Juanjo González says Spain are confident against world champions

Spain kept the same starting lineup for the final against Argentina in New York, and assistant coach Juanjo González treated that as the clearest sign that the holders were ready to defend their crown. Facing Lionel Scaloni’s world champions, he cast the unchanged XI as a statement of trust in Spain’s identity rather than a refusal to adapt.

That message carried added weight because González was working inside a coaching staff Luis de la Fuente had already reshaped after Pablo Amo’s departure. The Real Federación Española de Fútbol named Juanjo González Argüelles as the new assistant for the senior men’s team in its December 12, 2022 reorganisation of the technical staff, a move that tied the bench to continuity even as roles changed around it. Transfermarkt lists González’s appointment as assistant manager of Spain as February 13, 2025.

The football logic was plain enough. Against a squad described as packed with stars, Spain did not respond by altering the starting XI or chasing surprise. Instead, De la Fuente backed the same structure that had taken Spain to the final, a choice that suggested both tactical clarity and calculated risk. If the bench believed the team’s pressing, spacing and ball security were already sharp enough, then changing personnel would have mattered less than preserving the habits that had carried them this far.

The wider mood around Spain matched that reading. A BBC Sport match build-up placed the final in New York and framed Spain’s target as a second world title, with the team leaning on calm rather than spectacle. One line captured the tone: “To win this World Cup, we don't need to do anything spectacular - we just need to keep calm and carry on playing the same way.” In practical terms, that meant trusting the same starting group, keeping the rhythm intact and asking the same players to solve the biggest game with the same methods that had brought them there.