Spain Won As Only Spain Can

It sure looks like Spain has found the formula for winning World Cup finals.

All it takes is a truly hideous game, marked by defensive intensity and borderline tackles, and a late goal from a Barcelona player.

In the Wario to the 2010 final, Spain beat 10-man Argentina 1-0 thanks to Ferran Torres's emphatic 106th minute winner.

But that's not why Spain won the World Cup.

Spain won because it played the exact same game it played every knockout match on its way to a second World Cup title: defending with intelligent and patient possession, and immediately suffocating opponents on the rare occasion the Spanish players lost the ball.

This was an ugly World Cup final, the ugliest I've been sentient for, but there's nothing disappointing or unearned about Spain coming out on top.

This was the best team in this tournament both by results and by efficiency, a murderous machine of tiki-taka and furious counter-pressing.

Argentina never had a shot.