Spain defeated Lionel Messi’s Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win the 2026 World Cup.

Substitute Ferran Torres struck in the second half of extra time to secure Spain’s second World Cup after a disappointing Argentina were reduced to 10 men.

The defending champions did not register an attempt on goal until the 117th minute and fell short in their bid to become only the third nation to retain the World Cup.

Instead, Messi’s glorious World Cup career ended in heartbreak at the age of 39.  

The World Cup final match in New Jersey will be contested between defending champion Argentina and slight favorite, Spain.

Argentina, trailing (1-0) late, rallied to defeat England (2-1), getting the winning tally from substitute player, Lauturo Martinez in extra time.

Meanwhile Spain, as was Argentina a match underdog, won (2-0) vs France.

Spain has allowed but one goal in its 7 matches thus far.

Ben Rice hit two home runs to help the New York Yankees to a 12-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday. The Yankees (51-42) split the four-game series with the Rays at Tropicana Field, remaining four games behind Tampa Bay (54-37) for first place in the AL East.

With his two homers, Rice now has 28 for the season, one fewer than the Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez for the AL home-run lead. He moved past the Rays’ Junior Caminero with his second home run on Thursday.

Caminero briefly moved ahead of Rice with his 27th homer of the season in the first inning off Yankees opener Paul Blackburn. That was his first home run in his past five games, following an 11-game span during which he hit 11 homers.

Rice finished the day batting 2-for-4 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. With 65 RBI, the Yankees’ DH now ranks third in that category among AL sluggers behind Alvarez and Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz.

Ryan McMahon also drove in two runs for the Yankees, with Trent Grisham, Jazz Chisholm,Cody Bellinger, José Caballero and Austin Wells each getting an RBI. Wells got his on his fifth home run of the season.