Fox Sports has lined up Alexi Lalas, Carli Lloyd, Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan for its studio analyst team for this summer’s FIFA World Cup, unveiling the roster Wednesday as the network sharpened its plans for the 104-match event. Donovan will also work as a match analyst on game telecasts, while said Rob Stone, Rebecca Lowe, Jules Breach and Pien Meulensteen will anchor coverage from the studio and on-site.
The World Cup opens June 11 and runs through July 19, with 48 teams playing at 16 sites across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Fox Sports president and executive producer Brad Zager said the lineup includes some of the most dynamic personalities and soccer legends the network has assembled, and said they are expected to connect quickly with fans as the tournament becomes the biggest soccer broadcast on the North American calendar.
The announcement matters because Fox is preparing to carry another major global tournament after broadcasting the last two men’s World Cups in 2018 and 2022, along with the women’s World Cups in 2015, 2019 and 2023. The company’s role has made its studio desk one of the most visible voices for U.S. viewers, and this summer’s setup pairs longtime American names such as Lalas, Lloyd, Dempsey and Donovan with a deep bench of international talent.
That international group includes Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Clarence Seedorf, Javier Hernández, John Obi Mikel, Thiago Alcântara, Juan Pablo Ángel and Peter Schmeichel. said it planned to elaborate on its coverage at a media day in New York on Thursday, giving a fuller look at how it intends to handle a tournament stretched across three countries and a record-sized field.
The breadth of the lineup is also the point of friction. Fox is promising a definitive voice for a tournament that will unfold over 104 matches and across North America, but the scale of the event leaves little room for error. With the opening kick less than a month away, the network now has to turn a star-heavy roster into coverage that feels coherent, not crowded.
