It has been repeated over and over that no side has ever won three major tournaments in a row – which is true so long as you exclude the Olympic Games. That may be reasonable in recent times when it has been an Under-23 tournament with added overage players, or even in the years after the second world war when differing definitions of amateurism gave the Eastern Bloc sides a huge advantage.
But in the years up to the second world war, the Olympic Games was at least as serious a tournament as the World Cup. If Spain win the Euro 2012 final on Sunday, they will set a new record for the modern era but their feat will only equal that of Uruguay, who won the Olympics in 1924 and 1928 and the World Cup in 1930, and of Italy, who won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938 and the Olympics in 1936.
It is a measure of Spain's achievement, though, that after Uruguay and Italy only two other sides have ever reached the final of three successive tournaments: West Germany, who won the European Championship in 1972 and the World Cup in 1974 before losing a penalty shootout to Czechoslovakia in the final of the 1976 Euros; and Brazil, who won the 1994 World Cup and lost in the final in 1998, while reaching three successive Copa América finals – 1995, 1997 and 1999, winning two and losing one. This is the pantheon Spain have entered.
1924 Olympic final Colombes, Paris
3-0 v Switzerland (Petrone, Cea, Romano)
Mazali; Nasazzi (c), Arispe; Andrade, Vidal, Ghierra; Urdinarán, Scarone, Petrone, Cea, Romano
1928 Olympic final Olympisch, Amsterdam
1-1 v Argentina (Petrone; Ferreyra)
Mazali; Nasazzi (c), Arispe; Andrade, Fernández, Gestido; Urdinarán, Castro, Petrone, Cea, Campolo
1928 Olympic final replay Olympisch, Amsterdam: 2-1 v Argentina (Figueroa, Scarone; Monti)
Mazali; Nasazzi (c), Arispe; Andrade, Piriz, Gestido; Arremon, Scarone, Borjas, Cea, Figueroa
1930 World Cup final Centenario, Montevideo: 4-2 v Argentina (Dorado, Cea, Iriarte, Castro; Peucelle, Stabile)
Ballestero; Mascheroni, Nasazzi (c); Andrade, Fernández, Gestido; Dorado, Scarone, Castro, Cea, Iriarte
Uruguay's success at the Paris Olympics is one of the great romantic tales. This was, first and foremost, a team of workers, including, among other professions, a meat-packer, a marble-cutter, a grocer and an ice salesman. They travelled to Europe in steerage and played to pay for their board, winning nine friendlies in Spain before they even reached France. Uruguay were the first Latin American side to tour Europe, but they attracted little attention – at least initially – only around 2,000 turning up to watch them eviscerate Yugoslavia 7-0 in their opening game in the Olympics.
Word soon got around. "Game after game," the poet Eduardo Galeano wrote, "the crowd jostled to see those men, slippery as squirrels, who played chess with a ball. The English squad had perfected the long pass and the high ball but these disinherited children from far-off America didn't walk in their father's footsteps. They chose to invent a game of close passes directly to the foot, with lightning changes in rhythm and high-speed dribbling."
In four games they scored 17 goals and conceded just two in their four matches, beating a Switzerland side co-managed by the remarkable trio of Jimmy Hogan, Teddy Duckworth and Dori Kurschner 3-0 in the final. Uruguay, wrote Gabriel Hanot, the editor of L'Equipe, showed "marvellous virtuosity in receiving the ball, controlling it and using it. They created a beautiful football, elegant but at the same time varied, rapid, powerful and effective". And British football? "It is like comparing Arab thoroughbreds to farm horses."
Argentina, who hadn't travelled to France, were furious and, on Uruguay's return, challenged them to a game, winning 3-2 on aggregate after crowd trouble curtailed the second leg in Buenos Aires. When they met in the finals of the 1928 Olympics and the 1940 World Cup, though, Uruguay emerged triumphant. "Argentina," wrote the great Italian journalist Gianni Brera, "play football with a lot of imagination and elegance, but technical superiority cannot compensate for the abandonment of tactics. Between the two Rioplatense national teams, the ants are the Uruguayans, the cicadas are the Argentinians."
