Argentina is one win from history, and Sunday it faces the one team built to make that as hard as possible. La Albiceleste survived England in a stoppage time thriller Wednesday night in Atlanta, and now Spain's suffocating defense stands between Lionel Messi and back to back titles. We've got the comeback, the mentality behind it, and everything waiting in East Rutherford this weekend.

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Argentina are back in another World Cup final, and once again it came down to the final minutes. La Albiceleste trailed England 1-0 deep into the second half at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Wednesday night before delivering two goals in the last six minutes to win 2-1 and set up Sunday's final against Spain at MetLife Stadium.

Anthony Gordon had given England the lead in the 55th minute, and for most of the second half it looked like it might hold. Jordan Pickford turned in a string of saves that kept Argentina searching, denying Nico González and later Alexis Mac Allister after Mac Allister had already rattled the post. Then Enzo Fernández found the corner from 20 yards in the 85th minute, and two minutes into stoppage time, Lionel Messi found Lautaro Martínez with a cross to the far post for the winner.

The moment carried weight beyond the scoreline. Messi now has 10 assists across World Cup knockout play, six more than anyone else in at least 60 years, and he has produced a goal or an assist in 11 consecutive World Cup matches. Argentina are one win away from becoming just the third nation to win back-to-back titles, joining Italy and Brazil, and Sunday's final will be the first ever between the reigning European and South American champions. A title for Argentina would also make them the first to win back-to-back World Cups and continental championships.

For England, the wait continues. Thomas Tuchel's side had been five minutes from their first final since 1966, and instead they will face France in Saturday's third-place match in Miami Gardens. England leaned defensive immediately after going into the lead and Argentina pushed forward, pinning England deeper and deeper into their own half, and Messi’s brilliance ended up deciding it.

Atlanta hosted eight World Cup matches in 2026 and will go down in history as the place where Cabo Verde debuted in the tournament with a draw against a favorite, where DR Congo won its first World Cup match, where the Leopards took England to the limit in the knockout round, and where Argentina delivered two of the most incredible comeback victories in the 96-year history of the tournament.

Deep in the second half, after hitting the post twice and running out of time, it appeared that Argentina’s dream of defending their World Cup title was going to end here in Atlanta. England was defending well and you saw Argentine players looking skyward after close calls mounted. But by the time the final whistle blew, Argentina had found two goals and were on their way to New Jersey for Sunday’s final. How do they keep doing this?

Lionel Scaloni gave the real answer afterward, and it had nothing to do with tactics or talent. "When you see that performance, it's because they're playing like they're seven or eight years old," he said. "They're not thinking about whether they'll make a mistake, whether they'll be eliminated in a semifinal. They're thinking about playing football, which is what they've done all their lives." Asked about the final ten minutes specifically, he put it even more plainly: "The last forty minutes represent our football, everything we've been taught since we were little."

Compare that to the other side of the ball. Journalist Guillem Balagué shared a conversation about how England has become a team that freezes when the decisive moment arrives, one that does not just lose tournaments but makes a mess of losing them, with players looking after themselves individually right when they need each other most. That is not a talent gap. England had the players. What went missing was a collective that trusted itself to stay together once the game turned scary, and Argentina has that trust in abundance. The numbers back it up: since this World Cup began, Argentina have scored 12 of their 19 goals after the 75th minute, and nine of those came while the scoreline was not yet in their favor.

That is the part of Argentina worth studying closely from the United States and for clubs like Atlanta United, and not just for entertainment. It is the same idea Atlanta United's academy has tried to build into its own identity under Javier Pérez. Want the ball. Cherish it when you have it. Fight for the guy next to you. Play to win instead of playing not to lose. You cannot install that with a tactics board in a single training camp. You build it into how kids are taught the game starting at seven or eight years old, which is exactly what Scaloni was describing. Argentina are not going to another final on Sunday purely because of talent. It is because, for the second time in eight days in this city, nobody on that roster believed the game was over until it actually was.

There is a reason Andrés Cantor has been the definitive Spanish language voice of the World Cup in this country for decades, and Lautaro Martínez's stoppage time header against England gave him the moment to prove it again. Telemundo's call caught the header, the eruption in the Argentina section of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and Cantor's signature delivery all in the same breath, the kind of clip that travels well past the people who watched it live. This is what soccer sounds like when it means everything.

Sunday's World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford settles a question that has been building since March: what happens when the tournament's most explosive attack runs into its most stubborn defense. Argentina arrives having scored 19 goals, the most in the competition. Spain arrives having allowed just one, the fewest. Something has to give.

The two paths here tell the story of different kinds of dominance. Spain has not lost in 37 matches across all competitions, with 28 wins and nine draws since a 1-0 defeat to Colombia in March 2024, and it reached the final by beating Austria, Portugal, Belgium and then France 2-0 on Tuesday. Argentina is unbeaten in its last 13 World Cup matches, a run stretching back to the opening loss to Saudi Arabia in Qatar, and Wednesday's comeback win over England, capped by Lautaro Martínez's header two minutes into stoppage time, was the latest example of a team that has made a habit of finding goals late all tournament long.

This match was supposed to happen four months ago. Argentina and Spain were scheduled to meet in a Finalissima at Lusail Stadium in Doha, the same venue where Messi lifted the trophy in 2022, before the game was called off amid the security concerns tied to Iran's escalating regional conflict. Sunday gives both sides the meeting that got taken from them, just with a bigger trophy attached and on a different continent entirely.

