Greatest team to never win the World Cup?

General_Elegancia

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Which teams come to your mind?
For me, not arrange in order

Poland 1974
Italy 1970/1978/1990
Portugal 1966
Netherland 1974
Brazil 1950/1982/1998
England 1970
Hungary 1954
France 1958/1982
West Germany 1970/1966
Uruguay 1954
Germany 2010
 

Foxbatt

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Hungarians 1954. They were robbed. The Dutch in 1974. The rest probably got outplayed in the Final. Brazil in 1982 was outplayed by Italy and the Italians went on to beat Argentina and Germany too. I heard that in 1950, the Uruguay actually played fairly well and there was no shenanigans by the referee.
 

RoyH1

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It has to be Brazil 82, Hungary 54 and the Netherlands 74. Brilliant teams that played wonderful football.
 

Stookie

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England 02 has to be in there. Quality right through the team and it was a tournament they should’ve won. There wasn’t a really other great side in it. That was England’s best chance in my opinion amd they blew it.
 

Shai-Hulud

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How old are you guys? Did you watch these teams from the 1950s? If not, why do you think you can judge them?
 

RedDevilMachine

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England 02 has to be in there. Quality right through the team and it was a tournament they should’ve won. There wasn’t a really other great side in it. That was England’s best chance in my opinion amd they blew it.
If they had beaten Brazil, I'd have fancied them to win it. That Germany team in the final had a rubbish route to the final and was the weakest Germany team.
 

Steffa Barnesa

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All the big hitters have been named, but the one that stands out in the modern era is Argentina in 2006. Really feel they should've won that tournament, but the coach messed up iirc against Germany in the quarters.

Pundits are saying this 2022 squad is the best one Messi has had, but it's clearly 2006 (although peple maybe forget that, as he was young and part of the support act, which was one of the failures of the coach perhaps - he didn't make it off the bench as the Germans knocked them out on penalties).

How old are you guys? Did you watch these teams from the 1950s? If not, why do you think you can judge them?
Fair question, but that Hungary team from the 50s is widely regarded as one of the all-time great football teams, with some icons of the game like Puskas. Also famous in England because they beat England at Wembley in a game dubbed "the match of the century", the first time England had ever been destroyed at Wembley. They might be the definitive answer to this question, certainly top three, and no discussion on the greatest teams is complete without them, whether you've seen them or not.
 

antohan

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  1. Hungary 54 (Kocsis, Puskas, Czibor, Hidegkuti, and Bozsik)
  2. Netherlands 74 (Cruyff, Rensenbrink, Van Hanegem, Neeskens, and Krol)
  3. Brazil 82 (Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Cerezo, Leandro, and Junior)
  4. France 82 (Platini, Giresse, Tigana, Tresor, and Amoros)
  5. Brazil 98 (Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Cafu, Carlos, and Taffarel)
This, ranked and all.

I only wonder if France 82 should be ahead of Brazil 82 simply because Brazil got well beaten, while France were robbed.
 

GlasgowCeltic

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England 02 has to be in there. Quality right through the team and it was a tournament they should’ve won. There wasn’t a really other great side in it. That was England’s best chance in my opinion amd they blew it.
Not having any team with Danny Mills and Trevor Sinclair in it as potential World Champions
 

2mufc0

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Has to be Netherlands 74.

Not just about individuals, that team had a long lasting legacy on football, you can see it's footprints to this day.
 

antohan

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I’d say overall the Dutch have to be the most talented nation to never win it right?
Yeah.

Actually, Uruguay organised a World Cup winners tourno to celebrate 50 years of the World Cup. England characteristically refused to participate so the Dutch were invited instead, making it all much better :lol:
 

RedDevilMachine

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Nah, England would have managed to feck it up against Turkey or Germany, it's just in them to do such.
They wouldn't mess up against Turkey that's for sure as England generally beat all the small teams but shit their pants against the top teams so maybe against Germany. Still fancy them to win the final if they made it all the way that year. That 2002 England team was the best IMO.
 

maniak

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Not WC, but us losing at home in 2004 will hurt till the day I die.
 

PepG

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Sweden 1994 and France 2006.
Sweden?! No..Bulgaria 1994. The only reason Bulgaria lost 4:0 to Sweden was because of the disappointment of not being in the final and everybody trying to help Stoichkov to score just one more goal to become the only goalscorer of the World Cup.(he didnt, he ended up joint goalscorer with the Russian Salenko - 6 goals each)
 

Demyanenko_square_jaw

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England 2002 seems more like USSR 62. Team with some very strong qualities that couldn't quite cope with the domestic pressure and expectation on them. Worth a mention once all the usual suspects have been brought up, but the game against Brazil was a tame, choking performance, not just a loss. you can't have a team like that among the best ever not to win, despite the potential that was there.

I think the 70 and 82 England team was arguably better. 82 was at least as good as the French during the first two group stages of that tournament, being directly superior in the first groupstage and just getting a tougher 2nd group, but still going out undefeated. The structure of that world cup was garbage.

From the prehistoric world cups, maybe the '34 Czechoslovakia and '38 Hungary teams are worth a mention alongside the Austrian wunderteam, despite the lack of footage. 30s and 40s (if the war hadn't interrupted) was a golden era for depth and development of cutting edge tactics in those countries, with the 54 Hungary team merely a continuation of the strength of that era, not one that appeared out of nowhere.

Sweden 58 are another team i really like. Much better football (relative to era) than the 94 team.
 

FootballHQ

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Belgium 2018.

Holland 1974.

Croatia 1998 played at a pretty good level but whether they'd have done anything v Brazil in the final I'm not sure.
 

Pink Moon

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Not having any team with Danny Mills and Trevor Sinclair in it as potential World Champions
Better than the Brazil side that did win it with guys like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Lucio, Gilberto Silva et al :lol: