The six best forwards at the 2026 World Cup

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

As you know well by now, there's two things I love serving in my bar. Ice-cold beer and soccer wisdom. And this week, I'm asking for one tiny favour in return. On tap today:

• 🌳 A coach caught red-handed spying on opposition with a camera — in a bush

• 🎯 The six best forwards at the 2026 World Cup

• 🇲🇽 Mexico loves soccer so much they’ve cancelled school (no, really)

Let's tap in.

🥃 TOP SHELF

Help me pour a better pint

I don't ask for much.

I pour the drinks, I explain what “home and hosed” means and I make sure you know the offside rule before someone at work embarrasses you.

But today I'm setting my pride aside.

I put together a short reader survey — two minutes (I promise) — and I need you to fill it out. And because I know your time is precious, I’ve even made it so that you can skip any questions you don’t feel like answering.

“Anything for you, Joe.”

Basically, I’m trying to work out:

• Are the explainers doing their job?

• Do you want to see more hand-picked goals of the week?

• Less of my bad jokes? (careful…)

Your answers will shape what this newsletter looks like going into the World Cup — which is just 31 days away.

The Tap-Inn runs on readers who care. If you've made it this far down the email, that's you.

🗞️ THIS WEEK IN SOCCER

Premier League roundup

Arsenal are five points clear with two games to play. Two more wins and the first league title at the Emirates since 2004 is theirs. That’s 22 years ago — back when most of their current squad were still learning their times tables.

The most important results below:

• Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea: Chelsea have stopped the rot after six PL defeats in a row.

• Sunderland 0-0 Manchester United: United were lucky to take a point from the plucky promoted side. In better news for the Red Devils though, their captain fantastic Bruno Fernandes just won the Premier League Football Writers’ Player of the Year.

• Manchester City 3-0 Brentford: A polite reminder that City are still here, even if the title isn't. Jeremy Doku is starting to catch fire.

• West Ham 0-1 Arsenal: Arsenal are still in the driving seat in the title race — thanks to the biggest VAR call of the season. A 96th-minute West Ham goal was disallowed by the Video Assistant Referee for a push on the Gunners GK. Arsenal’s name is already on the trophy. West Ham’s name is in the trash.

• Tottenham vs Leeds United (today, 3:00pm ET): Spurs have two wins and a draw since the appointment of new head coach Roberto de Zerbi (after no wins since December). Two more Ws from their next three games and they’ll avoid relegation. Leeds won’t roll over. Follow along live here.

Across the continent

Four of Europe's top five leagues now have their champions:

• 🇪🇸La Liga — Done. Barcelona clinched their 29th La Liga title and second straight championship with a 2-0 win over Real Madrid in El Clásico at Camp Nou yesterday.

• 🇮🇹Serie A — Done. Inter Milan clinched their 21st Scudetto in style by defeating Parma 2-0 on May 4.

• 🇩🇪Bundesliga — Done. Bayern Munich were crowned champions with a 4-2 win over Stuttgart on April 19. Even for a team that’s won 13 of the last 14 leagues, that’s very, very early.

• 🇫🇷Ligue 1 — Pending. PSG leads second-place Lens by six points with two games to go and only needs a draw when they meet in their rescheduled game on Wednesday. A formality.

A man, a bush and a camera

I am not making this up.

Days before their playoff semi-final against Middlesbrough, a Southampton analyst was caught at Rockcliffe Hall hotel, where he was spotted hiding near bushes with professional recording equipment, filming the opposition’s training session.

The EFL has formally contacted Southampton saying “C’mon guys, seriously??” that there has been a breach of regulations. The scandal's been nicknamed "Spygate 2" (yes, there was a Spygate 1).

The semi-finals themselves? Both ended goalless after the first leg:

• Fri — Hull City 0-0 Millwall (second leg tonight at The Den, 3pm ET)

• Sat — Middlesbrough 0-0 Southampton (second leg Tuesday at St Mary's)

The two winners meet in the final at Wembley on Saturday, May 23 — known as "the richest game in soccer".

