Spain’s Euro riegn is a lesson on the power of a unified team

So this is how a team for the ages responds to the moment: Spain 4, Italy 0.

They didn't just knock on history's door. La Roja were absolutely Furio, kicking it into so many splinters, they're still picking them out of the Azzurri backline's butts. Best team ever? No one has ever gone Euro-World Cup-Euro without relinquishing the trophy - and with this kind of style. Yeah, I'd say the shoe fits.

[Slideshow: Spain cruises past Italy to retain European Championship]

On Canada Day, yet, with all the main thoroughfares of this city and many others in this multicultural nation wearing the Azzurri blue (or wearing almost nothing at all, this being Pride Parade Day as well), they were a lesson not only in rising to the occasion, but doing it within a true team framework. The power of team - that's what a neutral, Canadian fan can take from this. There's no towering Zidane figure. Rather, it starts with two all-world midfielders of rare vision and precision in Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, and continues with a new fullback making his major tournament debut in Jordi Alba, a reliable old pro in goal in Iker Casillas, and on and with part-time starters like Cesc Fabregas and an enigmatic part-time forward in Fernando Torres. "I have a feeling the time of the centre forward is over," tweeted ex-England star turned pundit Gary Lineker midgame. At least for this Spain, they've proven, just like Barcelona in club football, that the so-called False-9 approach is not only feasible but can be preferable. But only if you have the right players on a team that is collectively much stronger than the parts.

Off their tepid pregame form, they were supposed to be vulnerable. But class is a funny thing. It took them less than 14 high-tempo minutes and all of 116 passes to prove the doubters wrong. Iniesta sprung Fabregas with a deft slide-rule pass, and he crossed to David Silva between defenders in the box for a 1-0 lead. Four minutes before the halftime break, in less time than it took you to say "Spain is boring," Xavi laid it out for Alba, making a lung-busting run in alone and finishing behind a beleaguered Gigi Buffon. And it was pretty much over from there. Not even Andrea Pirlo and Buffon at the back, two greybeards surely near if not at the end of their international careers after wonderful displays at this Euro, could summon up a comeback.

[Dirty Tackle: Spain defines the word 'domination' in 4-0 win]

Three titles on the trot, each of them a little different - first a 1-0 over Germany four years ago, in which they could have done the scoreboard a little better; then an extra-time Iniesta winner in Soweto against a Holland side more intent on kicking them in the goolies; and finally this, a surgical destruction. It'll be interesting to see how this Spain form holds up in the next two years, heading into Brazil's 2014 World Cup. Iniesta is but 28 years old. None of their defenders are over 29 years old, with Alba already a budding star at just 23. At 32, Xavi is the elder of the squad. They have class and an unmatched pedigree, and chasing only against themselves, it would be foolish to write them off.

Maybe the most interesting element is Vicente Del Bosque, the fatherly figure on the bench who now has a pair of Euro titles to go with that 2010 World Cup championship. In the now-distant past he guided the Zidane-era Galacticos of Real Madrid to a pair of La Liga/Champions League doubles - and of course was fired for his troubles. Turning 62 in December, Del Bosque's not even pushing retirement age.

More Spain? Bring it on, says the neutral.

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