the world, but I think what we’ve seen around this tournament has been a grotesque show of pitiful toadying, arch-capitalism, Machiavellian manoeuvring, and outright corruption which, ultimately, comes at the expense of ordinary people. The real football fans who have brought so much to this tournament are the ones who will pay the price one way or another, as Infantino, Trump, and their ilk, continue to line their pockets. Their insatiable, gluttonous greed for money, fame, and power knows no bounds, but it’s ok because we had some nice football. We could, you know, have the nice football without all that. It shouldn’t be impossible, but the more we just accept it, the less likely it becomes. I’m happy to state my objections for the record, for all the difference it will probably make, but I feel like not saying something is the wrong thing. Right, I’ll leave it there for now. I think we’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you later, but unsure yet about timings etc. I’ll put out the call for questions when I know more. Have a great Monday everyone. The post Spain deservedly win the World Cup final appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.