Welcome to Screen Shots! This is where I tell you what sporting events you should watch on TV every week! Make sure you subscribe, so it comes straight to your inbox! Have your own suggestions? Shoot me an email at [email protected]!

No Beyond The Arc this week, but the long-awaited debut of The Show Notes podcast is finally here! Check out the intro episode for a little idea of what to expect, then I’ve got an interview with Charleston poet Mr. Enlightenment dropping where we discuss his creative process. Same YouTube channel as before, but you’ll have to subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if that’s your thing! Now, to the sports!

My biggest fears from last week came true as Paraguay turned its showdown with France into an absolute slugfest. Luckily, France survived with un sourire courtesy of a Kylian Mbappe penalty kick in the 70th minute. They move on to face a Morocco team that ended the Jesse Marsch Revenge Tour in perhaps the most brutal way possible: a 3-0 shellacking in the United States on the 4th of July, with Marsch insisting that his squad had been the better team. Morocco has been exceptional defensively all tournament. Can that continue against the world’s most explosive offense?

It’s Summer League time in the NBA! Just a couple of months ago, Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr. were leading Michigan to the national title. Now, they face off in the Vegas desert surrounded by a bunch of guys trying to audition for a job. Both of these guys have one, and I wrote about why I’ll be pulling for them in my 2026 NBA Draft Diary.

Well, Belgium really dealt us a reality check there, huh? They’ll face a bit more of a challenge against a Spanish team whose defense has not allowed a goal the entire tournament. It feels like we’re waiting for the dam to break on their offense, too. Worth tuning in for to see if you can pay attention to anything besides how long Belgian GK Thibaut Courtois’ neck is.

As a Charleston native, I’ve seen a lot of athletes from a lot of area schools go on to do great things. However, I don’t recall ever seeing anybody from Military Magnet reach the pinnacle of their sport. That’s exactly what Tre’Von Spillers will be attempting to do with the Cavaliers Summer League squad. I cannot put into words how improbable it is that he’s even here, so let’s pull for him to make it to training camp!

A 25% chance of a Coco Gauff title!

I appreciate the MLB trying to appeal to our love of drafts, even though we probably won’t see most of these guys for a couple of years (if ever). It looks like they’re doing just the top-10 picks here before switching to MLB Network at 2:30 pm (ET). I don’t know anything about the prospects, so I’m interested to see what they do to change that over the course of these 90 minutes.

Erling Haaland just scores goals. It doesn’t matter what the opposing team is doing to stop this from happening. If the ball is at his feet, shift your attention to the back of the net. His 2 goals took down soccer powerhouse Brazil, and now Norway, which hadn’t qualified for this tournament since 1998 and had never won a knockout round match, is one of the last eight teams standing.

I really don’t know what to make of England. Their win against Mexico showed a lot of heart. They stared down a raucous Azteca crowd and the altitude to hold on despite playing a man down for much of the second half. When I watch them, I still can’t help but feel like there’s something missing. Maybe it’s calcium.

Switzerland’s defense has looked the best of any non-Spanish team, but will it matter when it’s all but been proven that Argentina has plot armor that rivals June from The Handmaid’s Tale? After surviving an epic extra-time battle against Cape Verde in the previous round, Argentina looked cooked…until they didn’t. I watched every second, and I’m still not sure how they went from down 2-0 to winning 3-2 in less than 15 minutes. But they did, they’re here, and now it’s Switzerland’s turn to try and get in the way of destiny.

Some big names are still in it! Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic are facing off in one semifinal. Sinner won it for the first time last year, and Novak has made the final ten times since 2011, winning it seven of those times. On the other side, it’ll either be 2-seed Alexander Zverev or underdog/hometown hero Arthur Fery.

I feel like a broken record when I talk about Portland, but they have the best offense in the NWSL, and that’s why they’re near the top of the league standings. I talk a lot about the trio of Sophia Wilson, Reilyn Turner, and Olivia Moultrie, but second-year player Pietra Tordin also finds herself near the top of the league in goals and assists. Keep an eye out for her when it comes to the USWNT, too.

Okay, let’s try this again. If you read this newsletter last week, you know these two played last Sunday as well. Unfortunately, neither A’ja Wilson nor Caitlin Clark played due to injury, so you may have felt a little robbed. Hopefully, they’re back this week, and you get the star power you deserve!

You already know I hate including streaming services here, but most of us probably have Netflix. And, I mean, it’s the Home Run Derby. Who doesn’t want to see these guys sock a few dingers?

The plan is for me to watch this one at a Fan Fest in Atlanta, so I really can’t lose here. It’d be even cooler if it were France-Spain!

This game is called “The Midsummer Classic,” but it’s always represented the official marker of “We’re in the home stretch of summer” to me. Temperatures are peaking, we’re out of official cookout holidays, and NFL training camp is about to start. The end of summer no longer fills me with the sense of dread that it did when I was still in school, and there’s a lot to look forward to with each season, but this is a good reminder to also appreciate the one we’re currently in.

Refer to both of Saturday’s entries to see who might be playing in this one!

#1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa squares off with #5 overall pick Keaton Wagler. Wild that a couple of guys with such different high school careers both ended up being top-5 picks. Dybantsa’s selection at #1 has been a long time in the making. ESPN named him the top NBA prospect in his class after his freshman year in high school. Wagler, on the other hand, was the 150th-ranked player according to 247Sports by the time he graduated high school. His meteoric rise in his only season of college ball shows us that sometimes, like in the case of Dybantsa, the rankings get it right, but other times, not so much.

As always, thank you for reading! Make sure you’re subscribed so you get this in your inbox first thing Thursday mornings! Also, share with your friends! See you next week!