Fox to use 5 commentary teams at Women’s World Cup

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fox will use five commentary crews for its broadcast of this year’s Women’s World Cup, basing two teams in France and the others in its Los Angeles studio.

JP Dellacamera and former national team midfielder Aly Wagner were announced last month as the lead team for the tournament, which runs from June 7 to July 7. The others, announced Thursday, are Derek Rae and Danielle Slaton, Jenn Hildreth and Kyndra de St. Aubin, Glenn Davis and Angela Hucles, and Lisa Byington and Cat Whithill.

Four of the five analysts are former U.S. national team players with the exception of de St. Aubin, who calls Minnesota United MLS matches. The Dellacamera-Wagner and Rae-Slaton teams will broadcast on site from stadiums.

Fox started with two crews at last year’s men’s tournament in Russia and four in Los Angeles, then shifted the Rae-Wagner pairing to Russia for the knockout phase. Fox called 33 of the 64 men’s games from stadiums, including all but one during the knockout phase.

Rob Stone and Kate Abdo will anchor studio coverage, as they did during the men’s World Cup.

Studio analysts include former U.S. players Alexi Lalas, Heather O’Reilly, Leslie Osborne and Christie Pearce Rampone, along with several current and former players from other nations: Eniola Aluko and Kelly Smith of England, Kate Gill of Australia, Ariane Hingst of Germany and Karina LeBlanc of Canada.

Twenty-two matches will be on Fox, 27 on FS1 and three on FS2.

Fox also is televising the men’s CONCACAF Gold Cup and will have a day-night doubleheader on July 7, with the women’s final from Lyon followed by the CONCACAF final from Chicago. John Strong and Stu Holden, Fox’s lead broadcast team at last year’s World Cup, is likely to be the network’s primary team for the Gold Cup.

The final of the Copa America also is July 7, in Rio de Janeiro, with ESPN negotiating to acquire U.S. English-language TV rights for that tournament.

NBC sister network Telemundo has U.S. Spanish-language TV rights to the Women’s World Cup and the Copa America, and Andres Cantor will be chief commentator for both tournaments, attending both opening matches and broadcasting partly on site and partly from the network’s Miami studio. Univision has U.S. Spanish-language TV rights to the Gold Cup.