The eyes of much of the world Friday were on the FIFA World Cup draw held in Moscow, Russia, but those watching Fox Sports’ live broadcast of on the West coast were a little bleary-eyed: the show kicked off at 6:30 a.m. local time.
And with the United States missing out on its first World Cup in more than 30 years, the mood going in was a little different this year. Stars and Stripes fans weren’t gathered at bars across the country waiting to see who they’d take on in the world’s biggest sporting event. Many of them probably wanted to forget the draw was even happening.
Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over the ceremony, which began with a couple bizarre dance numbers that were followed by a group of tuxedo-clad soccer luminaries including Argentina’s Diego Maradona and Brazil’s Cafu picking slips of paper contained in tiny balls from glass jars to determine which teams play in which groups. And in the Fox studio in Los Angeles, former U.S. national team stars Landon Donovan and Alexi Lalas, former Mexican national teamer Mariano Trujillo and hosts Rob Stone and Kate Abdo tried to figure out what it all meant — and immediately started predicting the tournament.
The U.S.’s absence has to be disappointing for Fox, which will be broadcasting the World Cup for the first time (and plans to put as many matches on the big Fox broadcast channel as possible), but the draw brought the network a few lucky breaks.
One of those came early, as Spain and Portugal — the last two European World Cup champions — were drawn as the top two teams in Group B and will face off in the final game of the tournament’s first Friday.
Mexico, which has a massive fan base in the U.S., landed in the “Group of Death,” along with defending champions Germany, Sweden and South Korea, which caused Trujillo to grimace when the country’s name was plucked from the jar. Even if Mexico manages to advance, El Tri is likely staring down a matchup with Brazil.
Hosts Russia found themselves in the opposite situation, ending up in a group with Uruguay and relative minnows Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
“Is this the worst World Cup group ever?” Donovan wondered aloud to those on the set when Saudi Arabia was announced as the fourth team in the group. He doubled down on that sentiment on air, sarcastically wondering how Russia could have managed such an easy draw.
Immediately after the matchups were announced and before the broadcast cut away from Moscow and back to Los Angeles, a team of researchers descended on the stage with copious notes about the teams, their prior meetings and any other pertinent information. For example, while the rivalry between Spain and Portugal needs little explanation, the crew pointed out that fellow Group B member Morocco also has history with Spain. There was also plenty of talk about Group D, which includes Argentina, Croatia, Nigeria and Euro 2016 darlings, Iceland.
And while the hosts had plenty of information to digest, they had to quickly pivot to projecting the tournament’s knockout round in order to get their individual brackets ready to be shown during the next segment. Nobody picked Germany to repeat and Lalas went with a surprise choice, Belgium, which raised some of eyebrows on stage despite the country’s No. 5 FIFA ranking.
Lalas was proud of his choice, taking a selfie in front of his bracket projected on a wall-sized monitor during the next commercial break and enduring some light ribbing from TheWrap about his bold prediction.
“Keep walking,” Lalas said with a smile.
ESPN Stars That Jumped to Fox Sports, From Erin Andrews to Tom Rinaldi (Photos)
ESPN may be synonymous with sports, but plenty of stars have added Fox Sports to their resume. Have a look at some the big names.
Skip Bayless The outspoken sports columnist and "First Take" analyst still ranks as ESPN's highest-profile defection when he bailed in 2016. He co-hosts "Skip and Shannon" with Shannon Sharpe on Fox Sports 1.
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Chris Broussard The longtime NBA analyst joined Fox Sports in 2016. He's a regular panelist on "Skip and Shannon: Undisputed" and co-hosts "The Odd Couple" with Rob Parker for Fox Sports radio.
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Colin Cowherd The sports anchor fled ESPN in 2015 and now hosts "The Herd" on FS1. He also co-hosted "Speak for Yourself" alongside Jason Whitlock for a short period.
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Chris Spielman A former NFL All-Pro, Spielman worked at ESPN for years but now has a gig as a game analyst for Fox NFL.
