The Fox Network revealed its broadcast teams for the upcoming 2018 World Cup and it will have a strongly American voice, despite the U.S. Men’s National Team not being in Russia.
John Strong and Stu Holden will headline the unit. The two of them have worked many MLS and UEFA Champions League matches together in recent years. They will be one of two crews that will actually travel to Russia, with the other being JP Dellacamera and Tony Meola.
The other four teams will call games remotely from the network’s studios in Los Angeles. Aly Wagner will be among them as the first female analyst to call a World Cup match on American television. She will be paired with the Scotsman Derek Rae.
The other crews are Glenn Davis and Cobi Jones, Jorge Perez Navarro and Mariano Trujillo, and Mark Followill and Warren Barton.
The heavily American presence is a stark contrast to ESPN’s strategy four years ago. Five of the six play-by-play voices came from the United Kingdom and the other, Fernando Palomo, is from El Salvador.
In addition, Lothar Matthaeus, Alexi Lalas, Hernan Crespo, Guus Hiddink, Ian Wright and Kelly Smith will join as studio analysts.
Having Derek Rae call World Cup games from a closet in Century City is a fucking disgrace.
I don’t have any problems with the announcers, but they should be broadcasting from the site of the games, not from a studio in LA. I think they lose something by not being there.
All the Bundesliga games and most of the CL and EL games are all broadcast remotely. It’s just not feasible with the size of the tournament to have live crews at each match with sites spread all over Russia.
Don’t kid yourself. It’s not a question of feasibility. The NFL has all its game broadcast by announcers at the site of all the games. Any developed country, including Russia, would have the facilities available. Also, they could have a Russian video feed with the announcers on site. It’s the sort of thing that’s done all the time. It’s just that they don’t want to spend the money. I’m also a big fan of college basketball. For big games ESPN will have their announcers courtside. Often, for lesser games, they will broadcast from ESPN studios because they don’t want to pay for the announcers to go to the games when those games don’t get the big ratings and big ad buys.
Dellacam imo is about as knowledgeable and inspiring to listen to as a doorknob. Surely we can do better? But then, the US is not playing which I suppose makes it less annoying. Does anyone else feel this way? I want Simon Borg’s enthusiasm coupled with some superknowledgeable soccer being.
Completely agree. JP kills me. And Meola drives me nuts as well. Great team FOX!!!!!
agreed. on the other hand Strong-Holden combo are excellent.