Women’s World Cup commentators for Group Stage (FOX Sports)

28 Comments

1. 

   Michael Cleveland

   July 6, 2019 at 12:18 pm

   Never mind the jinx, tjey all talk too damn much and sometimes forget to concentrate on the field. Like right now in the bronze match. Jeez, shut up.

   Reply
2. 

   A1750

   July 4, 2019 at 1:43 pm

   Okay, all seriousness aside, can I just say I’m tired of the commenting on redonkulous statistics that immediately jinx us? “The US hasn’t been scored on in 600+ minutes”, 5 seconds later, BAM!, we get scored on. “The US hasn’t lost a game when Alex Morgan scores”; well, that one we didn’t get jinxed on, but everytime that man opens his mouth on a statistic, he jinxes that particular team and it seems the US is on the top of his list. WTH? I know this is an all important point, so I think FS1 should consider my request to refrain from further jinxing our team…just saying.

   Reply
3. 

   Oliver Tse

   June 21, 2019 at 2:27 pm

   Approaching 21:00 in Paris and FOX still hasn’t announced which announcers will call which Round of 16 matches.

   These are my GUESSES (they are ONLY guesses so I can be wrong):

   Germany vs Nigeria – Rae & Slaton (at Grenoble)
   Norway vs Australia – Hildreth & de St. Aubin

   England vs Cameroon – Rae & Slaton (at Valenciennes)
   France vs Brazil – JP & Wagner (they can remain at Le Havre after Sweden vs USA)

   Spain vs USA – JP & Wagner (at Reims)
   Sweden vs Canada – Hildreth & de St. Aubin

   Italy vs China – Hildreth & de St. Aubin
   Netherlands vs Japan – Rae & Slaton (at Rennes)

   As for the quarterfinals:

   W37 (GER/NGA) vs W39 (ENG/CMR) – Rae & Slaton (at Grenoble)

   W40 (FRA/BRA) vs W41 (ESP/USA) – JP & Wagner (at Paris)

   W43 (ITA/CHN) vs W44 (NED/JPN) – Rae & Slaton (at Valenciennes)
   W38 (NOR/AUS) vs W42 (SWE/CAN) – JP & Wagner (at Rennes)

   JP & Aly Wagner will call both semifinals, and final from Lyon.

   Don’t know about 3rd place match which will be in Nice.

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4. 

   Oliver Tse

   June 19, 2019 at 5:12 pm

   Still have no idea why Glenn Davis went home to Houston after his 4th match last Thursday.

   Byington and Whitehill called CAN-NZL last Saturday.

   Hildreth and de St. Aubin are calling 4 matches in 5 days during the final match day of group stage, including 2 matches on Monday.

   Angela Hucles has been switched to studio duty. Hucles gave Rampone a night off on Tuesday.

   Expecting Rae and Slaton to get the Germany match on Saturday despite the added travel, as the match will be in Grenoble (Rae and Slaton are supposed to get the France match on Sunday in Le Havre)

   FOX can’t be that stubborn to leave Byington in the line of fire to call yet another Germany match knowing that she has already mispronounced half a dozen German names including the name of the head coach . Byington in 2019 was just like JP was in 1994 in terms of mispronouncing names left and right to the point where she has turned the sound booth into SuperFund cleanup site.

   JP and Wagner are supposed to get the England match on Sunday followed by Spain vs USA on Monday.

   That would leave Hildreth & de St. Aubin with Norway vs Australia on Saturday, E2 vs F2 on Monday, and Italy vs A3 or B3 on Tuesday before they go home.

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5. 

   Charles T,

   June 18, 2019 at 2:21 pm

   Still can’t hardly hear the commentators on the women’s World Cup, what’s going on!

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6. 

   CTBlues

   June 18, 2019 at 12:20 pm

   Why isn’t this article pinned to the top of the list of stories?

   Reply
7. 

   Oliver Tse

   June 18, 2019 at 9:30 am

   TV station changes for Tuesday 6/18 and Wednesday 6/19:

   FOX broadcast network will NOT be used.

   Italy v Brazil and Japan vs England will be on FS1

   Jamaica v Australia and Scotland v Argentina will be on FS2. Both FS2 matches will be called by Jenn Hildreth and Kyndra de St. Aubin.

