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

We’re just 9 days away from the World Cup Final. Pull up a stool.

Here's what's on tap today:

Let’s tap in.

Kylian Mbappé, France vs Morocco.

Thirty minutes after having a penalty saved, Mbappé collected the ball on the hour mark and bent an unstoppable curler into the far corner.

It was the goal that broke Morocco's resistance, and the 20th of his World Cup career, one behind a certain Argentine's all-time record. Miss a penalty, answer with a masterpiece. Sound familiar? It was that kind of week.

Giant.

You know the type of night. You go for a drink, card gets declined, your mate cancels, it starts raining, but somehow by 1am you're arm in arm with strangers belting Mr. Brightside at a karaoke bar. The bad start to the night only made the end of night all the more special. On Tuesday in Atlanta, Argentina had that type of night. Two goals down to Egypt with 11 minutes left, tab paid, coats on, taxi called.

Final score: Argentina 3, Egypt 2. Romero in the 79th, Messi in the 83rd, Enzo Fernandez at the death.

So let's use the wildest game of this World Cup to answer a question every new fan asks:

“What actually changes when a team chases a game?”

Let’s start with math: At 2-0 down with 11 minutes left, you've got nothing to lose. Concede a third? You were losing anyway. So the risk calculation flips. Defenders push into midfield, fullbacks turn into wingers, the striker count doubles. You accept being wide open at the back, because a worse defense for a better attack is the only trade left on the table.

Second lever: substitutions. Managers save attacking subs for exactly this. Fresh legs against defenders who've been sprinting for 80 minutes is one of the sport's most reliable mismatches. Argentina's winner came when Lautaro Martinez, a substitute, crossed for Fernandez to head home.

Third: the game stretches. Everyone pours forward, space opens at both ends, and tired legs stop closing it. That's why late goals cluster, and why Egypt nearly scored on the counter more than once.

“What about the Messi factor?”

Great point, one thing you can’t dissect. Messi. He had missed a first-half penalty. The greatest player alive, staring at the exit. He responded by setting up one goal and thumping in another, his eighth of the tournament. We could analyze a comeback for hours, look at the stats, watch the replay but in reality when you have Messi on the pitch, anything can happen.

Next time a team goes two down late, don't reach for the remote. The last 10 minutes of a lost game is where soccer hides its best stories.

Remember folks, a bad night is just a great night warming up.

Origin: From the pen-and-paper days, when a team's results were logged by hand. If the opposition didn't score, the "goals against" column stayed blank. The sheet stayed clean.

Definition: When a team gets through a full game without conceding a goal. Same as a shutout in hockey or baseball, and it's credited to the goalkeeper the way a shutout goes to the pitcher.

Usage: "Another clean sheet for Spain. At this point I'd back their keeper to keep one in his sleep."

The last dance is over

Cristiano Ronaldo's World Cup story is finished. Spain beat Portugal 1-0 on Monday, Mikel Merino scoring the winner deep in stoppage time, and with it soccer said goodbye to one of its two defining players of the last 20 years.

Ronaldo confirmed before the game this would be his final World Cup. He leaves as the first player ever to score in six of them, a run stretching back to 2006, when half our readers were watching on box TVs. The one line missing from the resume: he never lifted the trophy, and Portugal haven't been past the quarterfinals in two decades.

His farewell words: "I've given everything in football. I don't need it, I have a good life, but it's about passion." (That's "football" from the man himself, so we'll allow it. Normal soccer service will resume below)

No easy games left, anyone left at this stage is in it to win it.

It’s quarter final weekend with the first of them kicking off yesterday. It’s starting to get very real.

Best World Cup Finish: The quarterfinals, which is exactly where they are right now. They'd reached that stage three times before (1934, 1938 and 1954, when they hosted). Beat Argentina on Saturday and it's officially the greatest World Cup in Swiss history.

Star Player: Granit Xhaka. The captain and midfield general has played over 151 times for his country, and if you watched him boss the Colombia midfield you'd never guess he's 33.

Joe's Favorite City: Lucerne. A medieval wooden bridge, a lake so clean you could pour it as a pint, and mountains on every side. Absurdly pretty.

Top-Selling Beer: Feldschlosschen. Brewed since 1876 in a brewery that looks like an actual castle, and Switzerland's biggest-selling beer by a distance.

"Joe, who's going to win the Golden Boot?"

Thanks to Jack in Toronto for the question.

Straight to the big questions, Jack. For the uninitiated, the Golden Boot goes to the tournament's top scorer. Think of it as the World Cup's scoring title, except it comes with an actual golden shoe.

Right now it's a three-horse race. Two best players of this generation. Messi and Mbappé both sit on eight goals, with Haaland lurking one back. And here's the wrinkle: if it stays tied, the first tiebreaker is assists. After that, it goes to whoever played fewer minutes.

So who wins it? My money's on Mbappé (he picked up an ankle knock last night, but insists he's fine). France look the most inevitable team left standing, more games likely means more goals, and he holds the tiebreaker. But the fun part: Argentina and France can only meet in one place, the final on July 19. The trophy and the Boot could be settled on the same night.

Ørjan Nyland

Norway's goalkeeper is 35 years old and currently unemployed. His Sevilla contract expired ten days ago after a season where he made five league appearances and got dropped.

For years he was written off as the weak link of Norway's golden generation. On Sunday he saved a penalty against Brazil, produced maybe the save of the tournament, and backstopped his country into a first-ever quarterfinal. His post-match line was better than any of his saves: "Everyone knows who to call when they need someone. I think I've shown that today"

Somebody give this man a contract. And a pint.

Prime Time USA

The USMNT lost on Monday, but let’s look at what was happening on the other side of the screen.

30 million people watched the Belgium game on Fox, peaking at nearly 37 million, making it the most-watched soccer broadcast in American history. Games in this country used to be something you streamed alone on a laptop at weird hours. Monday it was the thing the whole bar, and the whole country, was watching. The scoreline stung. The audience is the real story.

A World Cup history note from Boston. Morocco's Ayyoub Bouaddi, at 18, became the second-youngest player ever to appear in a World Cup quarterfinal.

The youngest? A lad named Pele, back in 1958. Not bad company for a teenager playing for Lille.

As they say in Switzerland, Viva! 🍻