There's a comfortable way to recollect history of performance of a sports team. Just look at this chart. It's beautiful, isn't it? It shows every Germany and Brasil performance in the World Cup.
You can see the total amount of participants and knock-out structure. And if you click on the image, you go to a page with an interactive chart, where you can pick any team, zoom and see text tooltips.
International tournaments: FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro Cup, Copa America, Olympic Games, Confederation Cup, British Home Championship
Domestic leagues: France, Germany, England, Italy, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, USSR.
Data: WorldFootball.Net. Charts: gizh.ru.