Welcome to The Tap-Inn. Where you can tap into the world of soccer with me, your Irish Tap-Inn bartender, Joe. 🍻

The World Cup is over. The people of Madrid are still partying, the people of Buenos Aires aren’t speaking and your bartender is running on three hours of sleep and pure adrenaline. It’s my penultimate World Cup edition. Let's pour.

Today we're covering:

Ferran Torres — Spain v Argentina (106')

For the last time this summer, the goal of the week is the goal that won the World Cup.

Minute 106. Pedro Porro floats a cross to the back post. Nico Williams rises and nods it back across goal, and Emiliano Martínez, who was heroic all night, has finally committed one step too far. Ferran Torres, on as a substitute, meets it first time. Half-volley, nine yards, no doubt.

It was his only goal of the tournament. The most important goal of his life.

Magic.

It took 48 teams, 16 cities, 39 days, and 104 games to get here. It all ended with one swing of a boot.

Spain 1, Argentina 0. After extra time. As we’ve seen above, Ferran Torres in the 106th minute made MetLife Stadium shake and made Spain the World Champions.

If you watched last night and had some questions, good. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to answer them. While it was far from a classic, it did teach us a few good tactical lessons.

“Why did Spain just... pass it around?”

That is a good place to start. Spain did have 66% of the ball. To a new fan that can look like stalling. But it's actually their strength. Put simply, the other team can’t score while you have the ball. Every sideways pass is defense and attack at the same time. You're probing for a gap, and you're making your opponent chase, and chasing for 90 minutes in the New Jersey heat in July is exhausting.

Spain conceded one goal in the entire tournament. One. No champion has ever done that before so their tactic clearly worked.

“And why did Argentina barely attack?”

At the start, by choice. By the end, it was their only option. Argentina played a low block (we talked about this a few weeks back) They got everyone behind the ball, stayed compact, protected the goal, and wait for one or two chances to strike on the counter. When you have Messi, one chance can be enough. That’s what they were banking on.

Here's the gamble, though. By midway through the second half, the pressure of defending for that long was catching up with them and they looked out on their feet. Argentina finished with just two shots in 120 minutes, neither on target. (A shot "on target" is one the goalkeeper actually has to save. Off target is one that went wide) The low block kept them alive for 105 minutes. It also meant they never really had a chance to win.

“What might I have missed”

While the whole world (including this newsletter) was talking Yamal and Messi. The best player on the pitch went unnoticed. Rodri sits at the base of Spain's midfield, and his job is to keep the passing machine running and smother danger before it starts. Watching him yesterday, he never seemed to sprint too hard. Probably because he was always already standing exactly where he should be. FIFA named him its best player. More on that below.

To borrow a phrase from US sports. Offense wins games.Defense wins championships.

“What does it mean for the future of international soccer”

For Spain, it’s a (another) golden generation delivering, with teenagers like Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí suggesting they'll be back for another crack next time. Spain now hold the men's and women's World Cups at the same time. No country has ever done that.

For Argentina. heartbreak, but no real shame. They were one game from becoming the first back-to-back champions since Brazil in 1962. And for Messi, at 39, this was almost certainly his final World Cup match. The greatest to ever do it. He left it all out on the field.

For the next World Cup cycle and beyond, who knows. The other teams haven’t gone away. England, France are just behind these two. Brazil will bite back and Norway may have another dance with that generation of talent. Only time will tell.

But for now, Spain are champions. I hope you enjoyed the show.

Viva España.

Origin: Sports historians trace the specific connection to American boxing around the 1890s. A "cagey fighter" was a boxer who fought defensively, kept a tight guard, and hid their intentions to avoid getting hit.

Definition: A tight, tense game where neither side wants to make the first mistake. Finals are almost always cagey. Yesterday’s game certainly was. The stakes are sometimes just too high.

Usage: "The final was a cagey affair for 105 minutes. Then Ferran Torres scored and opened things up."

A quick recap of where we finished up.

For 39 days this section counted down, tracked, and showcased every big game goal and moment from the tournament. On Friday we’ll do a full edition recap on the tournament as a whole. But for now let’s tidy up some of the big stories from the last week of the world’s greatest show.