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8. 

   Oliver Tse

   June 18, 2019 at 9:26 am

   FOX Sports has made commentator lineup changes after Glenn Davis appears to have returned home to Houston. Don’t know the reason.

   Lisa Byington and Cat Whitehill called Canada vs New Zealand on Saturday 6/15 with Ken Neal as the producer of the “off tube” broadcast on FS2 from Los Angeles. The half-time studio segment from Paris was pre-recorded. There was no pre-match studio show and the broadcast started at 2:50pm ET, 10 minutes prior to kickoff.

   Jenn Hildreth and Kyndra de St. Aubin called Republic of Korea vs Norway on Monday 6/17 and will call Scotland vs Argentina on Wednesday 6/19.

   Angela Hucles lives in LA and appeared in studio on Sunday 6/16.

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9. 

   Eugene McGrath

   June 15, 2019 at 12:18 pm

   Once again Fox Sports proves it is unsuited to cover world sports events. From the clueless announcers to the poor reception from certain venues.
   Announcers not at the sites!!
   To top it off they put the Canada/New Zealand Game on hard to get FX2, and put NASCAR practice!!! on FX1

   Reply
   • 

     JM

     June 18, 2019 at 2:40 pm

     FX and FXX are owned by Disney now. You mean FS1 and FS2?

     Reply
10. 

    nosferatu

    June 8, 2019 at 5:15 am

    Has anyone else tried out any of the Fox Sports apps for coverage? In terms of replays, so far it’s useless–or beyond that, I might say.

    – The Fox Sports app on the Roku has a handful of replays of random games from this week up, such as the USMNT v Jamaica friendly, but not yet the France-Korea replay. I experienced similar frustration trying to watch replays from the men’s U-20 World Cup. Some replays would be on there, some wouldn’t–it seemed completely random. I wanted to watch the U.S. v France game in HD on there (since FS2 is in standard def on Spectrum) but it never showed up.

    – On FoxSports.com, if you try to watch the replay–it’s listed under the replays section–the video box comes up with the team logos but you can’t watch it. It says simply, “This Program Has Concluded.” Well, yeah, that’s why I’m here to watch the replay!

    – Finally, I tried via the Fox Sports and Fox Sports GO apps on my iPad. First off, if you go straight through the Fox Sports app, you’re bombarded by a front page full of scores and spoilers from any number of events, including the one you’re trying to watch a replay of. So I next tried the old Fox Sports GO app. Straight to the replays page, okay, good. But you can’t watch the replay there–it’ll redirect you to the Fox Sports app. Okay, no problem. Except…then on the Fox Sports app it said the replay was unavailable and then showed in the background the recap page for the game, including the score front and center. Not like it was a real spoiler after watching the first half hour on TV, but still.

    The people who run things at that network–at every level–seem utterly clueless.

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    • 

      Mark Holle

      June 12, 2019 at 10:05 am

      I found the same thing with the Fox apps. It looks like they might not have rights to replay completed games on-demand until a certain time point. I have been using my cable channels to watch the live and completed games that I miss due to work. Are there others who are having problems with the audio of the commentators??

      Reply
11. 

    FIFATV

    June 8, 2019 at 5:00 am

    For those who are keeping track of play-by-play commentator Jacqui Oatley (including the “top dogs” at NBC Sports Group i.e. Pierre Moossa):

    Oatley will be based in Rennes through June 29 and she will call 7 matches for Host Broadcast Services (HBS). Several broadcasters in CONCACAF including The Sports Network (TSN) in Canada are taking HBS world feeds straight through.

    Germany vs China PR June 8
    Chile vs Sweden June 11
    Japan vs Scotland June 14
    Nigeria vs France June 17
    Thailand vs Chile June 20
    Round of 16: E1 vs D2 June 25
    Quarterfinal: W38 vs W42 June 29

    Clips for all 7 matches will be available on the FIFATV channel on YouTube for worldwide distribution with no geographical restrictions.

