A Grip on Sports: The United States’ first World Cup match kicks off a more-than-usual mid-June weekend of televised sporting events

A GRIP ON SPORTS • And so it begins, Part Deux. The hot shots for the United States Men’s National Team take the pitch tonight for the first of three World Cup group stage matches. Against Paraguay, which I’m pretty sure about 43% of U.S. citizens would struggle to find on a map.

•••••••

• For the record, I knew two trivia items about Paraguay before today. Wonder which two? That it is one of only two landlocked South American countries. And that its capital, Asunción, is really old. As in older than any city in the continental U.S. By a lot. Of course, neither of those tidbits have anything to do with sports, let alone soccer, though the knowledge of the city’s age helped me win a trivia contest once.

On the pitch? Paraguay isn’t what you would call a soccer power, though neither is the 17th-ranked United States. But this World Cup, co-hosted with Mexico – a 2-0 winner over South Africa in the opener Thursday – and Canada, is supposed to change that. Winning tonight’s matchup from Los Angeles – at what I’ll continue to call So Fi Stadium, FIFA’s branding notwithstanding – is the first crucial step in that journey.

Win and getting out of the group becomes easier. Lose to the FIFA’s 40th-ranked team and it becomes nearly impossible. Draw? Not good either.

Ready for the drama? The overreactions? The commercial-filled water breaks? The empty seats? Well, that last one might not be in play tonight. But just wait. They are all coming. Or have already arrived.

Tonight’s match is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Fox.

• What else is on tap for the weekend?

How about a couple of titles two of the three World Cup co-hosts really care about?

Thanks to last night’s 4-2 win in the hockey hotbed of Raleigh, N.C., the NHL’s 2026 champion could be crowned Sunday night in Las Vegas, another place synonymous with ice. As in highball glasses. The Hurricanes have a 3-2 lead in Lord Stanley’s final series and can skate away with his Cup with a win. The game starts at 5 p.m. on ABC.

Maybe our friends from the north no longer care, since it’s been more than 30 years since one of the franchises based there have won the Cup. And being it was a Canadian who invented basketball, a sport recently dominated by a Canadian player, the NBA championship is more on the country’s radar.

As long as the Spurs keeping choking off leads anyway. San Antonio’s next chance to do that? Saturday night, 5:30 on ABC.

A Knick win and the residents New York go nuts. A Spurs win? The residents of the NBA offices in New York go nuts. More basketball, more money for their TV partners. A win/win.

The rest of the TV schedule between now and the last few days of school, Spokane style? The World Cup will dominate.

The Canada team also kicks off today, at noon in Toronto against Bosnia-Herzegovina. And, no, I’m not exactly sure what that country’s capital is, though I know it has to older than Paraguay’s.

The countries that actually have a chance to win the FIFA World Cup Trophy – what an unromantic name, though it could be worse in that it could have “brought to you by Michelin Tires” attached to it – take over on Saturday. Countries like Brazil (3 p.m. vs. Morocco on Fox). And on Sunday, when Germany opens vs. Curacao (10 a.m., also Fox). If you want to know which countries really have a chance, just figure if they have been shunted over to FS1, they are longshots.

Sunday’s two matches on the backup channel? Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador (4 p.m.) and Sweden vs. Tunisia (7).

• Of course there are other sports on. Always are. The PGA Tour is in Canada – is that the country’s favorite sport now? – for the aptly named Canadian Open. It serves once again as the precursor to next week’s U.S. Open. You want trivia, we give you trivia. Golf predates Asunción by almost a 100 years and is about 400 years older than soccer.

Golf on TV? Younger than baseball. America’s pastime isn’t about to stop just because the huge stadiums across the street are hosting what the rest of the world refers to as football.

The Mariners are in our nation’s capital this weekend, though Washington D.C. is not on the host city list for the World Cup. (Instead, there is an MMA extravaganza slated for the White House lawn, which probably is bit less of a boondoggle.) Tonight’s game is set for 3:45, Saturday for 1:05 and Sunday 10:35 a.m. All are on the Mariners’ Network.

Let’s end on a piece of trivia about the M’s, shall we?

They lead the Rangers by a game after losing the final two in Baltimore, including another Bryan Woo road bummer Thursday. Last year the awoke on June 12 in Seattle in second place, 4 ½ games behind Houston. And ended up winning the West.

