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 6 days away from the World Cup Final. Pull up a stool.

Here's what's on tap today:

Let’s tap in.

Andreas Schjelderup vs England.

In the 36th minute in Miami, the 22-year-old Benfica winger picked Harry Kane's pocket near midfield, cut inside his defender, and lashed a left-footed rocket in off the underside of the crossbar. Pickford never had a chance.

It wasn't enough on the night, with Bellingham answering twice. But still what a way for Norway's first-ever quarterfinal to begin.

What could have been.

If you've been watching this World Cup and thinking "hang on, why does the final four always look like this?", you're onto something.

In 22 World Cups across nearly a century, every winner has come from Europe or South America. Eight countries total. Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, France, England, Spain. That's the whole list.

And this year's final four keeps the streak alive. France, Spain, England, Argentina. Three Europeans and the defending South American champs.

“So why does the duopoly hold?”

“OK, but will it ever break, can the USMNT ever do it?”

It will break some day. It's closer than the trophy cabinet suggests. Morocco reached the semifinals in 2022, the first African team ever to do it. South Korea made the semis in 2002. The USA did it way back in 1930, but that was when the tournament had thirteen teams and the Europeans arrived by steamship.

The gap is shrinking. The world's talent can now get spotted more easily and gets that same European soccer schooling that we talked about earlier. Morocco's 2022 squad was built almost entirely from players developed in European academies.

But a shrinking gap is still a gap. Until a country outside the old duopoly builds the full machine, not just the players but the pipeline behind them, the smart money stays on the regulars.

Remember folks, the regulars only stay regulars until someone new pulls up a stool.

Origin: Spanish. Take "gol" (goal), add the suffix "-azo" which supersizes anything it touches, and you get the word Spanish-language commentators reach for when an ordinary "gol" doesn't do it justice.

Definition: A spectacular goal. Not a tap-in, not a scrappy rebound: a goal worth standing up for. Long-range screamers, overhead kicks, solo runs.

Usage: "Did you see the Schjelderup golazo against England? Picked Kane's pocket, cut inside, off the bar and in. What a golazo”

Will we see Messi vs Mbappé one last time?

The 2022 final gave us Messi vs Mbappé and the greatest game most of us have ever seen. Four years on, they're two wins from running it back.

The two are tied at eight goals apiece in the Golden Boot race (Mbappé holds the tiebreaker, three assists to two). And the bigger prize: Messi sits on 21 career World Cup goals, the all-time record, with Mbappé one behind on 20. Messi is 39, chasing back-to-back titles. Mbappé is 27, leading the tournament favorites.

But the other two semifinalists didn't come to watch. Spain stand in France's way on Tuesday: the reigning European champions suffocated Belgium with 61% of the ball and might be the most complete team left. And England stand in Argentina's, powered by Jude Bellingham's six goals, even if manager Thomas Tuchel called Saturday's win "lucky" and the performance sloppy. Sixty years since their only title, England are two wins from ending soccer's most famous wait.

France and Spain look like two stronger teams. England vs Argentina is a classic World Cup story. Let’s check out how they got their place in the semis.

Here we go. We are down to the final four games in the tournament.

Best World Cup Finish: Champions, twice. France won it all in 1998 as hosts and again in 2018. They play Spain in the semifinal on Tuesday.

Star Player: Kylian Mbappé. Eight goals this tournament, tied with Messi for the Golden Boot lead, and sitting on 20 career World Cup goals, one behind Messi's all-time record. He's 27 and playing in his third World Cup. Terrifying.

Joe's Favorite City: Strasbourg. Canals, half-timbered houses, and a cathedral that was the tallest building on Earth for over 200 years. It's also the beating heart of Alsace, France's beer country, which brings us neatly to...

Top-Selling Beer: Kronenbourg 1664. Founded in Strasbourg in, you guessed it, 1664, and France's biggest-selling beer today. The French drink wine at dinner and Kronenbourg at the match.

"Joe, every promo for Wednesday's England vs Argentina game calls it a 'grudge match.' What's the actual history here?"

Thanks to Justin in Texas for the topical question. I’ve always fancied myself as a history professor. Please turn your textbooks to 1966.

1966: England win a nasty World Cup quarterfinal, their manager calls the Argentines "animals," and refuses to let his players swap shirts. In Argentina, that did not go down well.

1982: The two countries fight an actual war. Argentina's military government seizes the Falkland Islands, a South Atlantic territory both nations had claimed for 150 years, and Britain sends a task force to take them back. The 74-day war kills more than 900 people. This is the part the TV promos skip, and it's why the fixture carries a weight very few other soccer rivalries do.

1986: Four years later, they meet in a World Cup quarterfinal in Mexico City. Maradona scores twice in four minutes: the infamous "Hand of God" then the Goal of the Century. He later wrote that the win felt like reclaiming a little of the Falklands. Argentina lift the trophy, and the match becomes the most mythologized game ever played.

1998 and 2002: Back to just soccer, thankfully. Beckham sees red, England lose on penalties, and he spends a year as the most hated man in England before burying the winning penalty against them four years later.

And now Wednesday, their first World Cup meeting since 2002, with a final on the line. Sixty years of history, some of it far bigger than soccer, and someone just sat them at the same table.

Haaland look-alike contest.

Pour one out for the winner of Miami's Erling Haaland look-alike contest, who blond-wigged his way into a free ticket to Saturday's England-Norway quarterfinal. The real Haaland barely got a touch all game. The fake one, presumably, had a better afternoon.

We’ll be hosting a Joe The Barman look-alike competition ahead of the final. I wouldn’t bother entering. Ryan Gosling likely has this one sewn up.

Norway. Their first World Cup in 28 years, and they made it count: a last-gasp Haaland winner against Ivory Coast, then a famous scalp of five-time champions Brazil to reach their first-ever quarterfinal. It took the eventual might of England and extra time to send them home, 2-1, and even then Norway scored first.

Haaland leaves with seven goals. He’ll be disappointed with his last game but his superstar status is still confirmed. The Vikings are rowing home, but they raided plenty on the way.

Norway will be our last underdog of this tournament but let’s face it if you’ve made the final four, you’re not an underdog anymore.

Speaking of Brazil crashing out in the Round of 16. After it most of the squad went home to lick their wounds. Neymar went to Vegas.

The Santos star has entered the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em "6ix-Max" event at the World Series of Poker, a six-players-per-table Texas Hold'em showdown announced by the tournament on Saturday.

Neymar is a genuine poker obsessive who's been playing high-stakes tournaments for over a decade, including previous WSOP appearances and a stint as a sponsored ambassador for the game. If you can't win the World Cup, Vegas is a decent consolation pub.

As they say in France, À la vôtre!! 🍻