NBC names soccer commentators for Olympic Games in Tokyo

NBC Olympics have named its soccer commentary team for the Tokyo Olympics, which opens competition on July 21 on the networks of NBCUniversal.

Among the commentators are NBC Sports’ Premier League voices Arlo White, Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe, and Tim Howard. Meanwhile, Rebecca Lowe will be the host of NBC’s daytime Olympic coverage.

Following is a look at NBC Olympics’ soccer commentating team for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics:

Arlo White returns to NBC Olympics coverage to handle play-by-play for U.S. Women’s games, as well as the women’s gold medal match and men’s gold medal match in Tokyo. White called soccer for NBC Olympics at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2012 London Olympics. He has served as the lead play-by-play voice for NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage since the network acquired the exclusive U.S. media rights beginning with the 2013-14 season.

Julie Foudy will serve as an analyst for U.S. Women’s games and the women’s gold medal match in Tokyo. Foudy, who worked as an NBC Olympics reporter at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games, won two Olympic gold medals as a midfielder on the U.S. Women’s National Team (1996 and 2004) and a silver in 2000, and captured two FIFA World Cup championships (1991, 1999). She is currently a soccer commentator for ESPN.

SEE MORE: Olympics soccer schedule and TV guide

Marisa Pilla makes her NBC Olympics debut as a reporter for U.S. Women’s games and the women’s gold medal match in Tokyo. Pilla currently serves as a sideline reporter covering MLS for Fox Sports and the NWSL for CBS Sports.

Handling men’s and women’s soccer play-by-play from NBC Sports Group’s International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., will be Lisa Byington, Mark Followill, Jenn Hildreth, and Derek Rae.

Lisa Byington, who makes her NBC Olympics debut, serves as a play-by-play announcer and reporter for the Fox Sports, Big Ten Network, CBS and Turner Sports. This past March, she became the first female play-by-play announcer to call the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. She has also handled play-by-play for NBA games. In August 2018, Byington was part of the first all-female broadcast team to call an MLS match. A soccer and basketball player at Northwestern University, she also called 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup games for Fox Sports.

 

Mark Followill returns for his second NBC Olympics assignment handling soccer play-by-play, after calling Rio 2016 matches. Followill currently handles play-by-play for FOX Sports’ soccer coverage, including MLS and CONCACAF Gold Cup matches, and worked the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He is also the play-by-play voice for the Dallas Mavericks and FC Dallas.

Jenn Hildreth, who makes her NBC Olympics debut, is a play-by-play announcer at ESPN for various sports, including college soccer, and has called the last five NCAA Women’s College Cup championships. She is also a play-by-play announcer for the NWSL on CBS Sports after serving in the same capacity previously for ESPN, Lifetime and FS1. Hildreth, who played college soccer at Emory, also called 2019 and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup matches for FOX Sports.

Derek Rae makes his NBC Olympics debut this summer. He currently serves as ESPN’s lead play-by-play announcer for Bundesliga coverage and has called multiple FIFA World Cups (men’s and women’s) and UEFA Champions League competitions. Previously, Rae called matches and hosted studio coverage of the Premier League for NBC Sports and in the U.K.

Soccer analysts based in NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford include Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe, Tim Howard, Angela Hucles, Lori Lindsey, and Danielle Slaton.

Robbie Earle joined NBC Sports as a Premier League analyst in August 2013 and worked on NBC Olympics’ soccer coverage for Rio 2016. A former Jamaica National Team and Premier League player, Earle previously worked as an analyst on NBC Sports’ Major League Soccer coverage and as an analyst for BBC, ITV, Sky, Portland Timbers and ESPN. He scored Jamaica’s first-ever World Cup goal, at the 1998 tournament in France.

Robbie Mustoe joined NBC Sports as a Premier League analyst in August 2013 and worked on NBC Olympics’ soccer coverage for Rio 2016. A former Premier League midfielder, he previously worked as an analyst on NBC Sports’ MLS coverage. In 2010, Mustoe served as a match analyst on ESPN’s presentation of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Mustoe spent the majority of his playing career with English club Middlesbrough, for whom he made more than 450 appearances.

Tim Howard re-joined NBC Sports as an analyst in August 2020, and makes his NBC Olympics debut this summer. In a two decade career as a goalkeeper, Howard played for Manchester United (2003-06) and Everton (2006-16) in the Premier League, as well as for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer. The U.S. Men’s National Team’s most-capped goalkeeper with 121 appearances, he set a FIFA World Cup record with 16 saves in the United States’ 2-1 loss to Belgium in the 2014 World Cup Round of 16. In 2000, Howard made the U.S. Olympic Team for the Sydney Games.

Angela Hucles returns for her third NBC Olympics assignment as a soccer analyst. In the prior two Olympics – 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing – she was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s team, scoring a team-high four goals in 2008. A USWNT midfielder from 2002-09, Hucles also served as an analyst for Fox Sports’ coverage of the 2019 and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup for FOX, and as an NWSL analyst for ESPN.

Lori Lindsey makes her NBC Olympics debut this summer. Currently an NWSL analyst for CBS Sports, she made 31 career appearances as a midfielder for the USWNT from 2005-13, who helped the team to a 2012 London Olympics gold, and earned a silver medal in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Danielle Slaton, who was a member of the U.S. women’s team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, returns as an NBC Olympics analyst after serving in the same role for Rio 2016. Currently an MLS match analyst for FOX Sports, Slaton has spent more than a decade in broadcasting, previously working for the Big Ten Network, Pac-12 Networks and NBC Sports Chicago.

 

“Soccer is one of the first Olympic events to take the field, and we will be ready to hit the ground running with an all-star team featuring our Premier League voices joined by a veteran group of announcers with Olympic, World Cup and professional soccer experience,” said Rebecca Chatman, Vice President and Coordinating Producer of NBC Olympics production.