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There was major 2026 World Cup drama yesterday — with a late goal by Portgual sending Croatia home after a hard-fought game.

The high-stakes drama continues on July 3, as the final Round of 32 matches determines the fates of three teams.

It all kicks off at 2 p.m. ET, with three games played across the afternoon and evening.

FIFA World Cup schedule today: July 3

• Australia vs. Egypt (Dallas Stadium) — kickoff at 2 p.m. ET

• Argentina vs. Cape Verde (Miami Stadium) — kickoff at 6 p.m. ET

• Colombia vs. Ghana (Kansas City Stadium) — kickoff at 9:30 p.m. ET

How to watch FIFA World Cup games today

Watch Australia vs. Egypt

Neither Australia nor Egypt have a clean World Cup record going into this game, though Egypt’s looks a little better on paper with a win and two draws. Australia has a win, a draw, and a loss heading into this matchup.

Live coverage will be on Fox and Fox One. Peacock will carry the live Spanish-language coverage.

Watch Argentina vs. Cape Verde

Cape Verde is having a memorable World Cup run, but they will face quite the test in an Argentina team that is seemingly always a major World Cup contender. Both teams have a lot to lose, and one shot to move forward.

Live coverage will be on Fox and Fox One. Peacock will carry the live Spanish-language coverage.

Watch Colombia vs. Ghana

Colombia certainly has more momentum going into this game, with two wins and a draw versus Ghana’s win, draw, and a loss. But both survived the group stage, and anything can happen in the knockout rounds.

Live coverage will be on FS1 and Fox One. Peacock will carry the live Spanish-language coverage.

More live streaming options

Live TV cable replacement

Not interested in signing up for a standalone streaming service like Fox One or Peacock? You can sign up for a live TV cable replacement service, like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV.

These services carry over 100 live channels, but run off a WiFi connection. You’ll get live access to Fox and FS1, plus a whole lot more. Here are some options to consider:

Watch the World Cup for free with a VPN

It’s possible to watch the World Cup for free on international services like ITVX, BBC iPlayer, NOS, or RTÉ. Our global World Cup watch guide can walk you through the process.

You will need a VPN to live stream the World Cup on these free streaming services. We recommend ExpressVPN — a Mashable-tested service and an Official Tournament Supporter of the FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Europe — as our VPN of choice for sport. It offers servers in 105 countries, a user-friendly app available on all major devices, a speedy connection, and up to 10 simultaneous connections.

Keen skywatchers will see a Waning Gibbous Moon again tonight as the lunar cycle continues and we further away the Full Moon and closer to the New Moon. This means that the Moon will continue to appear smaller and less illuminated each night.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Friday, July 3, NASA’s Daily Moon Guide tracker tells us the Moon phase is in its Waning Gibbous phase, with 90% of its surface visible.

You don’t need lots of fancy equipment to see features on the Moon’s surface. In fact, you can see the Mares Imbrium and Serenitatis, as well as the Copernicus Crater without any visual aids at all. If you do however have binoculars, you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the Clavius Crater, Mare Frigoris, and the Grimaldi Basin. And if you have a telescope, you’ll see all this plus the Apollo 14, 15, and 16 landing spots.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on July 29.

What are Moon phases?

According to NASA, the Moon completes one orbit around Earth approximately every 29.5 days, moving through eight recognised phases along the way. Although the same side of the Moon always faces Earth, the amount of its surface illuminated by the Sun changes as it travels around our planet. As a result, the Moon appears to shift in shape throughout the month, progressing from slender crescents to quarter moons and eventually reaching the brightly lit Full Moon stage. This repeating pattern is known as the lunar cycle.

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 2 seconds ago

If you’re a fan of HBO’s House of the Dragon, you sometimes have to defend yourself to your more skeptical friends. If yours are anything like mine, they’ll start asking you some hard questions, like, “After Game of Thrones got so bad, why the heck would you come back for another show?” I give them all kinds of answers, of course. Sometimes, I tell them that this show is like GoT before it fell off; other times, I tell them that I’m just invested in the mythology of Westeros. While these are both true to some extent, the main reason I watch is much simpler: hot ladies in fantasy clothing!

One great example of this is Olivia Cooke. In House of the Dragon, she plays an important character: Alicent Hightower, a queen whose crumbling relationship with Rhaenyra Targaryen leads to civil war. Cooke is absolutely mesmerizing in the role, imbuing charisma and pathos to a character who makes one bad decision after another. Beneath her character’s regal bearing, she wears the effervescent beauty of the girl next door. However, we came very close to never having Cooke appear in House of the Dragon at all. In a recent interview, she admitted how close she came to getting a very different role: Rey in The Force Awakens!

From Sci-Fi To Fantasy

Recently, Olivia Cooke offered an interview to Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast. There, she spoke about a wide range of topics before her host brought up something very specific. Horowitz asked her if there was any truth to the rumor that she had auditioned for a role in The Last Jedi, the controversial Star Wars film. Cooke busted this “weird rumor” before dropping some truly shocking news. While she didn’t audition for TLJ, she did audition for The Force Awakens. And not just for any role: she auditioned for Rey, the main character of the entire Sequel trilogy!

The House of the Dragon star was very self-deprecating during the interview. She confirmed that “I did audition a few times for the other one, where Daisy Ridley got [it]” before downplaying the significance of her audition. “But you know, everyone and their dog auditioned for that,” she said. She then got very candid about how she did when auditioning for the most popular sci-fi franchise in the world. “I think I auditioned once in L.A., and then once with J.J. [Abrams]. And I was sh*t. I was really bad,” she said.

Everything’s Coming Up Olivia

Does Olivia Cooke have any sour grapes over not getting the highly coveted role? Not really. During the interview, she drove home both how bad her audition performance was and how good Ridley’s was. “You know when you go into an audition, and you’re just not bringing it, and you’ve let yourself down, you’ve let everyone down in the room?” she asked rhetorically. “Daisy did such an amazing job, I just wasn’t that kind of an actor at that time. It just wasn’t a fit.” Fortunately, things worked out: she landed parts in other high-profile films like Ready Player One, eventually getting the part of Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon.

In retrospect, things really worked out for this talented actor. As it is, she’s a major player in one of the biggest and most popular shows ever made. Had she won the part of Rey in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, her career might very well have suffered the same way that Daisy Ridley’s has: starring in one forgettable film after another, just waiting for Lucasfilm to give her a call back. But Olivia Cooke is absolutely thriving in a career-defining role that gives “fantasy girl” a new meaning. Will of the Force or will of the Seven? Either way, Cooke was clearly destined for greatness!