EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If something happened once, it can happen again. That’s kind of what Yogi Berra was getting at when he said “it’s like deja vu all over again.”

Berra, the late Yankee catcher and once New Jersey’s unofficial poet laureate, spent most of his life within walking distance of East Rutherford, N.J., where history could repeat itself all over again in Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. And that makes his words newly relevant.

Argentina and Lionel Messi, the reigning champions, will be seeking to become the first to repeat in 64 years while Spain will be playing in the title game for just the second time ever. And the similarities to its first trip, in 2010, are uncanny.

Sixteen years ago Spain became just the second reigning European champion to win a World Cup. It will enter Sunday’s game as the reigning European champion.

In the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, Spain ran off a 35-game unbeaten streak, which matched the longest in history at the time. La Roja will enter Sunday’s game with a 37-game unbeaten streak, which matches the current longest streak in history.

And that 2010 team was known for an absence of ego and a depth of character, a blue-collar collection of quiet superstars built around a core of Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol, players who emphasized humility, unity and selflessness.

This team? It’s the same.

“We’re one big family,” center back Pau Cubarsí said in Spanish.

A family that has already achieved its goal, according to coach Luis de la Fuente. So while Argentina may be feeling the pressure of chasing World Cup history, De la Fuente said his team is playing with house money

“I don’t believe in the idea that finals are there to be won. They’re there to be enjoyed,” he said. “What’s to come could be the icing on the cake.”

Of course a cake is nothing without the icing. But then Spain hasn’t had to separate joy from success in this World Cup, enjoying an unbeaten run to the final whose only blemish has been a tournament-opening draw with Cape Verde.

That was the first of six clean sheets for Spanish keeper Unai Simón, though it’s really been a group effort with Simón facing an average of just two shots on goal a game.

“This team never ceases to amaze me,” De la Fuente said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”

De la Fuente, 65, whose only senior international appearance as a player came in the 1988 Olympics, coached Spain’s U-23 team to a silver medal in the Tokyo Games in 2021 then took over the national team a year later, after it crashed out of a second straight World Cup in the round of 16.

De la Fuente spent nearly two decades coaching at the youth level, including nine years with Spain’s U19 and U21 national teams. But seven months after taking over the senior team, he led later Spain to its first UEFA Nations League title and a year after that it won its first Champions League title in more than a decade. La Roja has lost just twice in 48 games under De la Fuente, who has the highest winning percentage of any man who has managed more than nine games for Spain.

Given his background, De la Fuente trusts young players — with an average age of 26.7, Spain has the sixth-youngest roster in the World Cup — and his starting lineup includes two teenagers in Cubarsí and forward Lamine Yamal. The core of the team — Simón, Mikel Merino, Dani Olmo, Rodri, Mikel Oyarzabal, Fabián Ruiz — are players he coached to European youth-level championships and ones he has known for half their lives.

That has given the team a level of familiarity and trust that goes both ways.

“This team never ceases to amaze me,” the coach said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”

And they’ve gotten there, said right back Pedro Porro, another product of De la Fuente’s youth teams, by all pulling in the same direction.

“From the very first day we got here — not just me, but the whole team — we’ve been working toward a common goal,” Porro said. “That’s part of the process. There are no excuses.”

That, too, is something De la Fuente brought to the job, though it’s not an original concept for Spain. It’s more like deja vu all over again.

“We are ordinary, generous people,” the coach said. “We’ve recaptured the spirit of 2010.”

The ESPYS brought some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment to New York City on Wednesday night, a day that typically ranks among the slowest on the sports calendar.

But this year’s ceremony was preceded by a World Cup semifinal match in Atlanta that was already being described as an instant classic. Lionel Messi and Argentina punched their ticket to a second straight World Cup final with a win over England. The defending champions will meet Spain on Saturday in nearby New Jersey, just a short trip across the Hudson River from where comedian Marcello Hernández opened the ESPYS.

The “Saturday Night Live” star wasted little time taking a few jabs at Jake Paul, Tiger Woods and other sports figures.

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“Mike Tyson ripped my watch off. Welcome to the ESPYS!” Hernández joked after making a boxing-style entrance in a robe with Tyson as part of his entourage.

“I must say, it’s an honor to be here among so many great athletes, and Jake Paul,” Hernández began in his roughly 10-minute monologue.

Paul appeared to take the joke in stride, laughing and applauding as cameras cut to him in the crowd. Hernández then stayed on the YouTube star-turned-boxer, needling him over his history of fighting older opponents.

“Jake, that’s just a joke. Don’t fight me,” Hernández continued. “My dad and my stepdad are both here. They’re over 50, and I know that’s how you like them. So, fight them instead.”

Paul kept laughing as Hernández’s bit played out, eventually closing with the comedian shifting attention to his father and stepfather, who were shown in the audience.

Hernández later used Caleb Williams’ “Madden 27” cover as a lead into Woods.

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“I want to congratulate Caleb Williams, the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, who will be on the cover of the new Madden video game. Congratulations to Caleb,” Hernández said, before adding, “And Tiger Woods will be on the cover of Grand Theft Auto.”

Woods was arrested in Florida in March on charges of DUI after a car crash. The arrest report said a deputy found pain pills in his pocket and observed signs of impairment at the scene. Woods later announced he would take time away from golf to seek treatment.

