Rank the World Cup winning teams you've seen

[Skills]

So where does this Argentina team sit?

 

[KirkDuyt]

So where does this Argentina team sit?

Think it might honestly be the worst I've seen (starting at 94). It's Messi with 10 dudes who mostly kick people in the shins.

Though Di Maria was very good in the final.

 

[Zetrio2002]

So where does this Argentina team sit?

It's a very decent team. They controlled France for the first 78 mins.

And don't forget their keeper is a master at saving penalties so if any of these champions meet each other and play till the shootouts, you know E. Martinez can save penalties very well.

 

[Giggsy13]

Think it might honestly be the worst I've seen (starting at 94). It's Messi with 10 dudes who mostly kick people in the shins.

Though Di Maria was very good in the final.

Nah that’s your bias after a bitter QF defeat. This is a well balanced Argentinian squad. Doesn’t have the flair of France or Brazil but their mental fortitude is something to be admired and respected. Lose the opening game, blow two 2 goal leads in the knockout stages but still manage to win both games. Just imagine if the Dutch and English had half of that mental strength, might be a few more world cups between the two.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Don't think there's much between them. Both teams were very hard to break down, but France 1998 had arguably the second best international defence of all time behind Italy in 1990. Each of the back four were among the greatest (top 10-15) in their position of all time, whereas I don't think the 2018 team's defence hits the same heights. For what it's worth France 1998 also scored more goals than France 2018, despite not having a functioning striker for the knockout stage.

The Euro 2000 team shits on both of them though.

Shame Zidane was injured in 2002, that France side was packed with talent.

Out of the 32-team WC era, I'd say Brazil 2002 given the Ronaldo story and how they nearly struggled to make it out of the qualifiers (Argentina by contrast underperformed).

 

[Eurotrash]

Have followed since 1986. These teams kind of stick out for me as particularly good:

Germany 1990
France 1998
Brazil 2002
France 2018

Not sure about the order

 

[Pocho]

Argentina 2022

 

[Giggsy13]

1) Brazil 2002
2) France 1998
3) Spain 2010
4) Germany 2014
5) Argentina 2022

 

[RaddyRed]

I'm still convinced that the Brazil team in 1998 was better than the 2002 team, although not sure if it was just how frighteningly good they looked to me as a 15 year old in 98 and ifs nostalgia.

 

[lex talionis]

Great tread topic!

Brazil 1970
Brazil 2022
West Germany 1974
France 1998
Germany 2014

 

[KirkDuyt]

Nah that’s your bias after a bitter QF defeat. This is a well balanced Argentinian squad. Doesn’t have the flair of France or Brazil but their mental fortitude is something to be admired and respected. Lose the opening game, blow two 2 goal leads in the knockout stages but still manage to win both games. Just imagine if the Dutch and English had half of that mental strength, might be a few more world cups between the two.

No it's definitely their lack of quality. They barely managed to beat the worst Dutch world cup side of all time. They have mental fortitude, but that's really all they have (aside from Messi who, lets face it, is not the 28 year old version).

Which of the winners since 94 do you consider worse?

 

[Josh 76]

The best teams never win it.
Brazil 1950
Hungary 1954
Holland 1974
Brazil 1982
France 1986
Brazil 1998
Argentina 2006

 

[Krakenzero]

Of the ones I've seen:

Brazil 1994: Taffarel/Jorginho-Aldair-Marcio Santos-Branco/Mazinho-Mauro Silva-Dunga-Zinho/Romario-Bebeto

France 1998: Barthez/Lizarazu-Blanc-Desailly-Thuram/Deschamps-Petit-Zidane/Henry-Djorkaeff/Guivarch

Brazil 2002: Marcos/Lucio-Edmilson-Roque Junior/Cafu-Kleberson-Gilberto Silva-Roberto Carlos/Ronaldinho-Rivaldo/Ronaldo

