Brazil from 58-70. They won nearly everything. If you saw them play, and not simply on video, you could make an easy comparison.
"Best ever" is impossible to define.... besides, it sounds too much like a 13 year old teenager talking about BFF's and shit. Let's stay away from absolutes, ok?
Check argentina and brazil for continental championships and world cups Loewenboy, i think there is a good argument for spain and barcelona but i can't go to absolutes.
It's not difficult to make an argument for Spain as the best ever though... Three consecutive international titles with their record and dominance? Unrivaled. Obviously there is a structural purpose when dealing with absolutes in the context of this particular argument. Let's not be pedantic about this. The nature of sports is to rank so this is just a natural byproduct of that. It's normal for it to be part of discourse.
But when you see them play most of those matches, especially in 2010...there was a lot of last minute luck on the bounce on some of those 1-0 results they grinded away. Overall results is not the only thin, in my opinion, that would make you the best ever, ever, ever...
That's a weak argument. It's a difficult tournament. Luck often plays a factor. Italy 2006 had it. Brazil 2002 had it. It doesn't really matter as in the context of that entire run and matches between tournaments Spain broke multiple records so it's difficult to write them off because they got last minute winners. If anything you could also look at it as hunger and fighting til forcing errors and getting late goals, something they will historically be regarded for. Especially in modern football which is more defensive and harder to get results. Teams often parked the bus against Spain and Barcelona to ridiculous lengths so yea, getting one goal here, two goals there. Not really telling of anything regarding achievements because they still managed to win in the end.
I just find it hard to call the "best ever" a team that had to grind out so many results the way they did. Not a weak argument for me. Look, I'm not saying they were shit - just that best ever is too much of an absolute in my view. And as weak as you believe my argument to be, it is still there and enough for a footy fan like me to say I am not ready to grant them such a title as "the bestest national team eva". The titles were totally deserved but do not produce the whole picture. I mean, Greece was never the best ever when they won the Euro, were they?
But they didn't grind out results so many times as you imply at all. The World Cup is a small sample size of A LOT of matches and even in that World Cup, they were the most deserving team in the end. And why would you even compare Greece, a team that is a one-off to Spain whose 2007 - 2012 run was RECORD SMASHING and dominating? That's not up to debate. How else would you define dominating? They won an incredible percentage of their matches over that period, competitive and non, won all titles they competed for (with exception of that Confed Cup), and have an incredible goals scored to goals conceived record that's unmatched by a national team. That's why the argument. I already mentioned the idea of ranking in discourse and that's done to create a context for conversation. Either way, it doesn't matter. Spain being one of the five best national sides ever still creates the same context for the Xavi remark.
Ok so the question is - were there other national teams that didn't do the same thing over a similar number of matches (which for me is the duration of the last world cup up to the semis)? If they didn't, did they win as many matches or break a record that spain did? My way of looking at is it - which team stood out the most during their time? I haven't seen them all so I can't say who did that the best and is the best team on this whole planet (above sea-level).
Yup. Three World Cup wins in four attempts. Especially that peak in 1970. Somehow, with the World Football becoming more and more Euro-centric, we count Euro championship wins as near-WC wins. I'd say, let's wait until Qatar 2022 and see if Spain hits triple or quadruple by then, and make a best-ever statement.
Did Spain ever play Argentina or Brazil in this time period? Does it even matter that they didn't? They were completely outclassed by Brazil when they played at the last Confed Cup (granted it is outside of the 2007-2012 run)