Teams to Watch at Euro 2016: What Do We Make of Spain?

What is Spain? Aside from a nation of serial colonizers and Catholicism-imposers with a wildly overrated cuisine?

Which is to say, what is Spain in a soccer sense?

For 44 years, Spain's national soccer team was the same thing: a superbly skillful and talented team that won nothing after the 1964 Euro. Other than a runner-up place in 1984, the Spaniards never got past the quarterfinals at a major tournament, no matter how good they were on paper.

And then they won Euro 2008. And the 2010 World Cup. And Euro 2012, becoming the first country to win three major tournaments in a row. All the while, Barcelona and Real Madrid re-imagined the sport entirely, as they supplied the framework for the national team.

But things came unstuck in Brazil in their World Cup title defense two summers ago. Spain was emasculated by the Dutch 5-1 in their opener, vengeance for the 2010 final in which La Furia Roja had outlasted Oranje and its thuggery in extra time. Chile beat them as well. The Spaniards did win against Australia, but they were already eliminated by then, sending them home after the group stage for the first time in a decade.

So what now? What do we make of the Spanish in their latest incarnation? Are they a dynasty that's already over? Or are they the two-time defending European champions who remain ever so deep and dangerous?

Are they both?

After all the trophies and the paradigm-shifting, there's little denying that this remains one of the best teams around. Its midfield consists of men so good that they live mononymously. Sergio, Thiago, and Cesc are ubiquitous to the point that there's no need to call them Busquets, Alcantara, or Fabregas. Andres Iniesta, typically playing on the left wing for his country, remains the all-time great player who is seldom recognized as one. This is an unfortunate fluke of circumstance–he's somehow always surrounded by a player or two even more famous and all-timey.

Spain's central defense of Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos is robust and good on the ball. They are awash in top notch wingbacks. They have a world-class goalkeeper in David de Gea. Koke is probably too good to be a midfield backup. Pedro and Nolito and David Silva give them options on the flanks.

Only the striker position is thin. But this is by choice, weirdly. Manager Vicente Del Bosque opted to only include Alvaro Morata and the 35-year-old Aritz Aduriz in his final squad, passing over the re-re-re-reborn Fernando Torres, Diego Costa and Paco Alcacer, their top scorer in qualifying. This won't concern Del Bosque, a once-a-generation mustache with a man affixed to it, as he had bigger issues up front four years ago–when he mostly played Fabregas as a false nine–and got by regardless.

In truth, the team Spain left at home might have competed for the title as well, with the aforementioned forwards, midfielders Saul Niguez, Isco, Juan Mata and Santi Cazorla and defenders Juan Bernat and Dani Carvajal all staying behind. But then, this embarrassment of riches is the byproduct of the unrelenting churn of Spain's youth academies.

For a time, it must have felt like professional soccer player was the only viable career path for young Spaniards, as the nation's youth unemployment rate soared to 56 percent at the height of Europe's financial crisis in 2013. Today, it remains stuck at a stubborn 45 percent.

But depth alone won't win Spain a third consecutive title. They won the last two Euros with a combined 9-0-3 record and a 24-4 goal difference, conceding just once in 2012, when even the final was a 4-0 stomping of Italy. In qualifying, they went 9-0-1 with a 23-2 goal difference. Yet on the eve of the big tournament, Del Bosque proclaimed that "the semifinals would make me happy." That's an odd thing to say for a guy who has already won a World Cup and a Euro since taking over after the 2008 edition, especially one who will reportedly retire after the tournament.

If he's trying to position Spain as underdogs, he's about eight years too late. If this is a heavy-handed attempt to modulate expectations, it's coming across a tad tone deaf to a soccer world that's grown accustomed to La Roja dominating other countries. But if he's being sincere, and not even Spain's own head coach knows what to make of his team, what hope do we have?

Spain is one of the best teams in the world. And a question mark.