Italy 2006: Buffon/Zambrotta-Cannavaro-Materazzi-Grosso/Camoranesi-Gattusso-Pirlo/Perrota-Totti/Toni

Spain 2010: Casillas/Ramos-Pujol-Pique-Capdevila/Busquets-Alonso-Xavi-Iniesta/Villa-Pedro

Germany 2014: Neuer/Lahm-Hummels-Boateng-Howedes/Kedira-Schweinsteiger/Muller-Kroos-Ozil/Klose

France 2018: Lloris/Hernandez-Varane-Umtiti-Pavard/Kante-Pogba-Matuidi/Mbappe-Griezmann/Giroud

Argentina 2022: Martinez/Molina-Otamendi-Romero-Acuña/De Paul-MacAllister-Fernandez/Messi-Di María/Alvarez

Germany 2014 edges it for me.

 

[carvajal]

Spain, Brazil 02, France 98, Germany 14, Italia 06

 

[Offside]

Spain 2010 are the best international team of the last 50 years. Nobody was close to them at that World Cup. Every team, including great teams like the Dutch, just focused on trying to stop them as everyone knew they were head and shoulders above.

 

[Krakenzero]

Spain 2010 are the best international team of the last 50 years. Nobody was close to them at that World Cup. Every team, including great teams like the Dutch, just focused on trying to stop them as everyone knew they were head and shoulders above.

Then why did they lose to Switzerland?

I don't think even the dutch consider their 2010 team as a great team. They had Sjneider/Robben plus luck on their side and little else. Germany (who had just crushed England and Argentina) would be a better example.

 

[Jotun]

Spain 2010 are the best international team of the last 50 years. Nobody was close to them at that World Cup. Every team, including great teams like the Dutch, just focused on trying to stop them as everyone knew they were head and shoulders above.

What? They lost from Switzerland in a group, managed to beat Chile thanks to red card and the rest were 1-0 wins were they just kept possession, had no penetration and presented no danger besides David Villa being in brilliant form and bailing them out regularly. IMHO it was one of the most terrible WC winners.

The most dominant win that I've seen was Brazil in 2002 and Germany in 2014. Both teams seemed fairly comfortable throughout the tournament.

 

[SCP]

1 - Germany 2014
2 - Italy 2006
3 - France 1998
4 - Germany 1990
5 - France 2018
6 - Spain 2010
7 - Brazil 2002
8 - Brazil 1994
9 - Argentina 2022

 

[GMoore23]

My top 3

France 1998
Brazil 2002
Spain 2010

Brazil 2002 are my favourite winners but that Spain side is probably the most dominant international side I've ever seen. Zidane is probably my favourite international player of all time.

 

[SilentStrike]

Germany 2014
Brazil 2002
Italy 2006
France 2018
Spain 2010
Argentina 2022

Brazil and Germany were better than the rest.
Spain and Argentina the worst. Spain never really outplayed anyone. Also the most boring winner of all time. Argentina seemed like a poor team throughout the tournament. Penalties pushed them through.

 

[MostHandsomePlayer]

Netherlands is ranked #4 by elo. Quibble with their system but it is far better than your offhand comment which surely is based more on unappealing football rather than results. Argentina was the better team but it wasn't domination.

They *dominated* #10 Croatia.

They won handily versus #3 France who everybody considered a great side. 3-1 would have been a fair score to be honest.

Arg was positive xG in every one of the 7 matches. Saudi Arabia result was a complete fluke. I say that cause of xG and *all* the other stats. Not a blank opinion.

---

They dominated Italy ranked #7 and champions of Europe. Missing the World Cup was a fluke.

They won Copa America, including Brazil in Brazil in a tight match. Brazil ranked #2.

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They have the huge winnings streak, marred by the fluke Saudi loss.
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They are currently ranked #1.

Disclaimers about injuries to oppoonents will come in. Well Arg, lost Lo Celso, Nico Gonzalez who were starters. Their team came in banged up and they had to completely revamp their mid. Di Maria missed crucial games.

