Editor’s note: This post is part of PSP’s World Cup series, in which PSP’s writers and a few honored guests make the case for which team you should root for in the World Cup after the United States. Read the full series here.

So why should you support Australia in the World Cup?

Think of Australia like the United States’ little brother. Not like Canada, who’s the little brother that you felt was always a little too comfortable staying with Mom and Dad long after all the other siblings went off to start new, independent lives. No, Australia is the cool little brother who lives out west, has fun, took up surfing, generally leaves the rest of the world alone, and may or may not have gotten into some criminal trouble when he was younger. Even though you don’t talk to Australia a lot, you’ve always felt like you had a special connection, like you speak the same language.

Then one day you get a call out of the blue and realize that you and Australia had more in common than you ever thought. While you both shied away from the sports that Mom and Dad tried to force on you earlier, you both recently began to take and interest in soccer. (And yes, you both call it “soccer”, it’s just the way you both were brought up.) You both recently even started soccer leagues of your own, though those leagues are overshadowed the native “football” leagues all your friends play in. Both of your leagues are showing some important signs of growth, so much so that the same rich kid from Manchester has taken some interest in you both lately. You even find out that the two of you are going to be in Brazil at the same time for business, even though the people you are doing business with seem like they might get the better of each of you.

While you have some tough negotiations lined up with folks from Ghana, Portugal, and German, your little brother seems to have his hands full in meetings with delegations from Chile, the Netherlands, and Spain, and you know those guys mean business.

You may be very different from Australia — you’re bigger, you’re stronger, your business associates respect you a bit more — but you know that you both have that shared history, that same experience living in an overbearing household that has made you who you are today.

Even though you have your own problems to face in the coming weeks, and you know your brother probably won’t seal the deal in any of his meetings, you feel for him, support him, and still want him to succeed, because you know that a few years ago that could have been you.