Lionel Messi and Argentina celebrating their World Cup triumph. REUTERS There is just one more month to go until co-hosts Mexico take on South Africa at the iconic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to kick off the 2026 FIFA World Cup . And while international soccer tournaments are tough to project due to an inconsistent schedule and the lack of relevant data compared to domestic competitions, we can lean on a few betting trends to help us get our ducks in a row ahead of what figures to be the biggest sporting event the world has ever seen. Do the favorites hold value at the World Cup? The answer is yes and no. While the World Cup is almost always won by one of the heavyweights, it’s been unkind to the outright favorite in recent iterations. Brazil topped the odds before the start of Qatar 2022, and they were bounced in the quarterfinals. La Seleção were also eliminated in the quarterfinals as co-favorites at Russia 2018.…