Spanish domination shows the limitations of ‘suffering’ in football

July 20, 2026 — 10:02am

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The word of the day is suffer. In football, it means to endure under sustained and intense pressure, to remain resilient and disciplined throughout prolonged difficulty. To stay dialled in while the opponent is on top, and to hang in there until the pendulum swings.

It is a concept borrowed from the Hispanosphere; in Spanish, the term is sufrir, and for them, it is one half of the game. A duty. Coaches say: “You have to know how to suffer.” It’s what you have to do sometimes, when you’re not doing what you’d prefer to be doing, which is keeping the ball, going on the attack, and making the other team suffer.

In the World Cup final, both teams suffered. Argentina suffered without the ball, Spain suffered with it. But only one tried to suffer its way to victory. The other tried to win, and won.

There can be no arguments: this 2026 model of La Roja is the most deserving World Cup-winning team in history, at least based on the football played in the final. Only one team even played football in this final.

The numbers say it all: 1-0, but also 20 shots to two, almost double the amount of passes (852 to 464). In this match, Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez faced more shots on target (12) than Spain allowed throughout the entire tournament (nine); in this match, they allowed zero. The domination was........

© The Sydney Morning Herald