QED

 

[Infordin]

Tier 1:
Brazil 2002, Germany 2014

These are teams that felt very comfortable throughout the tournament

Tier 2:
Italy 2006, France 2018, Argentina 2022

Teams that were on balance one of the best sides at the tournament without being the clear best. They grinded out a lot of results when needed, and had some great performances in between.

Tier 3:
Spain 2010

Hurts to admit because I love Xavi and Iniesta, but this team was objectively abysmal.
They only scored 8 goals in the entire tournament, by far the fewest from any winner in modern history. It’s funny that I rank this team as the lowest because on paper, I think they were the most stacked, but the football was just awful.

 

[mshnsh]

Spain 2010: Getting the ball from them was a mighty task. Boring AF to watch. Tikitaka has since unravelled.















Germany 2014: Very comfortable through the tournament and dominated the oppnents









Germany 1990: Very strong team with quality through out.



France 1998: Home tournament.



Brazil 1994: Very strong defensively but also very good in attack.





Brazil 2002: 3Rs and fullbacks. The thing that makes them rank low is the poor quality of opposition. 2002 was a poor tournament.





France 2018: I don't recall a single truly dominant performance.





Italy 2006: The only great game was vs France. Uber defensive.





Italy 1982: Not great on paper but punched well above their weight.





Argentina 1986: peak Maradona plus a hardworking 10 others.





Argentina 2022: 35 year old Messi plus hardworking 10 others.

 

[mshnsh]

Yeah Varane is the only player in 2018 France that is in the calibre of the 1998 defence. But I’d rather Giroud as a non goal scoring striker than Guivarc’h, and Mbappe was far more dangerous than Djorkaeff. In midfield, Pogba and Kanté together were an all-time partnership and Matuidi was also as good if not better than the likes of Karembeau. Pogba in particular at that World Cup was absolutely top class, and maybe better than any French midfielder in the 1998 tournament, but his United spell no doubt sours the opinion of many unfortunately.

What you are stating is on paper true. But during the tournament itself France weren't great.

 

[dinostar77]

Brasil 2002 for me. 2006 argentina 2nd.

Bulgaria 94 get an honourable mention as do colombia 2014.

Would have love to have seen, brasil 70, West Germany 74, italy 82, brasil 82 hungary 54 and holland 74. Those by all accounts were good teams to watch.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Brazil 94
France 2018
Brazil 2002
France 1998
Italy 2006
Spain 2010
Germany 2014
germany 1990
Argentina 2022

 

[RedStarUnited]

Nostalgia really playing its part. That France 98 team might have names on the pitch they were bad to watch.

 

[Pexbo]

Messi’s Argentina were quality, Maradona’s fantastic too but Pele happened more recently so him

 

[RVN1991]

Germany 14
Brazil 02
France 18
Spain 10
Italy 06
Argentina 22
France 98

 

[wangyu]

France 98
Brazil 02
Germany 14
Spain 10
France 18
Argentina 22
Italy 06

 

[Kopral Jono]

2002 Brazil and 2014 Germany were the only two sides in my personal World Cup timeline that exuded an aura of inevitability (though England ran the former close and I still maintain they probably would have gone all the way had they saw the Brazilians off that day). Next up are 2018 France and this year's Argentina, with the latter guilty of making things much harder for themselves. 1998 France were not fun to watch but I guess skewed perceptions take centre stage due to nostalgia and the sheer quality of that World Cup as a whole. I didn't enjoy 2006 Italy at all -- they rode their luck a bit, felt they could have got beaten at any given time and if the shootout went the way of France I doubt many would complain.

2010 Spain, though, were a different beast altogether. It's mind-boggling how they managed to be so dominant yet incredibly shite at the same time, riding their luck more than a few times in the process. I'm just glad it marked the beginning of the end for tiki-taka as the way we knew it.