Hence, in 2026, a grown man hiding in a hedge.

Also on tap:

• Why The Championship Playoff Final is the most valuable game in sports

• How many points for a win? League tables — explained

• Soccer’s Video Referee — What is VAR and how does it work?

📝 TRIVIA ON TAP

Hakan’t believe it

How long did it take for Turkey's Hakan Şükür to score the quickest goal in World Cup history?

• A) 11 seconds

• B) 17 seconds

• C) 28 seconds

• D) 39 seconds

Answer at the bottom 👇

🌎 WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN: 31 DAYS

The race for the WC Golden Boot

Every World Cup, a prize gets handed out for the top scorer at the tournament: the Golden Boot.

Historically, 5 to 6 goals is enough to win it. Seven or eight is exceptional. With the new 48-team format, finalists now play 8 matches instead of 7 — so the bar might creep up.

This bartender's shortlist:

• 🇫🇷Kylian Mbappé — Won it in 2022 with eight goals. He's been drawn into Group I — yes, the Group of Death we covered a few weeks back.

• 🇳🇴Erling Haaland — Norway aren't favourites to win it all, but the man did once score NINE in one game at the U20 World Cup in 2019.

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Harry Kane — Won the Boot in 2018. Takes England’s penalties and is in the form of his life.

• 🇦🇷Lionel Messi — He'll be 38, turning 39. Scored seven in Qatar and lost the Boot to Mbappé by a single goal. Almost certainly his last World Cup.

• 🇪🇸Lamine Yamal — The 18-year-old wildcard. Spain are tournament favourites.

• 🇵🇹Cristiano Ronaldo — He may have a relatively weak WC record with just 8 goals in 22 appearances, but put your money on CR7 doing everything he can to make sure his sixth and final tournament is his best.

Schools out for the summer… the World Cup?

Mexico nearly — quite literally — gave schoolchildren their childhood dream this week after officials suggested ending the school year 40 days early before the 2026 World Cup.

The idea — blamed on both extreme heat and the tournament itself — sparked instant backlash from parents, with many asking why kids across the country should miss weeks of school for matches happening in just three cities.

Unfortunately for schoolkids everywhere, the president has since walked back on the idea. Someone must have showed her The Tap-Inn’s Mexico World Cup preview.

🔥 QUICKFIRE

Sound like a pro

Phrase: Chasing Europe

Origin: A modern Premier League phrase that grew up alongside European competition itself. There used to be one continental cup; now there are three, and the term covers how teams scrambling for any of them in the final weeks of a season.

Definition: When a team is fighting to qualify for one of the three European club competitions next season — the Champions League (top tier), Europa League (second tier), or Conference League (third tier). The top 5 in the Premier League go to the Champions League, with sixth and seventh (and sometimes eight) taking the other spots.

Usage:"Did you see Chelsea have fallen to ninth? They’ve been so bad lately,” — “Yeah, they’ve been ass. But mathematically, they could still be chasing Europe on the final day."

Stadium of the week

Santiago Bernabéu — Madrid, Spain — Capacity: around 83,186.

Home to Real Madrid, the Bernabéu (Ber-na-BAY-oo) hosted the 1982 World Cup final and after a €1bn renovation it now has a retractable roof and a futuristic underground system where the grass pitch disappears beneath the stadium in giant trays to stay fresh for events.

It also hosted an NFL game between the Dolphins and Commanders in 2015 and will be visited by his holiness himself on June 8th.

Last call

There aren’t many things more satisfying in soccer than a well-executed bicycle kick.

Unless it’s a bicycle kick against your arch-rivals to keep you in the title race with two games to go, of course.

They don’t come much better than this.

📝 TRIVIA ANSWER

11 seconds

Hakan Şükür scored the quickest goal in FIFA World Cup history after just 11 seconds (officially 10.8 seconds) against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup third-place play-off.

Still not as quick as I can polish of a pint of Guinness though (0.02 seconds).

And if you haven’t already…

Sláinte.