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The surest bet in this World Cup is not that pre-tournament favorite Spain will hoist the championship trophy, or that French superstar Kylian Mbappe will claim the Golden Boot, or even that NJ Transit will make a mess of the transportation in and out of the Meadowlands.
Those might be safe bets, for sure, but you can take this one to the bank: A Rutgers legend will say something that will infuriate a large percentage of the football-loving world. The only question is which Rutgers legend will do it first?
Will it be Alexi Lalas?
Or will it be Carli Lloyd?
They’ll both have ample opportunities over the next five weeks as two of the primary studio analysts for Fox, jobs they didn’t land because of their genial personalities and deep-rooted desire to make everyone happy. They are on the air because they are not afraid to share an unpopular opinion — and, based on their broadcast history, they won’t hesitate to do so.
“I put it in pro wrestling terms,” said Rob Stone, who, as Fox studio host, will sit alongside the pair. “There’s a good guy and a bad guy, right? So the fans better be booing you or they better be cheering you. But if you come out and they don’t make any noise, you’re gonna fail.
“So when Alexi and Carli come out, they make noise, they get booed, and they get applauded. That means they’re doing their job.”
n a way, Lalas and Lloyd will become the face of the World Cup for American viewers — at least, that is, the ones who are glued to Fox’s wall-to-wall coverage and not shelling out thousands of dollars for seats in a stadium. And that means most people.
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Stone said it was “definitely trippy” that two of the top American broadcasters would have played for the same university. Rutgers has had some success over the decades in soccer, but the school is not a powerhouse in the sport by any means. Is it just a weird coincidence?
Is it a Jersey thing?
Lloyd and Lalas aren’t sure, but they do know that Rutgers and New Jersey have shaped who they are — as people and as broadcasters — even as they came to Rutgers in different ways and in different eras.
Lalas, 56, arrived at Rutgers in 1988 and led the Scarlet Knights to the national championship game two years later. The Michigan native had never stepped foot in New Jersey before arriving on campus, much less taken Exit 9 off the Turnpike. Rutgers was his only option.
“I got kind of dropped in from the other side of the moon,” he said. “It was the only place I got in, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me from a soccer perspective and from an experience perspective. It was completely different from anything I had seen. And it’s lived with me forever.”
Lloyd, a 43-year-old Delran native, grew up an hour from campus. Lalas was gone from campus for a decade when she arrived in 2001. Much like Lalas, she grew into one of the nation’s top players while in college, leaving Piscataway as the program’s all-time leader in goals and assists.
They didn’t meet until well after their collegiate careers, in 2013, when they were brought together at an autograph signing at a Rutgers men’s basketball game. Lalas, a 1994 U.S. World Cup star, was already a well-established broadcaster. Lloyd was still in the process of building her legacy as one of the great clutch players in American soccer history.
Lloyd remembers the photo of the two of them sitting in baseline seats at Jersey Mike’s Arena. But what she really remembers is “hearing him talk a little crap about me and our team and how we’re not going to win” while broadcasting Women’s World Cup games for Fox.
She calls it “fun little banter” now, but as an athlete, Lloyd mined every slight for motivation. Since transitioning into a full-time broadcasting role in 2022, she has approached her job with the same lack of filter that has helped make Lalas a lightning rod in the sport.
“If there’s a moment for me to be critical and I need to be critical, then I’m going to be critical,” Lloyd said. “I’m not here to make friends. I’m not here to get a million likes on Twitter and have friends on platforms.
“I’m comfortable in my own skin. I’m a confident woman. I played the same way. And I think that’s what makes for, you know, a lasting broadcaster in this business, is for someone to be authentic.”
Lloyd has made one important friend in broadcasting: Lalas. When Lloyd was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2024, it was Lalas who rang her doorbell to deliver the news. They are both Rutgers Hall of Famers, but Lalas calls Lloyd the best athlete ever produced at “the greatest school on God’s green earth.”
Two decades into his broadcasting career, Lalas is likely more recognizable to most soccer fans for his work in the studio — and, for people still on the website formerly known as Twitter, for his takes — than his playing career. He considers that an accomplishment in itself.
“I take great pride in what I do,” Lalas said. “I haven’t kicked a ball in 25 years and I still make a living in this game in the United States. But I also recognize that I have a job to do, and I want to make sure that we are never being gatekeep-y or unwelcoming or arrogant about the way we go about broadcasting the game.”
That doesn’t mean he’ll be cautious. The World Cup starts on Thursday, and when it does, a Rutgers legend won’t hold back if a team or a coach even if it angers an entire nation’s worth of fans.
Which one? With Lalas and Lloyd, bet on both.
