Argentina failed to retain their World Cup title after losing the final match of the current edition to Spain by a score of 0-1 on Sunday evening.
The Argentine national team set an unprecedented negative record in the history of World Cup finals after they were completely unable to shoot a single ball at the Spanish goal during the first 90 minutes of the 2026 World Cup final match held in New York, which ended with Spain winning the title for the second time in its history.
The strict defensive plan implemented by the "Tango" players relied on complete retreat and abandoning possession, while committing successive errors to disrupt the Spanish attacks without being able to form any dangerous counter-attacks, which made the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez the player on his team who touched the ball the most throughout the regular time of the match.
According to Opta's global statistics, the Argentine national team's offensive inactivity throughout the first 90 minutes is a first for a team reaching the World Cup final since data collection began in 1966.
This scenario of finishing an entire World Cup match without a single shot on the opponent's goal has only been repeated on three occasions throughout history, with Costa Rica being the only team to have achieved this negative record twice before, the first time against Brazil in the 1990 World Cup and the second time against Spain itself in the 2022 World Cup, before Argentina joined this list in the 2026 World Cup final.
