10/07/2026 Favored
They say we’re favored. That we have an advantage. That everything seems to go our way. They’re right.
We do have a tremendous advantage: we have the best player in the world wearing our shirt. And yes, that changes games.
But we’re also favored by something much harder to build: a winning national team. A team that has reached six World Cup finals and lifted the trophy three times. A team that has also experienced the other side of football: the heartbreak of defeats, lost finals, early exits, and bitter disappointments.
So yes, things aren’t the same for us as they are for countries that have never reached those stages. Because we know what it feels like to play for everything. We know the weight of a semifinal, the pressure of a final, the pain of losing, and the joy of becoming champions.
We’ve reached six World Cup finals. We’ve won three. We’ve lost others. Many times we went home far earlier than we had dreamed. We cried, we suffered, and we came back.
So yes, we do have an advantage. But not because anyone gives us anything. Our advantage comes from experience, from history, and from having learned—again and again—from both victory and defeat.