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12. 

    joe

    June 7, 2019 at 10:46 pm

    Seriously dude, have a few beers and relax. Saw the pre-cup show the other night and they had Fiora on phone and there was zero silliness (unlike last year). Sounds like typical anti-us voice criticism. Fully understand criticism of Fox in past but from what I’ve seen they’ve done a 180 so far.
    Who the hell cares if Rae calls the Scottish match? Perhaps he may have heard of Lyttle but doubtful anyone else, you are seriously reaching before the damn tournament even starts,

    Reply
    • 

      Azer

      June 8, 2019 at 6:18 pm

      My criticism is towards the commentary only. I don’t care about the pre-game show as it is filled with commercials anyway. I can find expert analyses somewhere else. I was watching highlights on YouTube from FIFATV and the difference between the Fox crew and the world feed is enormous. Jacqui Oatley’s voice is incredible/beautiful. I wish I can listen to her commentary for 90 + minutes. All the others are incredible as well. I have a list of all their names. Americans don’t have a clue commentating on the beautiful game. Shame on Fox Sports, a bunch of idiots.

      Reply
      • 

        Butch Cassidy

        June 10, 2019 at 4:11 pm

        Americans don’t really care about the ‘beautiful game’. We fake it once every four years for some strange reason. Your envious nature is very telling that you are empty and void inside.

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13. 

    Azer

    June 7, 2019 at 1:23 pm

    Talent, What talent? words have meaning. Derek Rae is the only talented one, born in Scotland and Fox is refusing to assign him to the England vs Scotland game on Sunday. We’ve seen this play out last year and people are still talking about the disaster. Imagine if Mexico qualified, Jorge Perez Navarro would be doing commentary, remember him. This is not the MLS, It’s the World Cup we’re talking about.

    Reply
14. 

    joe

    June 7, 2019 at 6:28 am

    Aly, JP, Derek Rae and plenty of other talent, relax and watch the games and stop bitching about what you’re not getting. Seriously-enjoy the cup.

    Reply
15. 

    Azer

    June 7, 2019 at 12:18 am

    Jacqueline Oatley, English Sports broadcaster will be a commentator on the world feed for the 2019 Women’s World Cup. A very experienced football journalist. Sadly, viewers in the USA will not be able to listen to her commentary. Fox Sports hired Lisa Byington to their lineup. What in the world does she know about football/soccer? Answer: Absolutely nothing. Get ready people, the comedy starts on Friday with the opening game. Who needs SNL when you have this? What an embarrassment.

    Reply
    • 

      JR

      June 7, 2019 at 8:42 am

      I don’t know how well versed Lisa Byington is on the teams and players of the women’s international game. But she did play college soccer at a high level, so she should at least be familiar with nuances of the game. I’m sure she’s prepared, but will her lack of reps doing soccer play by play lead to comedy? Azer says yes. I’ll wait and see.

      Reply
    • 

      Oliver Tse

      June 7, 2019 at 7:39 pm

      We’ll find out soon enough whether Lisa Byington will be able to adjust to calling International “futbol” after spending the last 9 years calling women’s college soccer (Big Ten Network) and NWSL (Chicago Red Stars in 2015-2016 seasons) play-by-play.

      FOX has slotted Byington on the #4 team, behind JP, Derek Rae, and Jenn Hildreth, all of whom have more experience than Byington. David Neal hired Byington specifically to replace Justin Kutcher who was the #4 pxp man for FOX during FIFA WWC 2015. (Derek Rae essentially replaced John Strong as Danielle Slaton’s pxp partner in 2019. Strong remains the #1 soccer pxp man at FOX and will call the CONCACAF Gold Cup instead.)

      FOX broadcast teams for WWC 2015:

      1. JP, Tony DiCicco (who passed away in 2017), Cat Whitehill
      2. Jenn Hildreth, Kyndra de St. Aubin
      3. John Strong, Danielle Slaton
      4. Justin Kutcher, Aly Wagner
      5. Glenn Davis, Christine Lanham (mostly matches involving Canada)

      FOX broadcast teams for WWC 2019

      1. JP, Aly Wagner
      2. Derek Rae, Danielle Slaton
      3. Jenn Hildreth, Kyndra de St. Aubin
      4. Lisa Byington, Cat Whitehill
      5. Glenn Davis, Angela Hucles

      Essentially, Wagner and Whitehill traded places in the depth chart (and rightfully so), Rae replaced Strong, and Byington replaced Kutcher. There was no need for Lanham in 2019 as matches are not played in Canada.

