Seven percent of the Earth’s population, nearly 1.8 billion people, watched the World Cup final yesterday.
The championship-winning goal for Spain came in the 106th minute.
A final gesture from the Argentine team during the medal and trophy ceremony drew widespread condemnation, also drawing commentary from around the world over just how “American” the whole affair felt.
With so much of this World Cup tournament unfolding in Texas, the Standard has been getting updates from Jimmy Maas and Juan Garcia, hosts of the soccer podcast ¡Vamos Verde!.
They joined the show for one last wrap-up. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Did you pick up on the sort of Super Bowl vibes, or was it just the rest of the world?
Juan Garcia: Certainly not lost on me.
Jimmy Maas: Never before done, and I felt like they were trying to cram so many World Cups of halftime shows into one halftime show that everyone was on for about 16 seconds per artist.
Well, you got a lot of people in there: Madonna, Shakira, BTS, right?
Jimmy Mass: Yeah, with the mixed media. They had like pre-taped video. They had all kinds of things happening.
I don’t know if it worked on any level for anyone in particular. I don’t know if anyone actually enjoyed it.
I don’t know if President Trump was there, right? I think he was, enjoying the celebrations. In fact, I think he handed out the medals to the Spanish national team, right?
Jimmy Mass: Yeah, he did. He handed out a lot of things. I don’t know if he knew who any of the players were who came up.
He has said throughout the World Cup, admittedly he said he does not know that much about it, but his son Barron has kind of kept him informed on things. But without the soccer-whisperer behind him, I don’t know if he knew anybody he was shaking hands with. He was probably literally shaking hands with the greatest soccer players in the world, but had no clue who they were.
And likewise, I don’t know if the soccer players may have known who [Claudia] Sheinbaum or anybody else down to the Canadian Prime Minister was. They seemed aware who Donald Trump was, but beyond that I’m not sure.
I get a sense that Jimmy had some thoughts on this one. What about your reaction to all of this?
Juan Garcia: Well, unlike Jimmy, I was more focused on what was going on on the grass.
Jimmy Maas: Oh, well, there was a lot of time to ponder other things in the first half.
Juan Garcia: And you know what? That game went pretty much exactly as I would have predicted: a match between Spain and Argentina going Spain. They finally showed who I thought they were before the tournament, and they just suffocated Argentina.
Jimmy Maas: They did, and I think it worked to Spain’s advantage just to keep going and doing what they do. They play a very strategic — without glossing over it way too high — a team game.
Like they weren’t waiting for individuals, and they didn’t get off of their game vs. like England did. Argentina kind of goaded them into a scrappy game in the semi-final, and England lost as a result.
Spain didn’t do any of that. They just said, “eventually, a goal will come. We don’t know when, we don’t know how…
The weird thing was after the 90-minute mark — and you know now you’re going into an additional play — it looked like there was the possibility that Argentina, which I don’t think they had managed…. zero shots …. That they might actually win the game on penalties. Did I understand that correctly?
Jimmy Mass: So Spain scored in the second half of extra time. If they had not, it would have gone to penalties. I mean, that’s a lotto. I mean essentially, like, who has the better nerves?
And Argentina won their World Cup last go-round in 2022. That way, they won in penalty kicks over France.
Juan Garcia: Say what you will about Emiliano Martinez, there are probably very few goalkeepers on the planet that you would rather have between the sticks in a high-pressure penalty shootout than that Argentine goalkeeper.
Jimmy Maas: That is almost an art piece in itself. Google “Argentina’s goalkeeper for penalties” and you’ll watch his antics are beyond normal.
It is an art, he is the artist. Basically he gets you off your game and inevitably someone who you think is going to make a pressure-filled kick misses and that is his skill.
What did you make of Argentina turning their backs on Spain there during the closing ceremonies?
Juan Garcia: The tensions, pressure, the emotion of the moment can be very high. It was a disrespectful gesture to a rival in something that’s kind of supposed to be the example of sportsmanship and bring people together.
That said, there are always examples of poor sportsmanship in every major tournament. That disappointed, sure, but who am I to tell the Argentine national team what they can and can’t do.
Jimmy Maas: There are so many crossovers between them. There are several players for Argentina that play in the Spanish league. They are teammates of many of the players across the field from them. A lot of awkward locker rooms.
There’s the Barcelona tie between Messi and most of the Spanish team. Most of them grew up idolizing him as a player, now they’re playing against him.
So, I mean, this will be ironed out over time, but it is always tough. To ask a team that was just defeated in the most emotionally devastating game of that moment to sit around and go, “you should clap for them now”…
Juan Garcia: Yeah, I mean, for a lot of these guys, this is the only time they are ever getting this close. This could be the only World Cup they ever play in to begin with.
Jimmy Maas: And it is sort of a sunset on Argentina and a sunrise on Spain’s team.
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