“Wow, it’s really here,” said Fox’s World Cup host Rebecca Lowe today on air as the kickoff match was about to start in Mexico City and the tournament comes to L.A. tomorrow. “World Cups are about the stars looking to command the spotlight,” the Olympics and Premier League vet added.
Over a year after it was unveiled that the NBC Sports anchor would shift over to Fox for the 23rd World Cup, Lowe says she’s ready for the next month and a half with 104 games between 48 teams all over North America.
Joined live from Sofi Stadium by legends Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas, Lowe will steer the on-air soccer ship for Fox Sports up to the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Just before today’s high octane Mexico vs S.A. game, Lowe spoke with me about getting ready for sports’ biggest stage, what to expect and who she thinks will win.
DEADLINE: Amid all the controversies, competition and prayers, the biggest tournament of the Beautiful Game is about to begin, where’s your head at on this day as Mexico prepare to face off against South Africa
REBECCA LOWE: The thought on opening day, I think Dominic, is to remember who this audience is.
DEADLINE: How do you mean?
LOWE: This is a really interesting tournament. It’s diverse. Some sports fans, some maybe not sports fans, some nowhere near sports fans who just happen to be, you know, at a friend’s house on this particular moment on this particular day, watching. I want to try and welcome everyone in and begin to sell the Beautiful Game.
The way that we do it on Fox [is] to impress them with everything that we’ve got in store and to show them the joy that we have covering this. To show them the joy that the fans have, and then, of course, show them the football. So, I think overall it’s remembering who this audience is. It’s very interesting, and it’s different to maybe any other audience I’ve ever broadcasted to, maybe even Fox as well, and that will be my overriding thought going into the first day.
DEADLINE: With all that joy, and I’m on-board with that, there has been a lot of controversy, anger at the Trump administration, anger at FIFA over everything, including the exorbitant ticket prices – how do you take in that part of what is as much a geopolitical event as it is a sporting spectacle?
LOWE: I think two things to answer that.
The first is having done seven Olympic Games — and I did the 2006 World Cup, and I’ve done the Women’s World Cup, and I’ve done big events — there’s always a negativity going into every single big event, and it always dissipates.
Not saying it goes away, but it dissipates when the first event starts with the kickoff between Mexico and South Africa, I think then, we just want to talk about the football. That’s why it dissipates. I’m not saying nothing will happen, but I think what’s happening on the pitch takes over.
DEADLINE: Speaking of that, after last night’s amazing Knicks comeback and win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, plus the Stanley Cup and the UFC at the White House the weekend, does the World Cup run the risk of being the sporting almost ran for the first week?
LOWE: (LAUGHS) . I wish those guys luck, because I think this is going to take over.
I’m not going to lie. Would I prefer the NBA finals to have finished by now? Of course. But this is different.
DEADLINE: How?
LOWE: I said years ago, as I began to think about moving to America, that this country was like a sleeping giant in the world of football. One of its eyes, one of those giants’ eyes, was just starting to open. Well, one is definitely open, and the other one is now beginning to open
DEADLINE: Whoa!
LOWE: Yes. I think by the end of this World Cup, they’ll both be wide open.
DEADLINE: Why?
LOWE: America now has a league they didn’t have 30 years ago, which came about from the last World Cup that was here. So, the possibilities to move the sport in this country forward after this World Cup, with all the way the world has changed with social media and the internet since 1994 the possibilities are endless. I will tell you, I have witnessed the rise of the game in this country in the last 13 years since I moved here. It has been nothing short of incredible to see, surprising a little at the pace at which it’s grown, and now this is coming at the exact right time, because this country is ready.
DEADLINE: On the note of ready — do you feel you and your co-hosts are ready?
LOWE: Oh, they sure are, and I can tell you, spending the last three days in their company, they are absolutely superstars, and I can’t wait to spend the next 39 days with them.
How did I prepare? I find it difficult to switch off, Dominic, from preparing for something like this. It’s very similar with an Olympic Games. It’s all consuming.
DEADLINE: How could it not be?
LOWE: Exactly. I don’t remember, other than talking to you, I don’t remember a time in the last couple of weeks, certainly last couple of weeks, where I’ve had anything going on in my ears, other than listening to podcasts or listening to sports radio or, you know, I’m just constantly taking in information. Then I’ve got all the reading to do. So, we get a lot of help from our guys at Fox in the research department, but I’m one of those people, like, I’ve got to read everything.
I have a wonderful researcher who’s with me from NBC, and she is giving me a cheat sheet every morning about all the story lines I need to know. By the time I get that cheat sheet, I should already have done my own prep in my own handwriting on a piece of card that I’ll have on the desk, and it’s by doing the handwriting that the magic goes into the brain. That’s how I learn. And then the cheat sheet is just to have there to refer to.
DEADLINE: Is it too much?
LOWE: I’m not worried about clamoring the brain with information.
I want to be ready if something happens. If there’s rain delay, if there’s a thunder delay, a lightning delay, you’ve got to have some stuff and be willing to fill for an hour sometimes too. So, I’ve got to know everything there is to know that I can possibly hold in my brain.
DEADLINE: And Thierry, Zlatan and Alexi?
LOWE: They’re also wonderful, and they’re also different in their personalities, in the things they want to talk about. No doubt in the way that they prepare [too].
I have just loved the rehearsal process, because even though rehearsal processes can be a bit clunky and unnatural, it has allowed me to understand the way they think. It’s allowed me to understand their case of speaking to try to pick up on when they’re going to finish, so I can think of what I’m going to ask the next person, and it’s allowed us to create a chemistry.
I worked with Alexi Lalas for Euro 2012 with ESPN all those years ago, just for a few weeks, but other than that, I haven’t seen [him] since, and I’ve never worked with Thierry, and obviously no one’s worked with Zlatan as a commentator before. It’s such a privilege to stand today at our position at SoFi Stadium. All I can say is that three of them are, we know that Alexi works hard, but the other two have worked so hard. They’re serious about it, but they want to have fun, and they’re ready, and I am just like, “Is this, is this real? Do I get to do this with these people?” It’s amazing. Dominic,
DEADLINE: So, let’s cut to the chase, Rebecca, I know your heart is with England, but who do you think really will raise the trophy next month?
LOWE: Well, unfortunately, I can’t actually separate who I want it to be, so my answer is France against England the final and England win.
Yeah, that’s what I want it to be, and I’m trying to convince myself that’s what I think it will be. I physically cannot go against my own country. I just can’t do it. So I get that for the last, you know, however many years of my life, every four years I said England are going to win, and I’ve said again, and yes, I desperately hope, but they also definitely can.
DEADLINE: Let’s see….
LOWE: I mean, I think you know it’s realistic. I do.
Brits in L.A. are not walking around with their free line shirt on thinking, “Let’s get to the quarterfinals and call it a day in that World Cup.” It’s not that the pressure is always there for England, and now more than ever, because of the manager that we’ve chosen, because of the decisions that he’s made, and it is genuinely realistic. And the reason I know that is because even Alexi Lalas, who absolutely hates England, thinks that they could win it. Yeah, gives me great joy and great heart — they could go all the way.
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