Dellacamera, Wagner Fox’s lead team for Women’s World Cup
LOS ANGELES (AP) — JP Dellacamera and former U.S. midfielder Aly Wagner will be Fox's lead broadcast team for the Women's World Cup.
Making its announcement 100 days before the tournament opens June 7 with a matchup of France and South Korea, Fox said Wednesday that 22 matches will be broadcast on the main Fox network, 27 on FS1 and three on FS2.
Fox's Paris studio will be in the Palais Chaillot at the Cafe de l'Homme at the Trocadero, with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
The U.S. is defending champion at the Women's World Cup and will play Thailand on June 11 at 3 p.m. EDT, Chile five days later at noon and Sweden on June 20 at 3 p.m.
This will be the 15th World Cup on television and radio for the 67-year-old Dellacamera, including five women's tournaments. It's the third for the 38-year Wagner, including her second women's tournament.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Wagner became the first woman to broadcast an English-language men's World Cup last year, when she was paired with Derek Rae. They called 10 group stage matches from Fox's Los Angeles studio before traveling to Russia for a pair of round of 16 games and the England-Sweden quarterfinal.
Dellacamera was paired with former U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola in Russia, broadcasting nine games during the group stage, two in the round of 16, the Uruguay-France quarterfinal and the Belgium-England third-place match.
Fox is planning more than 800 hours of broadcast and digital coverage, including two daily studio shows in Paris and a late-night show from Los Angeles that will cover both the women's tournament and the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the regional men's championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean that opens June 15.
Fox also is televising the Gold Cup and will have a day-night doubleheader on July 7, with the women's final from Lyon at 11 a.m. EDT and the CONCACAF final from Chicago later in the day. John Strong and Stu Holden, Fox's lead broadcast team at last year's World Cup, is likely to be the network's primary team for the Gold Cup.
The final of the Copa America also is July 7, in Rio de Janeiro at 4 p.m. EDT. U.S. English-language TV rights for that tournament have not been announced. NBC sister network Telemundo has U.S. Spanish-language TV rights to the Women's World Cup and the Copa America, and Univision has U.S. Spanish-language TV rights to the Gold Cup.