1934 World Cup final Stadio del PNF, Rome: 2-1 (aet) v Czechoslovakia (Orsi, Schiavio; Puc)
Combi (c); Monzeglio, Allemandi; Ferraris, Monti, Bertolini; Guaita, Meazza, Schiavio, Ferrari, Orsi
1936 Olympic final Olympiastadion, Berlin: 2-1 (aet) v Austria (Frossi 2, Kainberger)
Venturini; Foni (c), Rava; Baldo, Piccini, Locatelli; Frossi, Marchini, Bertoni, Biagi, Gabriotti
1938 World Cup final Colombes, Paris: 4-2 v Hungary (Colaussi 2, Piola 2; Titkos, Sarosi)
Olivieri; Foni, Rava; Serantoni, Andreolo, Locatelli; Biavati, Meazza (c), Piola, Ferrari, Colaussi
It's debatable whether it's fair to include Italy in this list. Theirs was a professional league and so, although two players graduated from the Olympic-winning team to the 1938 World Cup side, the two squads were essentially discrete – far more different than the Uruguay side of the previous decade. Nonetheless, the team Vittorio Pozzo put together in his third spell in charge of the national side was by some distance the best on the world.
Although he was an anglophile and a great friend of Herbert Chapman, he disdained the stopper centre-half and W-M system Chapman had instated at Arsenal, instead preferring what he called the método, in which the centre-half occupied a halfway house between defence and midfield, dropping when the other team had possession and marking the opposing centre-forward but advancing to become an attacking fulcrum when his side had the ball. In Luisito Monti, a naturalised Argentinian who had played in the 1930 World Cup final, Pozzo found the perfect man for the role – a hard, ruthless tackler who could also read the game and pass the ball.
Pozzo was an early devotee of man-marking and there was a steeliness and nationalistic fervour about his sides that was not to all tastes, but their effectiveness is beyond doubt – although they were probably fortunate to meet the Austrian Wunderteam in the 1934 final when they were just past their peak. And in Giuseppe Meazza they had one of the most intelligent and gifted inside-forwards there has ever been: they had rigour and finesse. "The big secret of the Italian squad," the journalist Mario Zappa wrote in Gazzetta dello Sport, "is its capacity to attack with the fewest amount of men possible without ever distracting the half-backs from their defensive work."
1972 European Championship final Heysel, Brussels: 3-0 v USSR (G Müller 2, Wimmer)
Maier; Hüttges, Beckenbauer (c), Schwarzenbeck, Breitner; U Hoeness, Wimmer, Netzer; Heynckes, G Müller, E Kremers
1974 World Cup final Olympiastadion, Munich: 2-1 v Holland (Breitner (pen), G Müller; Neeskens (pen)
Maier; Vogts, Beckenbauer (c), Schwarzenbeck, Breitner; Bonhof, U Hoeness, Overath; Grabowski, G Müller, Holzenbein
1976 European Championship final Marakana, Belgrade: 2-2 v Czechoslovakia (lost on pens) (D Müller, Holzenbein; Svehlik, Dobias)
Maier; Vogts, Beckenbauer (c), Schwarzenbeck, Dietz; Bonhof; Wimmer (Flohe h-t), U Hoeness; Beer (Bongartz 80); D Müller, Holzenbein
Perhaps no side is so traduced in the popular consciousness as the West Germany of the early-mid-70s. Love of the Dutch, with their sense of bohemian cool, perhaps casts the Germans as their opposite, but this was a wonderful team who passed and moved with great invention and elan and managed to do so without the crushing high offside line and pressing of Rinus Michel's Holland. It's said the German variant of total football came together at the 1970 World Cup in the heat of León, as players sought to move the ball into the shade of the stand.
Their football probably reached its peak in 1972. They were breathtaking in beating England 3-1 in the first leg of the quarter-final at Wembley, particularly in the first half-hour, as the ball zipped across the pitch in exquisite patterns. L'Equipe hailed Germany's fluent, passing approach as "football from the year 2000". Beckenbauer was exemplary, but the two key players were the Borussia Mönchengladbach pairing of Herbert Wimmer and Günter Netzer who, between them, ran the midfield. "The magnitude of our performance," said Beckenbauer, "was really just like a dream. I have never shared in a finer West German performance. Everything we wanted to do, we did. The moves, the idea and the execution all happened."
