On Saturday morning, in the lobby of a hotel next to Madison, an Argentine guy in his 50s was talking on the phone: “How much does that tray cost me?”, and when he said tray he meant a stand, a higher or lower stand at MetLife for this Sunday (9:00 p.m., La 1). “8,500? Go ahead,” he ended up answering his interlocutor, and he was talking about dollars (about 7,500 euros). There are still tickets for the World Cup final floating around with prices, that is, prohibitive for normal people. It happens that, in the world, there are many people with a lot of money, and today there will be 82,500 who will prove it.
It is the price to pay to find a seat in the most sought-after venue in the world. Down below, on the grass, the match of all time. With permission from some (the 1970 final, with Pelé, Jairzinho, Rivelino, Tostao and Carlos Alberto sublimating football, also the final four years ago in Qatar, that 3-3 between Argentines and French, etc…) with permission, then, of other opinions, New York, New Jersey, attend this July 19 to the match that all fans have dreamed of over the last few years. The champion of America against the champion of Europe, by far the two best teams that have passed through such a special tournament as this.
The presence of Messi amplifies the feeling of being before a historic event, something that will be reviewed again and again for decades. The greatest footballer of all time says goodbye to the World Cups with his second consecutive final after having fought with this Cup for a decade and a half. “Spain has great players, they deploy great play, because Spain is not just Lamine. But we also have our weapons,” said the Argentine number 10 on Friday at a ridiculous event that Leo did not want to attend. FIFA and the AFA had to spend many hours and a helicopter to convince him to appear for a few minutes.
The feeling on the other side, in the Spanish team, is that they expect a tough day. For several reasons. First, because of the opponent. Argentina has arrived hooked to this final after two overtimes (Cape Verde in the round of 16 and Switzerland in the quarterfinals), having to come back in all the knockout rounds except against the Swiss. They came back against Cape Verde, against Egypt (they were losing 0-2 with 10 minutes left) and against England in the semifinals. Second, because of the game that Scaloni‘s team will propose. They are within their legitimate right to do so, any team, in fact, would do it. When you face a football-wise superior team like Spain, or so it is perceived after the knockout rounds, at the Spanish hotel they sense a rough game, with many interruptions, with messages in every dispute, with loud kicks if things do not go well for them.
They do not admit it outwardly, but they do think it. De la Fuente, much smarter than all that, said exactly the opposite on Friday: “It is a brutal team, led by a friend of mine. Admiration, admiration and admiration is what I feel for this Argentine team,” said the coach when asked if he feared that dirty play.
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The fact is that Spain continues with the face of having come to fill the file of being world champion. Not a word louder than another, not a gesture more serious than another… Nothing. Calm. Oyarzabal, for example, has the same expression as if he were waiting for the elevator. And, like him, his teammates, on the verge of starring in the great match of the last decades in an iconic setting like New York.
Ah! And the heat. The match, at 3:00 p.m. local time, will be played around 27 degrees, and Spain will play outdoors for the first time except for the match in Guadalajara, back on June 26. The break, finally, as FIFA announced to the finalists on Thursday, will not last more than 17 minutes, although given the lineup of those who sing and dance, it is hard to think it will be fulfilled.
Sunday night in Spain, the afternoon here, is also posed as a relay in the universe of stars, from which Messi steps aside to give way to Lamine Yamal. “He is a world reference,” said the Argentine about the boy whom Spain continues to ask for a great appearance in this World Cup. “There is only one match left, so it has to be now,” predicted Luis de la Fuente, who had already done the same in all previous knockout rounds. Someday it will have to be. An audience of, they say, 1.6 billion people will check it.
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