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Good morning! Avoid the post today.
Inside: World Cupdate: What a night of soccer, lads Every day, I enter this digital space and assume theres no way the World Cup could be better than the day before.
Most days, Im wrong.
Last night, I was extremely incorrect.
Quickly: - Three matches, with all three going to the final minutes or extra time.
Germany, considered a Cup contender, is out after losing on penalty kicks to Paraguay.
(The same Paraguay team that USMNT walloped, by the way).
Japan is done, too, succumbing to a late comeback from Brazil, which scored in the 96th minute to win 2-1.
- And the best match of the night went last, a Morocco win over the Netherlands, also on PKs.
Ismael Saibari, whos played his entire professional career in the Netherlands and was bloodied earlier in the game, sealed it with this: MARRUECOS SE LLEVA LA VICTORIA! Ismael Saibari vencio a Verbruggen y sella el pase a los Octavos de Final.
Sigue la Copa Mundial de la FIFA 2026 por Telemundo y Peacock#MundialTelemundo #Somos26 #FIFAWorldCup #PaisesBajosVsMarruecos pic.twitter.com/55TebdhGoA Telemundo Deportes (@TelemundoSports) June 30, 2026 See the live bracket here, and make sure youre signed up for our World Cup newsletter while youre at it.
Its going to be a wild three-week stretch.
Three more matches today.
Lets move on to a busy news day, too: News to Know Another dizzying NBA day NBA free agency still hasnt started yet the doors officially open this evening but the league was active as hell yesterday.
Two eyebrow-raisers: - The Grizzlies traded Ja Morant to the Trail Blazers, ending one of the stranger superstar tenures in recent memory.
Morant has both electrified and stupefied the league, the former for his on-court exploits and the latter emotion for his troubles off it.
Still, Zach Harper thinks Portland won this trade.
- Over on the Warriors, Draymond Green declined his player option, which is curious.
It gives Golden State the flexibility to trade for Anthony Davis and acquire LeBron James in free agency, which would just be wild.
Im not ready to process that possibility yet, but John Hollinger detailed how it would actually happen.
There were plenty of other deals agreed to yesterday.
See everything on our live blog.
Johnson announces ALS diagnosis Former Titans running back Chris Johnson, the NFLs record holder for scrimmage yards in a single season, announced yesterday that hes been diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrigs disease.
The 40-year-old announced it in a heartbreaking interview on Good Morning America while pushing for more research and funding for ALS treatment.
His entire comments are truly worth a read.
Advertisement Lions release Arnold Detroit released cornerback Terrion Arnold yesterday, shortly after a Florida judge set the players bail at $1 million after his high-profile arrest on charges related to robbery and kidnapping last week.
Under the ruling, Arnold a first-round pick two years ago wouldve been able to participate in Lions offseason activities.
Read our full story.
More news: - Remember our note about the Travelers Championship playoff, which was going to play No.
18 over and over again until someone won? Viktor Hovland emerged victorious.
- Enzo Maresca is officially Manchester Citys new manager.
Chelsea might still be mad.
- Red Sox catcher Willson Contreras hit a huge home run, cried in the dugout and then got ejected ..
all over two innings.
- The Canadiens traded Brendan Gallagher to his hometown Canucks.
Everyone is happy.
Serves: Serenas back, but is she back? A sentence I still dont think is real in 2026: Serena Williams, the best womens tennis player of all time, is playing a singles match at Wimbledon today, her first major appearance in four years.
Weve made plenty of fanfare ahead of her debut.
But now its here.
Reality brings questions.
How are vibes on the grounds at the All England Club? Is Williams opponent, Maya Joint, shaking in her metaphorical boots? And I know shes 44, but can Williams actually make a run here? I decided to actually get my questions answered, so I went to our Matthew Futterman, whos in London covering the comeback.
Matthew, naturally, told me he didnt have the answers to all my questions.
He did provide some color: The main thing I know is that with Serena back in the field, she is the story until she leaves the building, so to speak.
Shes the GOAT.
She takes up pretty much all the oxygen.
The anticipation for her walking onto Centre Court Tuesday is big.
Its almost like Monday was a warmup.
I pressed him on her prospective performance, though, and he answered with some interesting layers.
Here it is in full: There is so much that is basically unprecedented about this in the modern game.
The only comparison is Martina Navratilova playing at 47 in 2004.
Guess what? She won a match.
Theres more depth now.
But Williams is younger, and is still serving the ball in the 120s.
But she has also had a second child since leaving the sport.
Advertisement Also, no one knows the real impact of the new generation of weight-loss drugs on an elite tennis player.
She has taken Wegovy and has raved about its effects.
But the drugs do cause the loss of lean muscle mass.
Will she be able to generate the same power? Bottom line, win or lose, its a pretty great story, and kudos to Serena for putting herself out there like this.
Sarah Shephard wrote a great piece this morning on how athletes in their 40s fare in returns to their chosen sport.
And I have to admit I had Tiger Woods and Tom Brady on the brain while researching this.
Williams faces Joint this afternoon, and is an underdog, per oddsmakers.
The tournament has started already, though.
A couple of notes: - The grass is slippery, and Jannik Sinner barely won yesterday after a couple of falls.
Read all about the landscape hardship here.
- Coco Gauff breezed past Germanys Tamara Korpatsch in straight sets, which isnt newsworthy in itself.
But it was Gauffs first win on grass in two years.
That means something.
- And Naomi Osaka, pictured above, didnt let Wimbledons all-white dress policy limit her fit.
Read the story behind it.
Lets move on: Watch Guide Tennis: Wimbledon Noon ET on ESPN Bookmark this time for Serena, but Wimbledon action will be on the Worldwide Leader for most of the day, starting at 6 a.m.
World Cup: Round of 32 1 p.m.-9 p.m.
ET on Fox and Telemundo We have a beautiful mix of three matches: Ivory Coast-Norway (1 p.m.) and Mexico-Ecuador (9 p.m.) are true toss-ups, while France-Sweden (5 p.m.) presents an opportunity to watch maybe the tournament favorite in Les Bleus.
I wonder how many collective goals Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe score today.
WNBA: Aces vs.
Liberty 7 p.m.
ET on Prime Video This is the Commissioners Cup final, a landmark moment in the early WNBA season, and we could not pick a better matchup for it.
These two teams have history, and in this current era, both present as a possible finals matchup any time they play.
Just watch it.
MLB: Tigers at Yankees 7:05 p.m.
ET on TBS and Prime Video An elite pitching matchup tonight with Tarik Skubal against Cam Schlittler.
New York needs a win.
Detroit needs many wins or to figure out what to do before the trade deadline.
Advertisement Pulse Picks A great part of the 1990s in college football, as Chris Vannini detailed yesterday: the horrendous jerseys.
See the worst here.
Two more from our 90s series: - What was it like to guard Shaq at LSU? Not fun.
- We had ties in college football during the 90s.
Ralph Russo says we need to bring them back.
The top thing on everyones mind as NHL free agency nears: Will Cale Makar get $20 million AAV? Pierre LeBrun led his stuffed notebook with it.
Is baseball getting a World Cup bump? After seeing the Norway row celebration at Citi Field, I vote yes.
Saving self-promo for last: I posted a travelogue from my trip to the World Cup that actually turned into a food video.
Watch that here (and be nice, please).
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our re-ranking of World Cup teams after Canadas big win.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Germany-Paraguay live blog.