Rebecca Lowe Reveals How The 2026 FIFA World Cup Changed The Future Of Soccer In The U.S.

Our next guest is an award-winning presenter and broadcaster and the lead studio host for NBC Sports Premier League coverage. She is currently hosting coverage of Fox Sports presentation of FIFA World Cup 2026. Please welcome to the show Rebecca Lowe everybody. Welcome Rebecca I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you it's so lovely to see you Seth. I'm very excited for Sunday but I do want to take a moment to uh it was a it was a rough day for you yesterday. As a professional journalist you had to balance it with also being a Brit. I appreciate your concern um yesterday England being knocked out of the World Cup was rough and then trying to do live television yeah whilst dealing with those emotions. Not to like drill down on how hard it was but like was that like you were watching the whole game being like all right I gotta they lost I gotta get ready. You kind of didn't have much time. That's correct so as you know you do start to prepare what you're going to say when that whistle goes and England were four minutes away from one of the biggest moments in my life yeah and so I was like right this is the you know this is the moment for me I've got a big line to say it says I know what I'm going to say and then we conceded two goals in six minutes. I will say I just thought you did an incredible job of managing it and it's been a wonderful I mean the coverage has been great and uh you have some uh wonderful cohorts in your studio with Alexi and Thierry and Zlatan have you have you enjoyed I do sometimes feel like I'm watching you juggle do you feel like you manage pretty well it's like wrangling cats yeah at times um you don't know what anyone's gonna do at any point um and I've never met Zlatan I've met Thierry but very briefly I knew Alexi but from years ago so throwing four people together who've never worked together and then it's every day we are on air for hours yeah um but yes they're all very different Seth and so I'm learning every day that goes by uh we're done on Sunday and that'll be it poof like it never happened yeah kind of crazy but they're wonderful uh I think all of you are very good Zlatan uh has been such a revelation and do you think that he will ever do it again no yeah he has told me on a number of occasions uh he will be disappearing to his cabin in the woods of Sweden yeah and uh I don't he's loved it but I think that for him this is hard I mean it's hard work I'm like Zlatan are you okay you've been working every day it's like I know this is just rough for me Rebecca um but he has been such great company but I think no I think he said to me the other day I think after this I'll be I'll be done but you never know I like watching somebody who is both very good at it and you can also see in the back of their mind like this isn't gonna happen again so I hope you're all enjoying I know you might go out in flames on Sunday by the way that'll be fun flipping out burn it down Zlatan um you uh you work for NBC you do the Premier League and obviously this is Fox this is a different network so uh obviously there was maybe a thought that you couldn't do both how did you find out that you were going to get to do this gig yeah I never dreamt I could ever do this because I was under the impression that you couldn't work for two networks um so it was about 15 months ago Seth and I was on air on a regular Sunday of the Premier League and my boss Sam came in and it's not unusual that he comes in my boss Sam is wonderful but he does have that boss aura so you're always a bit on your toes when he comes in had a nice little chit chat and then he said to me just turned to me he said um can I have a word and I thought well that's it I'm done I mean did I swear did I do something so he took me to the other side of the studio turned me around to have my back to my other guys on the show said can you turn off your mic and I just at this point it's over my career in America we're done and he just sort of said very quietly um just so you know uh Brad at Fox Sports has called us this week and asked to borrow you for the World Cup and then he paused at which point my entire life shifted on its axis and he said and we've said yes honest honestly that is a moment that I I thought somebody was having a joke I thought they were taking the mickey I was pinching myself and then he said unless you've got a big vacation plan for the summer Sam we're good I'll be free and so that that's how it happened uh you've gotten to be there for every minute of it and uh well is there an indelible moment you'll remember over any others I think the Cape Verde game against Argentina the second goal Cabral when it was a beauty of a goal and then he ran in to find his family in the stands but it's just it's Cape Verde against the world champions yeah that moment I remember get up get up out of my seat I just thought I walked around the desk and Zlatan and Thierry we were all a bit like what are we witnessing here yeah that moment for me that's what the World Cup is all about and it was really special look it seemed overstuffed with teams and then you have that moment and you're like oh they never would have been in the previous World Cup and so it was all for the better yeah um mentioned Premier League uh rough year for me I'm a West Ham fan and we are now uh no longer in the Premier League no does that mean you won't watch me anymore I'm out oh I'm so I will say I I'm really thinking of it like just have a sabbatical from soccer take a year take a year take a year reconnect with my children that's it yeah have a sleep in yeah just enjoy I don't have to wake up at 8 a.m to have my heart broken and then you'll be back and go through all over again why do we do this to ourselves oh I don't know it's ridiculous you you don't have you're a Crystal Palace fan yeah and that's no no that's no front runner jumpsuit I gotta be honest that we didn't pick well did we no I mean neither of us have got great I picked you were it was picked for you born into it yeah in England it's a religion right yeah and uh and do you remember your first game yes it was the autumn of 1989 okay um and my dad had who's a Crystal Palace fan grew up a Crystal Palace fan he had two tickets for a game and I guess his friend said he couldn't go and he must have just looked down at me age nine and thought yep you'll do you're fine so let me just remind everybody though a young girl in 1989 English football that's not a situation that no is very common or probably a good idea yeah but I went I loved it caught the bug and then six months later it was the 1990 World Cup in Italy and England and Paul Gascoigne and the crying and all the things that are in our minds in England and that's when I really fell in love so that was it Crystal Palace England done and you never and that's the best thing right like once you lock in that I think once you change it who are you you have no respect for yourself no quite literally who are you you can't change no changing so anybody who's like yeah if somebody was like oh yeah I used to be Manchester United but now I root for Arsenal I'm like you're a witch I've and I've met some people like that yeah no that's no good that's actually illegal in England seriously you'd be chased out of town you uh you've been here for 10 years in the States yeah just over yeah and so uh how do you I mean again I think it was a fairly um underwhelming end uh for the U.S. Men's National Team after a really exciting start um but do you feel as though there's still room for people to be optimistic about the future of the U.S. Men's National Team oh for sure said for sure because the country fell in love with this team you know I I got messages I spoke to people who mums at the school gates right when I go and pick up my little boy who have no idea what I do for job no idea they then see me on television while watching the USA games they're like this is fun this is cute this team I'm like I know you can watch me every week but they have fallen in love with these players now yes it didn't end well we could have just done yeah um but it has changed honestly I believe it's changed this country I really really do that the trajectory of football and soccer now it's it's gonna go all the way I'm telling you everyone else watch out it's going all the way I will you know just because you mentioned school it's like it's incredible when I drop my kids off I feel as though now I see more uh soccer jerseys than any other sport combined and totally when I first got here in 2013 you might see one or two at an airport now all the time everywhere you go and because of this World Cup it's brought in it's penetrated a what I thought were unreachable people they are touched by it so honestly I think it's it's the future well I hope we have a great game on Sunday uh thank you so much for being here you did a great job at the World Cup and I look forward to Premier League you guys 2026 FIFA World Cup final air this Sunday afternoon July 19th we will be right back