The 3-0 win over the USSR in the final was almost as impressive but by the time of the World Cup Netzer had gone, his unpredictability having no place in a West Germany side that, while not cautious, didn't take the same risks as it had while thrusting towards success. By 1976, the team was clearly past its best, but it showed tremendous character to come from two behind to beat the hosts Yugoslavia in the semi-final with a Dieter Müller hat-trick. They came from two behind in the final as well but, having secured a draw, lost the penalty shootout to Antonin Panenka's much-imitated chip. Germany haven't lost a shootout since but the Czechs haven't missed a single kick in 20 attempts in shootouts.
1994 World Cup final Rose Bowl, Pasadena: 0-0 (won on pens) v Italy
Taffarel; Jorginho (Cafu 21), Aldair, Marcio Santos, Branco; Mauro Silva, Dunga (c); Mazinho, Zinho (Viola 106); Bebeto, Romario
1995 Copa América final Centenario, Montevideo: 1-1 (lost on pens) v Uruguay (Tulio; Bengoechea)
Taffarel; Jorginho, Aldair, André Cruz, Roberto Carlos; Dunga (c), César Sampaio; Juninho (Beto 69), Zinho; Edmundo, Túlio
1997 Copa América final Hernando Stiles, La Paz: 3-1 v Bolivia (Edmundo, Ronaldo, Ze Roberto; E Sánchez)
Taffarel; Cafu, Goncalves, Aldair, Roberto Carlos; Dunga (c), Flávio Conceição (Zé Roberto 62); Denílson, Leonardo (Mauro Silva 79); Ronaldo, Edmundo (Paulo Nunes 67)
1998 World Cup final Stade de France, Paris: 0-3 v France (Zidane 2, Petit)
Taffarel; Cafu, Junior Baiano, Aldair, Roberto Carlos; Dunga (c), C Sampaio (Edmundo 57); Rivaldo, Leonardo (Denílson 45); Ronaldo, Bebeto
1999 Copa América final Defensores del Chaco, Asunción, 3-0 v Uruguay (Rivaldo 2, Ronaldo)
Dida; Cafu, João Carlos, Antonio Carlos, Roberto Carlos; Flávio Conceição, Emerson; Rivaldo, Zé Roberto; Amoroso, Ronaldo
It's easy to forget how good Brazil were in the 90s, largely because they never seemed that convinced themselves. There surely has never been a footballer whose reputation is so out of sync with his achievements as Dunga. He may not have pulsed with the samba rhythms of Brazilian stereotype, but for most of the 90s he was the world's best holding midfielder, providing a platform for the more technically gifted players to express themselves.
Brazil's record could easily be better even than five straight finals: in 1991 they finished second in the four team group that concluded the Copa América and in 1993 they battered Argentina in the quarter-final only to lose on penalties. They then went on to win the 2002 World Cup – the 2001 Copa América quarter-final exit to Honduras a humiliation that marked just how low they sank in qualifying for the tournament in Japan and South Korea, even if they did effectively field a second-string in Colombia (at least they went; Argentina and Canada withdrew on security grounds). And, of course, anything might have happened in that 1998 final had it not been for Ronaldo's fit and the disruption that caused.
It is easy to overlook as well how poor Brazil's Copa América record was before the 90s. Before that victory on Bolivia, they'd never won the tournament on foreign soil; for all the scepticism about their pragmatism, winning the World Cup in 1994 after a 24-year hiatus and winning back-to-back Copas abroad was an extraordinary effort of will. The coach changed – from Carlos Alberto Parreira (1991-94) to Mario Zagallo (94-98) and then Vanderlei Luxemburgo (98-00) – but the style was essentially similar: attacking full-backs in Cafu and Roberto Carlos given licence by two holding midfielders (Dunga plus one essentially), with two creators playing narrow ahead of them and then two central strikers. Perhaps they never had one great tournament that really captured the imagination, but the consistency of Brazil in the 90s is unique.