Hernández also worked North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick into the monologue, using the 74-year-old’s relationship with Jordon Hudson as part of a joke about the New York Knicks’ title drought.

“The Knicks won their first championship since 1973. And to put into perceptive how long ago that was, in 1973 hockey players didn’t wear helmets, basketball had no three point line. And in 1973, Bill Belichick was the age his girlfriend is now.”

The Knicks later took home the ESPY for Best Team.

Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and other members of the 2025-26 Knicks championship team took the stage to accept the award, but Josh Hart was noticeably absent. Brunson drew laughs when he joked, “I want to say thank you to the ESPYS for pulling Josh Hart’s invite.”

Earlier in the night Brunson also received the “Best Championship Performance” award.

Former NBA player Jason Collins, who died in May at age 47 following a battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma, posthumously received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Former MLB pitcher Jim Abbott received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, while Scott Ruskan was honored with the Pat Tillman Award for Service.

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The ESPYS are held every summer, bringing together top athletes and other stars to celebrate the best moments from the past year in sports while honoring figures recognized for courage, service and impact. In past years, the ceremony has been held in Los Angeles, but shifted to New York this year.

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ATLANTA — The jury is still out on whether Lionel Messi is the greatest soccer player ever. But there should be no doubt he’s the greatest to ever play in a World Cup.

And you don’t need the records, the wins or the goals to prove that — although he certainly has enough of those. You just need to see Messi at his most magical, as he was Wednesday, setting up a pair of game-changing goals in a seven-minute span to lift Argentina to a 2-1 win over England and into Sunday’s World Cup final with Spain.

“It’s really hard to speak right now, but I’m going to try not to cry,” Lautaro Martínez, who scored the winning goal two minutes into stoppage time, said in Spanish. “I’m already overwhelmed inside. It’s incredible. Everything we’ve achieved is just incredible.”

Like their 13-game World Cup unbeaten streak, dating to the opening game of the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Or back-to-back trips to the final, which gives them a chance to become the first repeat champion in the men’s tournament since Brazil in 1962.

But it hasn’t been easy. Eleven of Argentina’s 19 goals — including both scores in Wednesday’s semifinal — have come after the 75th minute. They trailed in the 80th minute or later in two of their last three knockout games, only to rally both times.

And Messi has either scored or assisted on three of the four goals that rescued Argentina.

“This group, in the face of adversity, keeps going, keeps going, and never gets tired,” Martínez said. “And we have the best in the world as our example.”

On Wednesday that meant heartache for England, which was as close to a World Cup final as it has been in six decades, leading 1-0 on Anthony Gordon’s second-half goal with just five minutes left in normal time.

But after taking the lead, England turned strangely conservative, dropping all 11 players behind the ball at times, daring Argentina to score. Eventually it did, with Enzo Fernández curling a right-footed shot from about 20 yards past England keeper Jordan Pickford and in at the left post to tie the game.

It was a pass from Messi that found Fernández in space at the top of the box, earning the Argentine captain his record 11th World Cup assist.

“The opponent doubted themselves,” Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni said. “We smelt blood and went for it. We all felt it. “

The tie didn’t last for long though, with Messi threading a perfect cross from the right wing to Martínez, who found space between English defenders John Stones and Ezri Konsa at the far post. Messi’s pass just cleared the leaping Stones, then dipped to Martínez, who nodded it home.

England’s Harry Kane and England’s Jude Bellingham are dejected after losing to Argentina during a World Cup semifinal on Wednesday in Atlanta.

(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)

When the ball hit the net, the sellout crowd at Atlanta’s massive Mercedes-Benz Stadium erupted.

“Once again, despite falling behind, we managed to turn the game around in stoppage time. That speaks volumes about this group, about this team that never settles, always wants more, always strives for more,” Martínez said.

It also gives Messi a chance to strive for more in Sunday’s final. He has already played in more World Cup games, scored more World Cup goals and had more World Cup assists than any man in history. With a win over Spain, he can join another elite group of men: those who have won back-to-back World Cup titles.

History will eventually decide if it was Messi’s brillance or the tactical surrender of England coach Thomas Tuchel that truly turned the game around. Tuchel, however, said he had no regrets.

“We played the matches how they were,” he said. “We overcame every obstacle. We were very, very close today. It’s not a moment now to analyze the full tournament because we lost a crucial match.”

His captain, Harry Kane, who lost in the semifinal of a World Cup for the second time in three tournament, was also not interested in second-guessing.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi sits on the shoulders of a teammate and celebrates after beating England in a World Cup semifinal on Wednesday in Atlanta.

(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)

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“We had a lot of good moments in this tournament, a lot of good games,” he said. “We talked about knocking on the door. We’re close, we just have to find that missing piece in the final stage of the tournament.”

They may be closer than they think: England is the only team this century to score the first goal in a World Cup semifinal but not reach the final, according to the OptaJoe statistical service.

Argentina’s team, meanwhile, is missing nothing — except maybe a second title,

“The people of Argentina should celebrate being in a final,” Scaloni said. “This group of players is difficult to describe in words. They are so special. I’m getting emotional. They fight for everything.

“We’re going to try to win the final. But what else does this team need to do? There isn’t much else to say. I’m eternally grateful to this group of players.”

Sports editor Iliana Limón Romero contributed to this report.