🥉 France vs England - The bronze medal party

I may have recommended mowing the lawn instead of watching this game. Nobody ever circles the third-place game on the calendar. However, England and France ended up playing out a 6-4 barnstormer on Saturday in Miami, the highest-scoring match of the entire tournament.

Bukayo Saka scored a hat trick, Mbappé grabbed two in defeat. Both defenses took a night off. Who could blame them.

🏆 The individual awards:

That makes 3 out of 4 of the individual awards of the tournament going to Spain. Utter dominance.

My beer crawl around the world takes us back to where I belong. Let’s face it, nowhere is better for a beer.

Best World Cup Finish: Third place in 1930. The original underdogs, though most Americans would swear their real World Cup history started in 1994. Still chasing that first final, quietly building something serious.

Star Player: You know this one. It’s our boy. Christian Pulisic, 27 years old, the face of the USMNT and its long-time captain. Did he hit his World Cup potential? Depends who you ask, the stats say solid, but the “change American soccer forever” bar probably wasn’t hit.

Joe’s Favorite City: It has to be where I make my living. New York City. The city came alive during the World Cup with supporters from every country living here. A global mash-up of supporters enjoying the beautiful game in the concrete jungle.

Top-Selling Beer: Budweiser. The all-American staple and longtime official World Cup sponsor, with the brand tied to the tournament since 1986.

"Joe, didn't you tell us on Friday that World Cup winners don't get rings?"

Michael in Nevada, thank you so so much for pointing this one out.

I did. I said it with all honesty. "No rings, that's an American thing," confidently wiping down my counter. Well. It's soccer thing now.

FIFA announced last week, roughly the moment Friday's edition left the tap, that the winners would receive the first championship rings in World Cup history, borrowing straight from the NFL and NBA playbook. Minutes after the final whistle Sunday, Spain's captain and head coach were handed the first ones ever presented, with personalized rings for the full squad to follow.

The details are very modern day FIFA. There are 2,026 individually numbered rings, 30 for the winning team, and the other 1,996 on sale to fans as official merchandise. The design features the World Cup trophy on one side and Spain's crest on the other.

So, to correct the record: the winners keep the medals, hand back the trophy, and now get a ring too.

The lesson, as ever. Never trust a bartender when it comes to jewelry (or the truth)

Next time you’re in the bar. The first round's on me.

Emiliano Martínez has never really done “quietly.” This is the same man who won the Golden Glove in Qatar in 2022, held it in a way that made half the world laugh and the other half reach for the complaint form, and somehow became even more of a World Cup main character this time around.

On Sunday, he made 12 saves for Argentina, the most ever recorded in a men’s World Cup final. For 105 minutes, he kept them alive with the sort of performance that makes opposing fans call him unhinged and a national treasure. Both can be true, to be fair.

The Halftime Show

As I mentioned in Friday’s edition, FIFA took a proper swing at a Super Bowl-style halftime show for this World Cup final. Now that we’ve seen it play out, the bar’s verdict is in. Completely bonkers, oddly charming, and very, very American.

They had 11 minutes and used every second. Shakira and Burna Boy performed the tournament anthem, Madonna and BTS got their moments, Justin Bieber went acoustic, then Chris Martin closed things out with a Staten Island school choir.

And that was only the music.

Ted Lasso showed up too, with Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt in full coaching gear to introduce Bieber to the field. That’s without mentioning Ronaldinho, the OG Ronaldo. and The Muppets.

Was it strange to watch a concert break out during a World Cup final? A little. But hey there are worst things in the world than 80,000 people dancing and having a good time.

A toast to you - from Joe.

As the World Cup comes to a close, I want to say thank you to the thousands of you who have followed it here at the The Tap-Inn. Especially those of you who have gotten in touch to ask questions or share your new love for the sport. If you’ve enjoyed the content please feel free to bring a friend next time (aka forward them this email!) or leave us a review below.

If you’ve been a long time subscriber or joined during the tournament, you are very welcome. On Friday, we’ll have a bumper edition recapping the entire tournament. From there, we’ll be back setting on sights on new clubs seasons across the globe.

So stick around, the night is young here at the Tap-Inn. Cheers.

As they say where I come from, Sláinte! 🍻