"Wow, it’s really here," Rebecca Lowe said as she stepped into Fox Sports' World Cup studio on opening day, taking the network's lead role as the 23rd World Cup kicked off and the first match got under way in Mexico City.
Lowe will steer Fox Sports' on-air soccer coverage across 104 games and 48 teams through the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, appearing live from SoFi Stadium alongside Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas as the tournament opened. She framed her job simply: welcome people in.
"The thought on opening day, I think Dominic, is to remember who this audience is," Lowe said, arguing the opening slate brings sports fans, non-sports fans and people tuning in at a friend's house. "I want to try and welcome everyone in and begin to sell the Beautiful Game." That push matters because Fox must carry a very mixed, continental audience through more than three months of matches.
The scale gives the host and the coverage room for swing: 104 games across North America guarantees constant appointment viewing, and Lowe leaned into that momentum, saying familiar early moments will calm the pre-tournament negativity around big events. "The first kickoff between Mexico and South Africa would make the negativity dissipate," she said, adding that past skepticism around major tournaments tends to vanish once play begins.
Her presence on Fox is also the endpoint of a clear career move: Lowe shifted from NBC Sports to Fox for this World Cup after nearly 15 years broadcasting soccer in America and earlier tournament experience that includes the 2006 World Cup and seven Olympic Games. That resume is part of why Fox placed her at the center of its multiplatform push as the tournament moves from Mexico City to Los Angeles tomorrow.
Lowe did not shy away from picking favorites. She said England "should be able to win the World Cup" — pointing to back-to-back European Championship finals and a momentum that, she argued, survived the cruel exit in Qatar in 2022. At the same time she offered an unvarnished caveat: she is nervous about England's defense and their center-half situation, and the team's big games against France or similar opponents will reveal whether confidence matches capability.
She put England in a short list of real threats — naming France, Spain, Argentina and what she called a revamped Brazil — and mixed optimism with blunt appetite: "Because of the law of averages. It's about bloody time. We've got to win this thing." That blend of boosterism and critique is the tone Lowe set for viewers who want both celebration and a realistic ledger.
Lowe also made clear where her sympathies lie this summer. "I love the U.S. I love them. I really want them to do well, and I'm convinced that they will do well if they win their first game," she said, tying early results to a narrative arc that Fox will be narrating across dozens of matches. The network's coverage, anchored by Lowe, will have to balance hometown hopes with the global sweep of favored teams and fractured storylines.
Controversy has shadowed the tournament's lead-up — complaints over politics, governing bodies and ticket pricing — but Lowe's immediate task is practical: to turn a sprawling schedule into a place people feel welcome, whether they're already obsessed or just curious. The unanswered, decisive question she left on the table is concrete: can England fix its defensive doubts and convert expectation into a title? Lowe's answer is a conditional yes — confident enough to back them, honest enough to worry.
Fox's coverage continues through the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, and Lowe will be there, guiding that daily conversation. If England solve the center‑half problem, Lowe's optimism looks prescient; if they do not, her nervousness will have proved the better forecast.
