Some of the discussion on " The Best Team in Each World Cup" thread made me curious about what everyone thought each country's best ever WC team was. Here's my list for now I'm including only the nations to who've ever qualified for the WC Final although everyone's certainly welcome to do more and I probably will too eventually. Also if anyone wants to rank any particular nations best World Cup teams this would be a good thread for that as well. Well here's my list. Germany 2014 Brazil 1970 Italy 1938 Argentina 1986 Uruguay 1930 England 1966 Spain 2010 France 1998 Netherlands 1974 Hungary 1954 Czechoslovakia 1934 Sweden 1958
I'm just doing the countries that interest me the most, some are obvious Canada - 1986 United States - 2002 Japan - 2010 Iran - 1998 China - 2002 Korea - 2002 Turkey - 2002 Mexico - 1986 Egypt - 1990 Italy - 2006 Germany - 2014 Russia (including USSR) - 1966 Brazil - 1970 Spain - 2010 Nigeria - 2014
I'll do the African ones (won't mention teams who only appeared once or even twice): Algeria 1982 (2018 has the potential to be better) Cameroon 1982 (Roger Milla in his prime plus several Cameroonian GOAT like Kunde, Abega or N'kono) Nigeria 1994 Morocco 1998 Ghana 2006 (2010 was injury ridden despite its good performance, 2006 had Essien, Appiah and Muntari in full gear) Cote d'Ivoire 2010 (toughie given all of their appearances have been dissapointments, but Toure and Drogba were not at the end of their careers then)
I feel like most of these are rather obvious; Brazil - 1970 Italy - 1982 Germany - 2014 Argentina - 1986 Uruguay - 1950 France - 1998 Spain - 2010 England - 1966 Netherlands - 1974 Hungary - 1954 So instead I will rate World Cup squads which I thought underachieved and/or should have done better given the quality they had. Brazil - 1982 They should have won the whole thing with that squad, arguably the best Brazilian squad ever. Germany - 1994 A combination of the 1990 WC winning squad and 1996 EC winning squad, and they got eliminated by Bulgaria? Italy - 2002 A better than the team that ended up winning in 2006. unlucky against South Korea. Argentina - 2006 This team was much more complete than the one that reached the final in 2014; quality in every position. France - 2002 Had the top scorer in the EPL, Serie A, and Ligue 1, and yet ended scoreless? How? England - 2006 It wasn't just media hype, this England generation had great potential, but was wasted by poor coaches. Spain - 2002 I could have picked any Spain team pre-2010, but I saw the 2002 one get robbed by South Korea live.
I generally agree with all posted except Italy. I felt the 1978 team is their best World Cup side I've ever seen even if they didn't win it. They beat the hosts (no small feat) and I felt their style was more enjoyable to watch than the '82 team.
I thought this team had the greatest midfield in the history of soccer, but that the rest of the team was disappointing. I think the 1986 Brazil team was better.
Netherlands 1998-200o Should have won a World Cup and Euro in my opinion. Unfortunately penalties decided otherwise.
Someone said USSR/Russia 1966. I thought USSR 1986 was awesome too, Countries that have not been mentioned. Belgium 1986 Portugal 1966 Denmark 1986 Sweden 1958 Austria 1938 Romania 1994 Northern Ireland 1958 Poland 1974 Peru 1970 Paraguay 1998 great defence Chile 2010? Colombia 2014
I'd probably add Netherlands 1998 to this list. They lost to Brazil on penalties and lost to Italy on penalties in 2000, but that Dutch generation was, by every objective measure, world class. They beat France in the group stage in 2000, the only team to beat the 1998-2000 French team in a tournament. I think that if they had reached both finals (1998 and 2000), they would have beat France in at least one.
USSR 1982 and USSR 1986 were both very strong and, I believe, were both better than the USSR 1966. It's a pity that the 1966 edition achieved more success.
yugoslavia 1990 or 1998...difficult choice, but the 90 team edge out the 98es Gesendet von meinem SM-G935F mit Tapatalk
I'm surprised by all the Argentina 1986 votes. The 1978 team was a much more balanced team and had more all time greats.
78 was better on paper. Mitigating factors: played at home. Lost to Italy. Drew Brazil. The Peru match. I don't think it was thrown, but half of that margin was a complete collapse by Peru. Going to extra time vs a Dutch team that didn't have JC due to the kidnapping incident in Spain. 86 had the infamous Hand of God, but Argentina clearly outplayed ENG and the field that year. Best team at WC86. Not sure you can say that about 78. A worthy champ, but not dominant. There were some all time greats on that 74 team, but I admire Germany's depth/complete roster/cohesion in 2014. It's a deeper and more tactical era too, so the extra time matches don't trouble me. They were excellent in 2014. I don't think you can go wrong picking either year.