•••

WSU: Let’s start with the joyful news first. Rosemary Longisa will head into the NCAA 1,500-meter finals Saturday with a semifinal win. She raced around Hayward Field in Eugene on Thursday night in 4:06.41. … The sad news? That would be Greg Woods’ to share on Jack Fanning’s death last week. Fanning, 89, was one of the Cougars all-time top receivers, setting school records in the late 1950s after graduating from Spokane’s Rogers High. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano delves into the Pac-12’s new beginning again. He has a few more facts than we shared yesterday. … Jon Wilner has another column on the Big 12, Texas Tech and Brendan Sorsby in the Mercury News. … The Texas attorney general has weighed in. He’s running for Senate in the state, so there might be a little political performance in the letter. … As we figured, not all NIL money is headed to the bank or to buy mom a new house. … Colorado wasted a bit of money at the Alamo Bowl. … In basketball news, the Big 12 announced opponents Thursday. We can pass along stories from Colorado, Utah and Arizona. The Wildcats have bolstered their roster again. … In baseball news, Oregon State lost its pitching coach to Florida and a much bigger contract. … Speaking of contracts, new Beaver athletic director Kevin Griffin is making a lot less than the man he replaced. … OSU’s old NIL collective Dam Nation settled its lawsuit with Blueprint Sports. … And a former Oregon receiver settled his dispute with the school.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium has a new look. … Idaho State’s athletic hall of fame will have new members.

Indians: Another rally, including Max Belyeu’s solo home run in the ninth, lifted visiting Spokane to a 7-6 win over the Emeralds in Eugene. Dave Nichols has all the particulars in this story.

Mariners: Woo hasn’t been all that good this season on the road. And he’s tired of trying to explain it. Mainly because he can’t. “I’m just tired of sucking,” he said after Thursday’s 7-5 loss to the Orioles, which included Woo giving up five runs in the third inning. … Forgot to mention here Matt Brash is back on the injured list. And it may be a while.

Storm: An “old vet” is supplying what the team needs. Not all of it, of course, considering the Storm’s 3-11 record, last in the Western Conference.

Seahawks: We linked this Jalen Milroe story a while back when it ran in the Times. It is on the S-R site today. … Where is Navin Johnson when we need him? He could run around yelling “The new Super Bowl rings are out. The new Super Bowl rings are out.” Though we’re pretty sure Steve Martin isn’t getting one. … Minicamp is over. Sam Darnold has a new narrative to deal with. And the other players have their assignments.  

Kraken: Seattle made some front office hires.

Sounders: Belgium has adopted Seattle’s backup goalkeeper.

NHL: No records. No drama. Just Carolina doing what was needed to earn a 4-2 win in the crucial game five of the seven-game Stanley Cup final.

NBA: As we watched the last couple minutes of the Spurs’ 107-106 meltdown in the Garden on Wednesday night, we pointed out one small thing to Kim. Stephon Castle had not stepped out of bounds, even if it was called that way. Too bad Fox didn’t show much in the way of a replay, but no matter. Everyone has a replay machine in their home these days. I also pointed out Josh Hart hit him so hard as to drive him toward the baseline with the Knicks up 105-104, but no foul was called. And Castle still stayed inbounds, despite the game-changing whistle. I wondered if it could have been challenged. But was sure of one thing. The NBA would apologize after the fact. And it wouldn’t matter. Guess what? The league did admit both Thursday. Castle did not step out of bounds and, yes, Hart did foul him. But, nope, nothing is changing. The Spurs still lost. And their title hopes for 2026 are on the brink of extinction.

World Cup: Yes, the U.S. begins its quest tonight. We have a lot to pass along from the pages of the S-R. Stories about friendship. About goalkeeping. About marketing. About a key player’s availability. … We also have a couple stories from other places to pass along. … And, of course, we have a story covering Mexico’s 2-0 win from a Spokane perspective by Monica Carrillo-Casas.

Auto racing: Doug Pace is back with a look at the local racing scene. That includes a visit from Hall of Fame driver Kevin Harvick and his teenage son, Keelan, in Post Falls this weekend.

•••       

• We won’t be watching the U.S. team tonight. Other duties call. But I’m sure if the men win, I’ll be able to see all the salient moments. And if they lose, the outrage will still be floating around the Web when I arrive home. A draw? Kiss off their chances. By the way, I got up early today for no reason. Well, when the sun rises before 5 a.m., I sort of feel I should too. It does not happen that often. Until later …