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Shannon Spake An experienced sidelines reporter, Spake hustled for ESPN for 10 years but switched to Fox in 2016 where she covers NASCAR, college football and basketball.
Rob Parker The former member of ESPN's "First Take" followed Bayless to his new show, "Undisputed," where he appears as a regular panelist, along with co-hosting "The Odd Couple" with Broussard.
Emmanuel Acho After serving as a college football analyst for ESPN's Longhorn Network and ESPN2 for a couple of years, Acho joined FS1 in 2020 to co-host "Speak for Yourself."
Adam Amin Amin, who moonlights as the Chicago Bulls' play-by-play announcer, left ESPN for Fox Sports in May 2020. Amin will call NFL games with fellow former ESPN-er Mark Schlereth this season.
Erin Andrews Andrews has been with Fox Sports since 2012, following eight years with ESPN. She often gets the most high-profile sideline reporting gigs, including the Super Bowl and World Series.
Lindsay Czarniak Czarniak left ESPN in 2017 and resurfaced at Fox two years later, where she hosts studio coverage for NASCAR and does sideline reporting duty for NFL games as part of the Amin-Schlereth broadcast team.
JP Dellacamera Dellacamera followed soccer when World Cup rights moved from ESPN to Fox starting in 2018.
Mike Hill Hill left ESPN for Fox in 2013 during the early days of FS1, where he guest-hosted "Fox Sports Live" and "Fox Football Daily." He currently hosts "The Mike and Donny Show" for Fox Soul.
Alexi Lalas As with Dellacamera, Lalas followed the World Cup from ESPN to Fox.
Rob Stone Another soccer defector, Stone also hosts college football and Professional Bowlers' Association coverage.
Charissa Thompson Thompson was among FS1's debut hosts in 2013 with the short-lived "Fox Sports Live." She currently hosts' Fox pre pre-game NFL show "Fox NFL Kickoff."
Sara Walsh Walsh left ESPN in 2017 and joined Fox a year later, where she serves as an NFL reporter and a studio host for NASCAR coverage.
Kevin Wildes A longtime producer for ESPN, Wildes stepped in front of the camera when he moved to Fox in early 2020. He appears on FS1's morning show, "First Things First."
Marcellus Wiley Wiley joined “Speak for Yourself” in September 2018 following years as part of ESPN's NFL coverage.
Joe Davis Known as "the guy who had to replace Vin Scully" calling Los Angeles Dodgers games, Davis had a brief two-year run with ESPN and now does play-by-play work for MLB and NFL games on Fox.
Mark Schlereth Schlereth was a mainstay on ESPN's "NFL Live" but will now get to show his broadcasting chops on Fox this season.
Brock Huard Huard had a variety of TV and radio gigs with ESPN, and joined Fox's College Football team in 2019.
Jonathan Vilma The former New Orleans Saints linebacker joined Fox in June 2020 to work on its NFL games after a few years as part of ESPN's college football crew.
Cris Carter Carter first joined Fox Sports in 2016 and had hosted "First Things First," alongside Nick Wright since 2017, but it was a short tenure. He left Fox Sports in late 2019, reportedly after he had an outburst with higher-ups over not being part of the network's "Thursday Night Football" coverage.
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Jamie Horowitz Initially a splashy hire that might have been responsible for many of these talent defections, his Fox tenure came to an unglamorous end when he was fired in 2017 over claims of sexual harassment. He has since landed at DAZN, which is led by former ESPN boss John Skipper.
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Jason Whitlock Speaking of Whitlock, the ex-ESPN sportswriter's tenure with FS1 came to end in 2020 when the two couldn't agree on a new contract. He has since resurfaced at Clay Travis' Outkick The Coverage.
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Tom Rinaldi Tom Rinaldi, who has won 16 Sports Emmy Awards and seven Edward R. Murrow Awards, has covered every major sporting event in his impressive career. Rinaldi is perhaps best known as the storyteller and interviewer at golf major The Masters.
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Many big names have bailed for an archrival in the battle for TV sports supremacy
ESPN may be synonymous with sports, but plenty of stars have added Fox Sports to their resume. Have a look at some the big names.