{"id":745530,"date":"2026-06-18T18:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/745530\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T18:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:33:09","slug":"foxs-world-cup-problem-zlatan-ibrahimovic-and-alexi-lalas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/745530\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox\u2019s World Cup problem: Zlatan Ibrahimovi\u0107 and Alexi Lalas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Czech Republic vs South Africa<\/a> and Switzerland vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/a> in the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the great strikers of all time, Zlatan Ibrahimovi\u0107, did a bit the other day on Fox\u2019s late-night World Cup show, \u201cAfter Hours with James Corden,\u201d in which Corden hooked up Ibrahimovi\u0107 to a lie detector for a skit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou share a desk with fellow Fox analysts Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry and Alexi Lalas,\u201d Corden read off the cue cards. \u201cDo you think a panel of four Zlatans would be better than these four?\u201d<\/p>\n

Predictably, Ibrahimovi\u0107 leaned on his \u201cI am the most confident man in the world\u201d schtick and said yes. The lie detector monitor said he was telling the truth.<\/p>\n

The actual correct answer so far for this World Cup is:<\/p>\n

Less Zlatan.<\/p>\n

Less Lalas.<\/p>\n

And Fox\u2019s main studio show would be better.<\/p>\n

The Zlatan-Lalas dynamic is awkward. To Zlatan\u2019s credit, he is not working in his native language. On many occasions, we wish Lalas had never learned English, especially in his chosen dialect of \u201cHot Take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give us more of the delightful, poised and informative combo of Lowe and Henry, and then Fox would really have something.<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s pregame, Henry described the nuances of France star Kylian Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s first goal against Senegal on a diagonal run in the box.<\/p>\n

After Portugal\u2019s 1-1 tie against DR Congo, Henry explained the selfishness of Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s movement, not opening space for a teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team needs to score, not you need to score,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

The breakdowns were elegant and illuminating.<\/p>\n

Going into this World Cup, Fox set out to create a premier studio show<\/a> with Hall of Fame star power akin to its NFL and MLB pregames that feature Michael Strahan, Terry Bradshaw, Derek Jeter and David Ortiz.<\/p>\n

Fox brought in proven TV winners in Lowe, who leads NBC\u2019s Premier League studio show, and Henry, who is part of CBS\u2019s excellent Champions League presentation. The signing of Zlatan was an audacious swing.<\/p>\n

Lalas was the American holdover from Fox\u2019s 2022 studio show \u2014 the one that necessitated such revamping.<\/p>\n

The risk with Zlatan was if he would be any good. It took Tom Brady a full season before sounding like a No. 1 NFL game analyst. The studio is easier, but the clock is ticking on Zlatan as the World Cup final is already only a month away on July 19.<\/p>\n

So far, the issue for Zlatan is that he does not appear to know anything too specific about many of the teams or their players. When Fox pumped up the storyline about American turned Canada coach Jesse Marsch<\/a> before his first game last week, it sounded as if Zlatan had never heard of him.<\/p>\n

By the time the segments were done, Zlatan said he wanted to meet the confident Canadian coach. The cocky crutch is Zlatan\u2019s one big move, which makes him sort of like a striker who can use only one foot.<\/p>\n

What Fox needs to really do is elicit Zlatan\u2019s goal-scoring insight. It should use its field studio to explain techniques and tactics so Zlatan can demonstrate that, while he was a physical beast on the field, his intelligence and instincts allowed him to find the back of the net so often. Let\u2019s hear more of that.<\/p>\n

As for Lalas, we will borrow his usual tone for a moment: He is one of the most insufferable analysts in American TV sports history. And while he was one of the best all-time U.S. defenders, his credentials are paltry compared with those of Zlatan and Henry. His broadcasting skills are third division next to Lowe\u2019s.<\/p>\n

(Now, back to our regular tone.)<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s pregame, Fox gave us the unneeded \u201cAlexi\u2019s Power Rankings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReminder, these are my Power Rankings,\u201d Lalas declared on the segment. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like them, get your own Power Rankings.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about no \u201cPower Rankings\u201d? This is not \u201cFirst Take.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other day, after the Corden segment was shown on the pregame, Zlatan had a pretty good line, saying that Lowe\u2019s and Henry\u2019s attires were well put together and, turning to Lalas, adding, \u201cWe can discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lalas put out his hands and had a little smile, but he didn\u2019t seem to enjoy it. Zlatan added, \u201cIt\u2019s all love. It\u2019s all love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zlatan scoring on Lalas all day may end up being fun, but they all have to be in on the laugh \u2014 and it may not truly be in Lalas.<\/p>\n

Lalas started it, of course, as he is fluent in trolling so early on in the coverage he said 25-year-old Norwegian Erling Haaland will surpass Zlatan\u2019s career status with a strong World Cup. Zlatan did not appreciate it but has had his retorts.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, after France\u2019s lackadaisical first half inspired game analyst Landon Donovan and Lalas to bring up the word \u201carrogance\u201d in regard to the French opening 45 minutes, Zlatan had enough and provided his best moment of the tournament with a scorpion kick of commentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not arrogance,\u201d Zlatan said. \u201cIt\u2019s confidence. Ignorant people will say it\u2019s arrogance. Intelligent people will say it is confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe we all can agree.<\/p>\n

Fox should lean toward the intelligent coverage from Lowe and Henry, bringing Zlatan and Lalas to their level, as opposed to highlighting the arrogance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of Czech Republic vs South Africa and Switzerland vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,103818,927,561,82,575],"class_list":["post-745530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-opinion","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}