Spain wins the 2026 World Cup! šŖšø (Here are my thoughts)
836 words (~5 mins read)
Spain is the new football world champion!! šŖšø A week ago, Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after added time, and won the World Cup for the second time after their first one back in 2010. As a Spaniard who likes football, Iām obviously very happy by the outcome. And in moments like this, Iām grateful to have a blog where I can publicly write about such exciting outcomes. In this post I will share my thoughts, feelings, and yes, also some lessons I can take for my own professional life.
Spain dominated the tournament and the final game
Spain dominated this World Cup in a similar way to how they dominated the European Cup two years ago: an impenetrable defense, long ball possessions, and lots of patience. They werenāt flashy, they didnāt have the best attackers, but they were constant, relentless, and always in control, making very few mistakes when defending. They only conceded one goal in 8 whole matches (new historic record). In the final game, Argentina did not shoot on target during the whole game (!), and they only finished two shots extremely late in the game, in the last few minutes. Absolutely nobody disputes that Spain earned the trophy very deservingly, even if they needed the extra time in the final game.
Spain has not always been this strong in football
Despite having some of the strongest team clubs in the world, and despite football being kind of a religion there, Spain has not always been the force it is nowadays. Before 2010, Spain had NEVER gone further than quarter-finals in the World Cup. And before 2008, Spain had only won the European Cup once. But since 2008, Spain has won 3 European Cups and 2 World Cups. So what changed? We have had strong players and coaches for many decades now, but if you ask me, it wasnāt until recently that Spain started to truly play as a team. Even this current National Team, they are on average (individually) less intimidating than the team that won the World Cup in 2010. But they all know their duty, their role, and how to support each of their teammates during the game.
Disappointed by Argentina
Argentina could never keep up with Spain during the final game, and they resorted to aggressive play, as was expected. The referees and the FIFA organization have also shown an undeniable bias in favor of Argentina during this World Cup, and only Messi fans or Argentinians deny it. Thereās plenty of evidence and footage anyone can check to verify this, so I wonāt go into details. I will just mention that 1-0 was a short result, and at the very least Nico Williamsā goal was ridiculously invalidated. Spainās victory is even sweeter when you consider that they also stopped Argentina from winning, which would have been extremely unfair. But Iām most disappointed by how certain Argentinian players attacked the Spaniards after the match was over. Completely unacceptable, and against the spirit of good sportsmanship.
Parallels with the Professional Tech World
Teamwork is maybe the biggest lesson we can take home from Spainās display of power. Other teams boasted of more super stars and individual talent than Spain, but teamwork shadowed individual performance. Managers would do well in fostering teamwork and ways of working that bring the best out of everyone, instead of promoting internal competition and individual performance. High-performing teams have supportive members and sensible rules. It is also easy to focus on the highlights or flashy demos, but the regular boring grunt work is of paramount importance: Spainās success came from controlling the ball and patiently building play.
It has been a while since I belonged to a healthy Scrum dev team, nowadays I feel that most teams are opting for loose Kanban ways of working and that many devs straight up donāt believe in the Scrum framework any more. We should always adapt to what the business and team needs the most, and Iām not advocating for overcomplicating Scrum with e.g. SAFe, but I have seen the simple Scrum ceremonies be highly effective when executed well. We might be at an irreversible shift at this point since Waterfall is becoming more important these days due to AI-assisted coding being so fast and requiring very specific requirements. And yet, teams and people will always need to work with each other. So fostering teamwork and healthy ways of working should be a priority for ANY tech team.
We also all have been in companies where certain teams or departments benefited from unfair bias. But dwelling on things out of our control wonāt solve anything. Just like Spain, we can usually plow through extra adversity and friction and still perform very well. There are of course times where itās too much and youād be better off leaving that workplace, but most often than not your workplace is like life itself: unfair, yet manageable. Acknowledge the unfairness, but focus on what is in your hand!
NOTE: Images sourced from MSNās article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/fifa_world_cup/world-cup-2026-final-in-photos-spain-triumphs-as-football-crowns-a-new-champion/ar-AA28fyZh