World Cup
“The moment we take off the headphones after these big games, we exhale, because we love what we do and we immerse ourselves in it,” Holden said.
Fox has shared views from above the World Cup events, including in Foxboro where a remote-controlled camera was suspended by cables. Lynn Turner/Global Staff
By their own calculations and statistics, John Strong and Stu Holden have each flown 20 times in… World Cupcovering approximately 30,000 miles.
As Fox’s primary broadcast team during the tournament, they called 21 games in five weeks, concluding with a game on Sunday. The final match between Argentina and Spain is at 3 p.mthe third time that Strong and Holden will be the English voices in a men’s World Cup final.
It would be understandable then for them to be bored, or at least trying to shake off the jet lag.
But in a chat with reporters on Friday in advance of the very entertaining World Cup, their main theme was gratitude.
“I feel fortunate to once again share this with one of my best friends in life,” said Holden, a color analyst and former engineer. The American team stand out.
“It’s surreal to think we’re at the end of this,” said Strong, the voice behind each play. “If we learn from the three World Cups [that we’ve called together]It’s every time we think we’ve seen it all, the next game happens, and something better happens. So I’m very excited to see how we can wrap this up. This tournament achieved everything we hoped for. “It was great, it was chaotic, and it was wonderfully chaotic.”
Strong and Holden are matter-of-fact about their appreciation for the opportunity their jobs provide, which has included calling all USMNT matches through it. Loss to Belgium In the round of 16.
Holden admits he makes a conscious effort to stay in the moment, sometimes taking off his headset during a match so he can gauge crowd engagement and enjoy the atmosphere.
“It was a moment that stuck out for me after that United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina“There was a really dramatic end to that game, the red card,” said Holden [to Folarin Balogun in the Americans’ 2-0 victory in the round of 32]Goal by Malik Tillman. The song “Country Roads” plays when I finish, and I take a selfie video and point it at the audience. I had this wave of emotions and goosebumps, and I looked at it, and John was emotional. “He was crying.”
Strong interrupted, saying: “Oh, I cried several times during the USA’s matches in this tournament.”
Holden continued: “The moment we take off our headphones after these big matches, we exhale, because we love what we do and we immerse ourselves in it.” “He was overcome with emotion in that moment, and as a friend and broadcast partner, I understand what that means to him. I completely understand. I represented my country on the field, and I got to live my dream. He’s living his dream in real time, and it’s never lost sight of me that this is what John wanted to do from a young age. It was great to see him take a moment to himself, because those are the moments you want to remember.”
Holden didn’t make a direct prediction for Sunday, saying he was hoping for a match that would provide a “proper final performance” to a consistently compelling tournament.
“I like contrasting playing styles,” he said. “You have the Spanish control versus the Argentine spirit, and the greatest player of all time [Lionel Messi]and the player on the other side is in Lamine Yamal, who grew up admiring Messi He could become the third teenager to win a World Cup final.
“As much as we all expect Spain to possess the ball and to have this kind of harmonious rhythm, there is no better team in the world that can disrupt that kind of flow and introduce chaos and introduce all the emotions that they constantly play with and play on the edge in a better way than Argentina.”
WEEI continues to pay the price for Ottolini’s mistake
With each subsequent change to WEEI’s afternoon drive program, it also confirms that the station and parent company Audacy have done a Silly mistake by removing Megan Ottolini from the time slot in August 2024. When Ottolini, Christian Fauria and Lou Merloni parted ways in December 2022 — Ottolini remained in the 2-6 p.m. role while Merloni left the station and Fauria moved to midday — they exited the fall 2022 ratings book with a 9.2 second-place share. “The Rich Shertenlieb Show,” as currently constructed, will never come close to that number… If WEEI is serious about challenging The Sports Hub’s “Felger & Mazz” in the afternoon — and it clearly isn’t, but kidding me — it would be wise to emphasize Celtics-informed conversation. I’d rather listen to Michael Felger do a six-hour podcast about the 1983 Milwaukee Bucks than talk about him. Jaylen Brown trade once again.