The guard of honor told you everything. So did the refusal to form one.
Let me be clear about what this is before I say a word: this is my opinion, on the opinion page. The factual record of what happened after the final whistle at MetLife — who did what, and what is still disputed — is reported straight over on the news side, without any of the following attitude in it.
Now. Losing a World Cup final in extra time, down to ten men, after your goalkeeper made eleven saves to keep you in it — that is a genuinely brutal way to have your heart taken out. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, and anyone dunking on Argentina without acknowledging it is being cheap. Emiliano Martínez was the best player on that field and he ended the night with a runner-up medal. That's the sport at its cruelest.
But heartbreak explains the tears. It doesn't explain a hand on a throat.
Shoving an opponent by the neck and putting another one on the ground after the whistle isn't passion, it isn't "emotion," and it isn't the kind of thing that gets excused by the scoreline. Losing badly is allowed. Losing like that is a choice, and it's the one part of the night that I don't think has a defense.
The turned backs during the trophy lift are a different question and I'm going to be honest that I don't know the answer. Some reporting says those players were facing their own supporters out of grief, not staging a snub, and I'm not prepared to call that a lie just because the picture looks bad. Motive is genuinely unsettled. What isn't unsettled: Spain formed a guard of honor for Argentina, and Argentina didn't form one back. One of those is a decision you can make while devastated. The other apparently wasn't.
And credit where it's due, because that's the whole point of this page. Spain's guard of honor was class — from a squad that had every excuse to be busy celebrating. Messi and Lamine Yamal embracing in the middle of all that noise was the best image of the night that didn't involve a trophy. And Yamal kneeling in prayer while grown men shoved each other around him is going to outlive every argument about this final.
Spain won a World Cup. They also won the ten minutes after it. Both of those are worth saying out loud.
