A FOX Sports executive predicts that United States against England may rank as one of the top five most-watched soccer games ever in the history of US television.
Black Friday’s World Cup game airs live on FOX at 2PM ET. The Friday, November 25th match is on the day after Thanksgiving Day when most Americans are off work.
Why US-England could rank as top 5 biggest game
Speaking to Sports Video Group, here’s what FOX Sports executive producer David Neal said:
“If the United States wins its first group game, which they should. It’s against Wales.
“If the US comes in at one and 0, and assuming England will do as well, that has the potential to be one of the top 5 most-watched soccer games in US television history, and that’s just a group stage game.”
Team USA faces Wales on Monday, November 21st. In order for England-USA to break into the top five of the most-watched games, FOX Sports will have to attract a lot of casual viewers. Therefore, it’s imperative that the United States gets a win against Wales in order to create momentum going into the game against England.
Among soccer diehards, the challenge that FOX Sports has is that the morale for the USA team is quite low with coach Gregg Berhalter underwhelming a lot of US fans.
Top 5 most-watched soccer games on US TV (English-language)
| Teams | Tournament | Viewers |
|---|---|---|
| 1. USA vs Japan | 2015 Women’s World Cup Final | 25,400,000 |
| 2. USA vs Portugal | 2014 World Cup | 18,220,000 |
| 3. USA vs China | 1999 Women’s World Cup Final | 17,975,000 |
| 4. Argentina vs Germany | 2014 World Cup Final | 17,324,000 |
| 5. USA vs Belgium | 2014 World Cup | 16,941,000 |
Can US-England rank as one of the top five biggest games ever? Share your opinions in the comments section below.
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JP
October 3, 2022 at 10:27 am
1st of all, it’s amazing the 1999 women’s final still ranks so highly and is almost on par with the 2 matches above it. If we weighed it with metrics like overall soccer awareness, popularity of USWMNT at the time (compared to now), etc would probably be shown to be even more impressive (culturally and raw numbers) than the other matches.
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The two USMNT matches on the top 5 were both in the summer (definitely recall the Portugal match was a weekend afternoon) and good time zone with the tournament being in Brazil (definitely recall the Belgium match being live for a large portion after getting out of work, EST).
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With this being in the November, going up against Black Friday college football, college basketball, NHL hockey (matinee game with Boston and Carolina) instead of having the sports calendar to itself, doubt it will top the list. Also have to contend with people going out shopping or even just being distracted on Amazon looking for deals.
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In order to reach the numbers or exceed the numbers on this list, must grab all the casual sports fans. With so much competition as mentioned above, plus some being turned off that it’s in Qatar, will be difficult.
Andy
October 3, 2022 at 10:02 am
US isn’t beating Wales. For generic sports fans that may seem like an automatic win for the US, but the reality is that Wales are a more veteran team who play better together than the US do. In a team sport so massively dependent on team cohesiveness the US will struggle. Good young talent, terrible team. So that England game might get a decent number but the US won’t put up a good showing.
jason
October 3, 2022 at 10:22 am
@Andy That is harsh to say that. USA has better talent than Wales and Iran straight up. Now Berhalter is quite capable of messing that up due to his “system”. I’ll give you that. Makes me want to listen to Tom Macdonald’s song called “The System” now..he he
Michael F
October 3, 2022 at 12:54 pm
@Andy Thought the same thing. Very presumptuous for Fox executive producer David Neal to say USA ‘should’ beat Wales… like it’s an automatic. But he’s just saying that to hopefully capture more viewers.
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I believe Wales is more a favorite in that matchup, and it’s more an upset if USA wins vs Wales.
John D
October 2, 2022 at 1:52 am
Absolutely not. Being a loyal USA Men’s Team supporter I believe it’s inevitable that the USA will someday join that exclusive fraternity of just eight countries that have won a World Cup. Unfortunately it will not be in the year 2022. It should be a piece of cake to advance out of our group as the bookies have Wales at 200-1 and Iran at 500-1 and we are loaded with incredible, young talent. Unfortunately we are saddled with a coach (Greg Berhalter) who is clueless on how to use said talent. He has killed any thought of emulating Croatia and should be fired immediately so we can have a deep run on home soil in 2026. We beat England in 1950 and Rob Green gave us a huge gift in 2010 but in 2022 England will make us look like amateurs. It will truly be Black Friday for loyal Americans.
Leo
October 2, 2022 at 10:33 am
England 2022 is in the 2nd division of UEFA, they are awful (but still should qualify). Wales and Iran are not trash like CONCACAF teams. I think USA won’t make it.
jason
October 3, 2022 at 10:24 am
With the current players on the USA, they are quarter or even semi final capable in the World Cup. They need a good manager to get them to that next level which is what they don’t have now.
Buckles
October 1, 2022 at 7:34 pm
Absolutely could. I think it will be over 30 million viewers. I also agree the number will be higher if the US wins their first game against Wales which will be no easy task.
Andy
October 3, 2022 at 10:05 am
They won’t win the first, second or third game. It’s going to be a massive embarrassment for US soccer. They’ll be lucky to hold someone to a 0-0 draw.