Who is the best international team ever?

Say Hey Kid

Bathory
Dec 10, 2007
23,874
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Who is the best international team ever? I'll take Hungary 1954. Before 2014 they had the highest Elo rating ever.
 

Evilo

Registered User
Mar 17, 2002
62,124
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France
Hungary definately in the discussion. Brazil 70, France 00, France 84, Brazil 86, Holland 78, Germany 74, Spain 08... Those are the main ones IMO (surely I'm forgetting some team).
 

cgf

FireBednarsSuccessor
Oct 15, 2010
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Hungary definately in the discussion. Brazil 70, France 00, France 84, Brazil 86, Holland 78, Germany 74, Spain 08... Those are the main ones IMO (surely I'm forgetting some team).

Germany 72 > Germany 74.

And Fritz Walter > Hungary 54 :naughty:
 
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cgf

FireBednarsSuccessor
Oct 15, 2010
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Spain 08-12

Only team to win three consecutive major tourneys, and did so in dominant fashion

Spain had a lot of 1-0 wins along the way, and where fortunate Ozil didn't go down in the box back in 2010...otherwise we could've played on the counter the entire second half with a 1 goal lead & our lethal counters to pull the upset.

Spain's certainly in the mix, but they don't stand alone; even if their accomplishment does thanks to a certain group of Czechs who couldn't just lose the penalty shoot out in the 76 final.
 

Ceremony

blahem
Jun 8, 2012
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Wait a minute, I know the HFBoards answer to this question:

Glasgow Celtic 1967
 

Pouchkine

Registered User
May 20, 2015
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A dominant-best team ever don't win games 1-0 all the time in a very weak era.

Hungary54 Holland 74 clearly and then Germany 72-74 Brazil 70 France84 hell even teams like France98-00 Holland98-00 were much better than what we've seen since.
 

Savi

Registered User
Dec 3, 2006
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Bruges, Belgium
A dominant-best team ever don't win games 1-0 all the time in a very weak era.

That's a pretty bs argument imo

They won three major tournaments in a row, their opponents barely could touch the ball against them, let alone score a goal.

At the WC they shut out everyone in the knockouts, that includes Ronaldo's Portugal, the Netherlands with Robben/Persie/Sneijder at the top of their game, and a Germany team featuring the all time topscorer in World Cups.

Won the 2008 EURO shutting everyone out as well in the knockouts.
Then again in the 2012 EURO, only conceding once in the entire tourney before destroying Italy in the final (largest win ever in a EURO final as well).
 

DaveG

Noted Jerk
Apr 7, 2003
51,175
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Winston-Salem NC
Holland 74

That's a pretty bs argument imo

They won three major tournaments in a row, their opponents barely could touch the ball against them, let alone score a goal.

At the WC they shut out everyone in the knockouts, that includes Ronaldo's Portugal, the Netherlands with Robben/Persie/Sneijder at the top of their game, and a Germany team featuring the all time topscorer in World Cups.

Won the 2008 EURO shutting everyone out as well in the knockouts.
Then again in the 2012 EURO, only conceding once in the entire tourney before destroying Italy in the final (largest win ever in a EURO final as well).

Yeah there's really no way to say that Spain 08-12 shouldn't be mentioned here. It's probably the most dominant I've ever seen a team in at the least the ball control and defensive aspects of the game. Even if their style isn't exceptionally visually appealing.
 

Bon Esprit

Registered User
Jan 24, 2004
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I'm not a fan of surveys like this, because Hungary54 would have been eaten alive by a mediocre team from 74 and so on.
There were teams back in the day nobody here is even aware of (me included) that were dominant. Or has anybody seen Uruguay30 for example?
 

Deficient Mode

Registered User
Mar 25, 2011
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You don't win one game elimination tournaments with players who only play together a few times a year without being overly conservative. Germany in 2014 were this way, Spain before them, Italy before them, and so on. Even a team like Sampaoli's Chile played significantly more conservatively when they finally won a big tournament. Sure, there are a handful of exceptions, but I don't think you can hold it against an international team because they only won games 1-0 when they had the personnel to score goals in droves.

I'm not a fan of surveys like this, because Hungary54 would have been eaten alive by a mediocre team from 74 and so on.
There were teams back in the day nobody here is even aware of (me included) that were dominant. Or has anybody seen Uruguay30 for example?

The sport changes so much over time that it's pointless to compare one team to another twenty years before. If anything, you can only measure them relative to their contemporaries.
 

Deficient Mode

Registered User
Mar 25, 2011
60,348
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The Dutch 74 team were better than Germany, no doubt. Little bit too cocky, tho.

Not sure the Germans were even #2. They advanced over the Polish under extraordinary meteorological circumstances. Poland-Netherlands could have been a better final. How football history would have been different.
 

TheMoreYouKnow

Registered User
May 3, 2007
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Love the hipster revisionist history, so the best teams in history are the ones that lost their WC finals to Germany and thus didn't even win anything.

That German team was no worse than the Dutch team on talent even if Holland played the more innovative, attractive football. And while the semifinal was highly irregular, it's pure speculation that the Polish win that on a decent pitch.

It's not like Germany hadn't won the European title in highly convincing fashion just two years prior or that the bulk of their team was made up of players of two of European football's most dominant clubs at the time.
 

Deficient Mode

Registered User
Mar 25, 2011
60,348
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Love the hipster revisionist history, so the best teams in history are the ones that lost their WC finals to Germany and thus didn't even win anything.

That German team was no worse than the Dutch team on talent even if Holland played the more innovative, attractive football. And while the semifinal was highly irregular, it's pure speculation that the Polish win that on a decent pitch.

It's not like Germany hadn't won the European title in highly convincing fashion just two years prior or that the bulk of their team was made up of players of two of European football's most dominant clubs at the time.

Oh yeah, only hipsters like Holland 74. Just look at the people answering Holland 74 in this thread. It's a who's who of this forum's hipster posters. :rolleyes:
 

Eisen

Registered User
Sep 30, 2009
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Duesseldorf
Love the hipster revisionist history, so the best teams in history are the ones that lost their WC finals to Germany and thus didn't even win anything.

That German team was no worse than the Dutch team on talent even if Holland played the more innovative, attractive football. And while the semifinal was highly irregular, it's pure speculation that the Polish win that on a decent pitch.

It's not like Germany hadn't won the European title in highly convincing fashion just two years prior or that the bulk of their team was made up of players of two of European football's most dominant clubs at the time.

Even in German footy circles it is a majority opinion that 74 was luck.

I want to throw the 1990 german team into the discussion. No weaknesses.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
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74 to 78 Netherlands. What could have been... :(

Cruyff retired from international football in October 1977, having helped the national team qualify for the upcoming World Cup.[7] Without him, the Netherlands finished runners-up in the World Cup again. Initially, the reason given for missing the 1978 World Cup were political reasons given a military dictatorship was in power in Argentina at that time. In 2008, Cruyff stated to the journalist Antoni Bassas in Catalunya Ràdio that he and his family were subject to a kidnap attempt in Barcelona a year before the tournament, and that this had caused his retirement. "To play a World Cup you have to be 200% okay, there are moments when there are other values in life."

Yes, I'm completely biased. But honestly I think it's hard to just say one NT was 'the best' especially when comparing across eras.
 

cgf

FireBednarsSuccessor
Oct 15, 2010
60,293
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Shame the DFB ran Netzer & Muller out of the NT pre-maturely. Could've gotten to the three-peat first, even if it was only Gerd that was still around for 76.
 

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