Spain did not just beat France on Tuesday, it euthanized the last competing theory of how this World Cup ends. Four second-half goals in a semifinal that was level at the hour mark, and by the time the fourth landed the French bench had the specific stillness of men watching a plan die. Spain has not lost a competitive match in fourteen months, and Sunday's final is now a coronation with an opponent still to be confirmed, which is its own kind of statement: the biggest stage in the sport, and the suspense is about who loses, not who wins.

Here is the part that actually pays the electric bill: a World Cup final is the single most valuable seventeen days in advertising, and Spain marching in as the overwhelming favorite is very good news for FIFA's broadcast partners and very bad news for whoever draws them. A blowout final draws eyeballs for the first half and a mercy-killing for the second. Spain didn't just win a semifinal. It priced the final before it's been played.