Fox will be hoping that their successful “Summer of Soccer” continues into fall, as they announced Thursday that they’ve landed the broadcast and streaming rights for the Oct. 10 “CONCACAF Cup” game between the U.S. men’s national team and Mexico. The game, which will take place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, is a winner-takes-all playoff to determine CONCACAF’s berth in the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia; the U.S. and Mexico are involved because they won the 2013 and 2015 Gold Cups, or CONCACAF championships, respectively. The Confederations Cup itself, which is always held a year before the World Cup in the same country, isn’t always seen as that significant in its own right, but it can be an important warmup for the World Cup the following year and a chance to get acclimatized to conditions in that host country. Fox will certainly be hoping that the stakes, and the traditional U.S.-Mexico rivalry, will get viewers to tune in to FS1 and Fox Sports Go in significant numbers.
The broadcast will air on the channel formerly known as Fox Sports 1 on Oct. 10, and it will start at 8:00 p.m. Eastern with a 90-minute pre-game show, hosted by Rob Stone from two live-on-location sets. Analysts will include former U.S. players Alexi Lalas, Landon Donovan, Brad Friedel and Eric Wynalda, former Mexican player Mariano Trujillo, and Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl. Julie Stewart-Binks will serve as the reporter. The game itself begins at 9:30 p.m. Eastern and will be called by John Strong, with former U.S. player Stu Holden serving as the color analyst, Wahl reporting from the U.S. sideline and Francisco X. Rivera reporting from the Mexican sideline.
Fox is billing this as “the beginning of FOX Sports’ Road to Russia, and the network’s coverage of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018,” and it will be interesting to see if viewers treat it that way. On its own, this match isn’t necessarily that important, as it doesn’t have any actual implications for CONCACAF World Cup qualifying (which both the U.S. and Mexico will begin in November, thanks to receiving byes into the fifth round). It could mark a useful barometer for both programs, though; many U.S. fans weren’t thrilled with the country’s fourth-place finish at this year’s Gold Cup, and Mexico fired its coach after their win in that tournament thanks to a subsequent altercation with a reporter. Add that to the always-intense soccer rivalry between the countries, and this could be a memorable one. We’ll see how it does for Fox.
