The oldest trophy in soccer (and who's gonna win it tomorrow)

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

This Friday, we've got:

• 🏆 The FA Cup, explained — just in time for tomorrow's final

• 💰 Messi's new MLS salary makes everyone else look like they're on minimum wage

• ⚽ 27 days until the World Cup — three underdog stories to watch

Let's tap in.

🥃 TOP SHELF

The FA Cup explained

It's 7:02pm last Saturday at The Tap-Inn and in walks my boy Reggie.

He orders his usual — a pint of Guinness. Stressed about organizing his dog's first birthday party, he needs something familiar in front of him. Fast.

That ol' reliable pint? That's Reggie's Premier League. On the menu every weekend, poured a full 38 times a year. Consistent. Familiar. The one he always goes back to.

But behind the bar, up on the highest shelf, sits a bottle of whiskey that's been parked there for 155 years. Dusty. Untouchable. Older than most of the building.

“And that's the FA Cup?”

Indeed it is. And once a year, every drinker in town — from regulars like Reggie to the lads who wandered in off the street with two dollars and a dream — gets a shot at pulling it down.

How does the FA Cup work?

The FA Cup is England’s (and the world’s) oldest cup competition. It started in 1871, 155 years ago. The American Civil War had ended only six years earlier.

Any club affiliated with the English Football Association (FA) can enter. That’s any club. From Manchester City and Liverpool all the way down to Sunday-league sides playing on a pitch where the goalposts wobble. Over 700 clubs enter every year.

It's straight up knockout soccer — you lose, you're out. Fixtures are decided randomly between rounds, so nobody knows who they're playing until a ball is pulled out of a velvet bag on live TV (even way back in 1938).

The lower-league clubs start in the early rounds. The Premier League clubs join in January. And every now and again, those two worlds collide, like it did in 2021 for the greatest mismatch in FA Cup history when there were EIGHT divisions between PL Tottenham Hotspur and non-league Marine.

The magic of the cup

That's the phrase you'll hear and it means one thing: little clubs beating big ones.

Picture this. The New England Patriots draw the local high school team in a knockout tournament. The high school team wins. This happens in the FA Cup — and more often than you’d think.

This season alone, sixth-tier Macclesfield — a club whose stadium holds 5,348 people — dumped out DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Crystal Palace.

Final preview

Tomorrow, Manchester City face Chelsea at Wembley at 10am ET.

City have already won the EFL Cup this season and are second in the league. They're also in their fourth FA Cup final in a row — the first team in history to do that.

Star striker Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick to dump Liverpool out in the quarters but the good news for Chelsea is that he has incredibly never scored in any of his nine finals with the sky blues.

Chelsea meanwhile are on their third head coach this season. Their vice-captain wants to leave. They just went five straight Premier League games without scoring.

But this is the FA Cup. And if there’s one golden rule, it’s to never write off the underdog.

And yes, you’re also invited to Reggie’s dog’s bday bash.

🗣️ THE TAP-INN READER SURVEY

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🗞️ THIS WEEK IN SOCCER

Premier League preview

Man City cruised past Crystal Palace 3-0 on Wednesday bringing the gap to Arsenal back to two points. Here's where things stand:

• Arsenal: host already-relegated Burnley next Monday then visit Crystal Palace the following Sunday. Win both, and the title is theirs.

• Man City: after tomorrow’s final, City are back in PL action away to Bournemouth next Tuesday before hosting Aston Villa on the final day. They need to win both and for Arsenal to draw or lose just one of their remaining fixtures.

Arsenal fans have waited since 2004 for another league title — a full 22 years. Nine more days and the wait could be over.

Relegation scrap recap

With just two gameweeks remaining of the 38-game premier league season, we’ll soon know who has finished on the top shelf as Champions — and we’ll also soon know who’s been left in the dregs to be relegated to the division below.

Here’s the state of play in the fight for Premier League survival.

• 16th: Nottingham Forest: seven points clear of the drop zone and safe.

• 17th: Tottenham Hotspur: two clear of West Ham but with tricky games to come away to Chelsea and at home to Everton.

• 18th: West Ham: currently in the drop zone and facing a trip to Newcastle before hosting Leeds. A loss in either could be fatal.

