{"id":672567,"date":"2026-07-18T07:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=672567"},"modified":"2026-07-18T07:28:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:28:50","slug":"spain-vs-argentina-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/18\/spain-vs-argentina-usyk\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain vs Argentina: Oleksandr Usyk Makes His Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 World Cup is edging towards its finale on July 19. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/17\/2026-world-cup-final-prediction-argentina-vs-spain\/\" target=\"_self\"><span>Spain vs Argentina<\/span><\/a> will be the final, while England and France will face off in the 3rd and 4th place play-off on July 18. <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FIFAWorldCup\/status\/2077503000709353687\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>The World Cup<\/span><\/a> has given us many talking points, with VAR at the centre of much of it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There have been political messages: Donald Trump speaking to FIFA about a red card issued to Folarin Balogun. Aside from the controversies, we have witnessed many moments of brilliance from players such as Jude Bellingham, Lionel Messi, and Erling Haaland. Ahead of the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, former two-time undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk spoke to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/wokOeSfudK8\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>Fight Hype TV<\/span><\/a>, revealing who he\u2019s backing in the final.<\/p>\n<h2>Spain vs Argentina Set for 2026 World Cup Final Showdown<\/h2>\n<h3>Oleksandr Usyk Makes His Pick for Spain vs Argentina<\/h3>\n<p><iframe width=\"430\" height=\"335\" style=\"border: 0; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 0; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/worldcup-odds-service-1086219671413.europe-west2.run.app\/embed\/30310505\" scrolling=\"no\" loading=\"lazy\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><br \/>\nIt feels like only yesterday the squads were being announced for the 2026 World Cup, but here we are: it\u2019s time for Spain vs Argentina to decide who will be crowned champions of the world.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Spain produced a composed performance in the semi-final, which saw them defend well and take their chances to beat France 2-0. That performance epitomised their run to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/15\/spain-vs-argentina-world-cup-can-near-perfection-defeat-legacy\/\" target=\"_self\"><span>final<\/span><\/a>, where it feels like there is still more to come, and they have just done enough, which is a scary prospect.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina are the tournament\u2019s top scorers, but their route to the final has been anything but straightforward. They have navigated through challenging moments against Cape Verde, Switzerland, Egypt, and most recently, England.<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>Read More<\/b><span>: <\/span><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/02\/28\/greatest-footballers-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_self\">Greatest Footballers of All Time: Pre World War One<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It feels like only yesterday the squads were being announced for the 2026 World Cup, but here we are: it\u2019s time for Spain vs Argentina to decide who will be crowned champions of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Spain produced a composed performance in the semi-final, which saw them defend well and take their chances to beat France 2-0. That performance epitomised their run to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/15\/spain-vs-argentina-world-cup-can-near-perfection-defeat-legacy\/\" target=\"_self\"><span>final<\/span><\/a>, where it feels like there is still more to come, and they have just done enough, which is a scary prospect.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina are the tournament\u2019s top scorers, but their route to the final has been anything but straightforward. They have navigated through challenging moments against Cape Verde, Switzerland, Egypt, and most recently, England.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong><span>: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/05\/03\/greatest-manager-rants\/\" target=\"_self\">Top Five Greatest Manager Rants<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBBzLYGhHF\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 8192px; aspect-ratio: 8192\/5464;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h3>Usyk Talks Spain vs Argentina<\/h3>\n<p>When asked who he\u2019s backing in the Spain vs Argentina final:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want Spain to win,\u201d said the former two-time undisputed heavyweight champion. \u201cI support Spain because Portugal lose, now Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked for his favourite Spanish players, Usyk gave some older names: \u201cIt\u2019s amazing. Ramos, Puyol, amazing. A lot of names. Now, Laporte, Rodri, Yamal, new star, 19 years old. Spain plays on a different level,\u201d said Usyk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Featured Image Credit<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>IMAGO \/ Newscom World<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 World Cup is edging towards its finale on July 19. Spain vs Argentina will be the final, while England and France will face off in the 3rd and 4th place play-off on July 18. The World Cup has given us many talking points, with VAR at the centre of much of it.\u00a0 There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":672404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161,30,2132],"tags":[798,979,32895,439],"class_list":["post-672567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-football","category-news","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina","tag-oleksandr-usyk","tag-spain"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672567"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672571,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672567\/revisions\/672571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}