      FOX was evaluating Francisco X. Rivera as the replacement for Jorge Perez-Navarro if Mexico had qualified for the WWC. Rivera called one FIFA U20 WWC match involving Mexico in August 2018 (with Kyndra de St. Aubin as partner on an early Sunday morning after de St. Aubin finished calling a Minnesota United FC match in LA on Saturday night.) One would expect FOX to deploy Rivera during CONCACAF Gold Cup.

      Byington has much bigger fish to fry. How big? Try NFL Super Bowl 54. One should expect FOX to have multiple audio feeds for Super Bowl 54, with an all-female booth on either FS1 or FS2 featuring Byington calling play-by-play, and one of these women as her analyst/co-commentator partner in the booth: Pam Oliver, Jennifer Hale, or Laura Okmin. The likes of Eric Shanks, John Entz, and Mark Silverman will NOT pass on this opportunity. Why not? Because they know that NBC Sunday Night Football executive producer Fred Gaudelli has Andrea Kremer lined up for Super Bowl 56.

      —

      The one thing I notice of Byington’s work over the years: she likes to use American soccer coaching jargon i.e. “up top” instead of the much more superior “up front” to refer to strikers. That could get her in trouble if she doesn’t adjust, as the audience for International matches are much tougher than the friends and family that watch Big Ten Women’s College Soccer.

      Byington will call Germany vs China “off tube” for FS1 from L.A.

      Guess who is calling Germany vs China ON SITE for Host Broadcast Services (HBS)?

      Jacqui Oatley.

      Oatley will call all 7 matches from Rennes ON SITE. You will be able to find those video clips via the “FIFATV” account on YouTube.

      Your chance to “compare and contrast” Jacqui Oatley and Lisa Byington will come early on Saturday morning.

      Reply
16. 

    Azer

    June 6, 2019 at 12:00 am

    Fox Sports is doing a lot of cost cutting by having ”commentators” in the LA studio instead in the stadium in France. I’m guessing TSN in Canada is using the world feed. Fox didn’t learn anything from the disaster last year. When it comes to covering the beautiful game Fox is telling us, no experience is necessary. Shame on them.

    Reply
    • 

      Oliver Tse

      June 6, 2019 at 6:24 pm

      TSN’s French-language sister network RDS in Canada will only have 30 FIFA WWC matches.

      Claudine Douville and Jean Gounelle will call all of them “off tube” from Montreal.

      I expect both Douville and Gounelle to pick FRANCE to win.

      —

      For you idiots who love to complain about Alexi Lalas on FOX: Lalas plays the most important role at the studio pundit’s desk: he is willing to wear the “Black Hat” by saying the 1 thing that the likes of Heather O’Reilly, Christie Pierce Rampone, or Leslie Osborne (Lewis) cannot say due to the extremely political nature of women’s soccer in the US.

      Lalas is picking France to win the Women’s World Cup, Furthermore, Lalas is predicting that France will oust the USWNT in the quarterfinals, which will be played at (Jurassic) Parc des Prince in Paris.

      Reply
    • 

      Butch Cassidy

      June 10, 2019 at 4:26 pm

      The Beautiful Game. What a bleeping joke! Fake injuries and scoreless ties….Beautiful.

      Reply
17. 

    JohnBoy58

    June 5, 2019 at 12:32 pm

    Who cares? Hardly anyone will be watching it anyway.

    Reply
    • 

      F⚽⚽tball rules the W⚽rld

      June 5, 2019 at 1:22 pm

      Party ?er!

      Reply
18. 

    Lawrence Dockery

    June 5, 2019 at 9:20 am

    I just wish they had given Derek Rae the gig for England/Scotland. I feel like that would have been super cool.

    Reply
19. 

    Daniel Ormsby

    June 5, 2019 at 12:01 am

    There are a couple of things we have to clarify with Fox. On their commentary release they show June 18 & June 19 to be Fox & FS1 instead of FS1 & FS2. Additionally they add Jenny Taft as a second US reporter for the second and third group stage matches.

    Reply