• 19th/20th: Wolves and Burnley: both mathematically relegated since a few weeks ago.

Like The Tap-Inn opening a LinkedIn account, this whole situation is completely unprecedented.

Tottenham haven't been relegated since 1977 — 49 years ago. Jimmy Carter had just been inaugurated as US president. Star Wars hadn't come out yet. If they go down, it's the most seismic relegation of the Premier League era.

Will keep you topped up on this one.

Messi's massive payday

The MLS Players Association released the 2026 salaries this week. Take a wild guess who's top?

A certain Mr. Lionel Messi of course, with an eye-watering $28.3 million — more than double what he made last year. Inter Miami signed him to a three-year extension in October, and unsurprisingly, they're paying him like it.

Some context for how lopsided this is:

• Tottenham legend Son Heung-min (LAFC) is second on $11.2m with not even half of Messi's number.

• The average MLS player makes around $689,000. Messi makes 41 times that.

Worth every penny, mind you. He led the league with 29 goals last season, won MVP for the second straight year, and dragged Inter Miami to their first MLS Cup. Now he's headed to the World Cup to defend his title with Argentina.

The man's still got a few rounds in him.

📝 TRIVIA ON TAP

Magic of the cup

When was the last time a team not from the Premier League won the FA Cup?

• A) 1947

• B) 1962

• C) 1980

• D) 1996

Answer at the bottom 👇

🌎 WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN: 27 DAYS

Three dark horses to watch

Every World Cup throws up a team nobody saw coming.

In 2022, it was Morocco reaching the semis. In 2018, it was Croatia making the final. So who's it gonna be this summer? Here are three teams who've never won the World Cup but have a real shot at making some noise.

🇳🇱 Netherlands — the best team that's never won it

Three World Cup finals — 1974, 1978, 2010 — three defeats. Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk anchors the defense. Forward Memphis Depay just became the Netherlands' all-time top scorer. They went unbeaten in qualifying and reached the semis at Euro 2024.

🇳🇴 Norway — the Haaland show

Norway haven't been to a World Cup since 1998. So why now? Two words: Erling Haaland. The Man City striker scored an absurd 16 goals in 8 qualifying games. Add Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard pulling the strings, and you've got an attack that no one wants to face (including Senegal below, who have also been drawn in the same group).

🇸🇳 Senegal — Africa's best shot

An African country has never won a World Cup… yet. Senegal went unbeaten in qualifying and recently beat England in a friendly. Ex-Liverpool and Bayern Munich star Sadio Mané leads a squad who won the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year fairly and squarely in the most ridiculous of circumstances before being stripped of their title 57 days after lifting the trophy.

🔥 QUICKFIRE

Sound like a pro

Phrase:Yoyo club

Origin: Straight from the kids' toy. A club that bounces between divisions like a yo-yo on a string. Up. Down. Up again.

Definition: A team too good for the second tier but not quite good enough for the top one. They get promoted, struggle, get sent back down, then bounce right back up the next year.

Usage:"Burnley are the textbook yoyo club — promoted in 2023, down in 2024, up in 2025, down again this season. Four straight years of bouncing."

On this day

May 15, 2021: Leicester City 1-0 Chelsea, FA Cup Final.

Five years ago today, Leicester won the FA Cup for the very first time in their history. Youri Tielemans scored an absolute screamer from 25 yards in the 63rd minute. Top corner. Goalkeeper had no chance.

Tomorrow Chelsea get another crack — same competition, same stadium, five years later. Watch it live at 10:00AM ET on ESPN.

Last call

Do you A) live in a 2026 World Cup host city and B) not know what to expect regarding your neighborhood’s upcoming influx of international soccer supporters?

I’m not saying you need to go out and panic buy noise-cancelling earphones and a sleeping tablet or anything, but Copenhagen’s fans gave us all a nice little flavor of what a few passionate fans can do to an otherwise quiet city boulevard in Denmark yesterday.

More of the same in the US in 27 days’ time, please.

📝 TRIVIA ANSWER

C) 1980

West Ham — yes, that West Ham, currently fighting for their Premier League lives — won the FA Cup as a Second Division side. They beat Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley with Trevor Brooking scoring a wonderful stooping header.

No team from outside the top flight has done it since.The magic of the cup.

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