One of the two World Cup finalists has officially been confirmed. After knocking off 2018 winner and 2022 runner-up France in a dominant 2-0 affair, Spain has officially punched its ticket to the final on Sunday in New York/New Jersey, where it will await the winner of tomorrow’s matchup between Argentina and England.
While the experience will be new for every player on La Roja’s roster, the federation has been to the final recently using similar tactics. In 2010, Spain won the World Cup after putting on consistently stellar defensive performances throughout the competition, not conceding a single goal in the knockout stage and tying a record with just two goals allowed in the tournament.
Now, La Roja have the opportunity to do one better; through the first seven matches of the 2026 World Cup, they’ve allowed just one goal, a header to Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere, and they’ve already set a record by keeping six clean sheets. That 2010 Spain team was strong, with legends such as Iker Casillas, Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Sergio Ramos, and Xabi Alonso. This iteration of La Roja doesn’t have as many big names yet, but it could be even better.
Let’s take a look back at Spain’s 2010 run in South Africa.
Spain at the 2010 World Cup
There are plenty of similarities between this version of La Roja and the one that won it all back in 2010. Spain came into that tournament off the heels of a Euros win, and it was a top-two team in the world at that time. However, La Roja were stunned in their opening match, losing 1-0 to Switzerland in Durban after Gelson Fernandes found the back of the net in the 52nd minute. Similarly, Spain’s 2026 tournament began with a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde, widely seen at the time as a humiliating result.
La Roja’s road through the tournament certainly wasn’t smooth in 2010. They needed second-half goals in the Round of 16, quarterfinal, and semifinal just to advance by a 1-0 scoreline, with David Villa’s winner against Paraguay in the quarterfinals coming in the 83rd minute. In that final, Arjen Robben had multiple chances clear on goal that were only thwarted thanks to Casillas’ heroics, and it looked to be headed to penalties until Iniesta found space on the right side of the 18-yard box to beat Maarten Stekelenburg in the 116th minute. All in all, Spain scored just eight goals, the fewest by a World Cup winner.
By comparison, its 2026 run has been much more dominant. It bounced back from its draw against the Blue Sharks with a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia and escaped with a 1-0 result against Uruguay, but it would’ve topped the group with a draw in the final group stage match anyway since the Green Falcons managed to hold Cape Verde to a single point. In the knockouts, La Roja left it late twice, needing to be bailed out by Mikel Merino in the 91st minute against Portugal in the Round of 16 and the 88th minute against Belgium in the quarterfinals, but they were the far better team in both of those matches and interspersed them with more dominant results against Austria (Round of 32) and France (semifinal). So far, they have scored 13 goals.
Spain currently has -156 odds to win the World Cup at DraftKings Sportsbook.
