New Jersey, Sunday. Luis de la Fuente has faced Lionel Messi before, and it did not go well. It was May 2004, the Copa del Rey under-19s, and De la Fuente was coaching Sevilla's youth side when the draw delivered them to Barcelona's Miniestadi. Word had spread about a 16-year-old Argentine called Messi.

So De la Fuente did the sensible thing — he put a man-marker on him. For 70 minutes it worked. Then the marker picked up a yellow card, De la Fuente pulled him off, and Messi scored four goals in the next 15 minutes. Twenty years later, standing on the edge of a World Cup final, the Spain head coach is choosing not to repeat that experiment.

"Does that mean we are going to man-mark him? No," De la Fuente said, laughing at his own story. "Does it mean we will pay close attention to him? Yes — but in exactly the same way that they are going to have to pay attention to our players.

" It is a calculated bet: try to contain Messi with a system rather than a shadow, and trust that Spain's own weapons are worth Argentina's attention. Those weapons include 17-year-old Lamine Yamal, whom many have called Spain's answer to Messi. De la Fuente pushed back firmly. "Messi can never be repeated," he said.

"Lamine has to be Lamine." It is a small but telling distinction — Spain are not arriving in New Jersey trying to mirror Argentina; they are betting their own identity is enough. De la Fuente also rejected the framing that this match is "all or nothing", and defended Argentina against accusations of dirty play, offering instead "admiration, admiration, admiration" for a side that holds the Copa América, World Cup, Copa América and Finalissima titles simultaneously — something no nation in history has managed. Two coaches, one trophy, and a 38-year-old who still makes the most experienced men in football change their plans.