There is also the matchup within the matchup. Messi, still the tournament's career scoring leader, and Lamine Yamal, Barcelona's teenage star, will share a World Cup final for the first time in either man's career, and the two have a stranger connection than most rivalries get to claim. In 2007, a UNICEF fundraiser at Barcelona paired a young fan with one of the club's players for a photo. The fan was an infant named Lamine. The player the club assigned him was Messi. Nineteen years later, they will stand on opposite sides of the same World Cup final.

Spain enters as the early favorite. Argentina is chasing its fourth title and a chance to become the first team to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil managed it in 1958 and 1962. Whatever the odds say, this was the final I predicted back in early June between two great teams that we have rarely seen face one another. It is the tournament's most complete attack against its most complete defense, arriving on the sport's biggest stage a few months later than it was ever supposed to.

Sunday's final is set, but the tournament is still writing subplots underneath it. England has to figure out who it wants to be after another agonizing near miss, France is already looking past this weekend and into the next four years, and MetLife Stadium is about to host a show before a single ball gets kicked.

On The Field

The FA is sticking with Thomas Tuchel through Euro 2028 despite the semifinal exit, with chief executive Mark Bullingham calling the loss heartbreaking while praising the effort the squad put in all summer. Harry Kane, at 33 and in his sixth major tournament with England, said it is too soon to know if this was his last World Cup, pointing to the same pattern that has now followed England through four straight tournaments: a lead, a shift into a deeper shape, and a collapse under pressure late. Marc Guéhi put it plainly afterward, saying the mentality once England scored became "track back and defend, that's it." Dan Burn and Kane both echoed the same read, that the passivity after Anthony Gordon's opener is what let Argentina back into the game. England now turns to Saturday's third place match against France in Miami Gardens.

France has its own transition underway. Didier Deschamps will coach his final match with the national team in that same third place game, closing out a run that started in 2012. His successor is already lined up: Zinédine Zidane is expected to sign with the French federation by July 21, arriving with a larger staff than Deschamps carried and reportedly pushing to make that staff more diverse in gender composition.

Off The Field

Sunday's pregame show is aiming to match the scale of the final itself. Post Malone headlines the closing ceremony, with IShowSpeed and a special appearance from Tom Cruise joining a lineup that includes Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger, and Robbie Williams. Jennifer Hudson sings the national anthem. The production comes from Balich Wonder Studio, the same team behind the opening and closing ceremonies in Doha four years ago, and it kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Eastern at MetLife Stadium, ninety minutes ahead of the 3 p.m. kickoff.

SDH AM — 9:05 AM: Jon Nelson has mixed zone audio from Harry Kane and Dan Burn straight from the tunnel last night, plus a full recap of Argentina's stoppage time comeback while it's still fresh.

Power Hour — 10:00 AM: Thursday's Power Hour brings in Nino Torres of Fubo TV and Niko Moreno of Pulso Sports to break down where the final leaves both finalists and what it means heading into Sunday.

Atlanta Soccer Tonight — 10:00 PM: Jason Longshore hosts live from Nashville, covering the World Cup and Atlanta United's return to the field, with an interview with midfielder Cooper Sanchez. Catch it on 92.9 The Game or the Audacy app.

If you want a break from World Cup coverage this morning, the site has a deep dive worth your time. Edward Stratmann broke down what Paulo Díaz brings to Atlanta United's backline, a veteran center back who spent seven years and 222 appearances winning titles at River Plate before signing with Tata Martino's rebuild. It is a good read on why the club won the race for him over interest from Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Saudi Arabia, and what his aerial presence and passing range could mean once Atlanta United gets back on the field. Find it at soccerdownhere.net.

Leeds Files Legal Claim Against Leicester Over PSR Breach: Leeds United has served a statement of claim against Leicester City, arguing the club would have been automatically promoted in 2023-24 had Leicester not broken profitability and sustainability rules that season. The move follows Burnley's successful £35 million claim against Everton over a similar breach, and a hearing is not expected until next summer.

Sam Kerr's Gotham Return Draws Record New York Crowd: Sam Kerr made her first NWSL appearance since 2019 as Gotham FC beat the Washington Spirit 1-0 at Citi Field, with Rose Lavelle scoring the winner in the 37th minute. The announced crowd of 42,175 is the largest for a women's sporting event in New York City history, and the match required four hydration breaks total due to smoke from Canadian wildfires combined with a heat advisory.

Galaxy Sign Robert Taylor: The LA Galaxy signed free agent forward Robert Taylor of Finland, who was waived by Austin FC last month. Taylor spent four seasons with Inter Miami from 2022 to 2025, contributing 18 goals and 18 assists, and helped the club win the 2023 Leagues Cup and 2024 Supporters' Shield.

D.C. Council Weighs $620 Million Audi Field Expansion: Council Chairman Phil Mendelson has introduced legislation for a $620 million expansion of Audi Field, home to D.C. United and the Washington Spirit, that would add a climate-controlled roof and roughly 8,000 seats. The proposal would require D.C. United to build 467 new housing units, including 148 designated as affordable.

Argentina did not win in Atlanta because they were the most gifted team left in this World Cup, they won because none of them stopped believing the game was theirs to finish, and there is something in that stubbornness worth carrying past Sunday no matter who lifts the trophy.

I'll be in Nashville tonight for Atlanta Soccer Tonight at 10 on 92.9 The Game, talking World Cup and catching up with Cooper Sanchez as Atlanta United gets back on the field.

Song of the Day: "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty. Wednesday night in Atlanta was ninety minutes of proof that some teams, and some people, simply refuse to.

Jason