"If they crash out in the group stage, that will be a big discussion, and that will be a big problem. That will be a failure." Rob Stone didn't dress that up. Fox's lead World Cup anchor said the quiet part out loud, and it sets the tone for exactly what's at stake when the USMNT kicks off on home soil this summer.
Stone, who has anchored Fox's traveling studio coverage since the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada, spoke candidly about his expectations heading into North America's first men's World Cup — a tournament he's been building toward since watching the 2026 hosting announcement live from Moscow's Red Square in 2018.
The USMNT's window is real, and narrow
Stone's honest assessment of the U.S. team lands somewhere between cautious optimism and managed expectations. The Round of 16 is "a really fair expectation," he says — and he'll admit some might call even that a stretch. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for a squad playing on home turf with eight years of runway behind this moment.
What he keeps coming back to is the first match. Everything, in his view, hinges on the opener in Los Angeles against Paraguay and then the trip to Seattle for game two. "Are they playing with a refrigerator on their chest, or are they playing free?" It's a fair question for a young group carrying the weight of a nation that doesn't fully understand the sport but absolutely knows when something feels like a let-down.
The U.S. soccer betting market will be watching those early group stage lines closely. A shaky opener against Paraguay — a team that's dangerous but not elite — and the odds for USMNT advancing shift in ways that could make group stage exit a genuine live concern rather than a worst-case scenario.
Stone draws the comparison to the 1999 USWNT — that summer of national embrace, those packed stadiums, that energy. It's a high bar. It also required Mia Hamm. This squad has Christian Pulisic and a lot of hope.
Pochettino's job search isn't the distraction people want it to be
Mauricio Pochettino's contract situation — already circling the drain before the tournament begins, with rumored interest from the likes of AC Milan — hasn't gone unnoticed. Stone isn't particularly worried about it. "We all knew this was a short-term gig," he said. "If my deal was up in a few weeks, darn-tooting I'm looking around for my next gig."
That's a reasonable take. Pochettino's professional future doesn't affect his ability to run a training session. What does matter is whether he's got this squad peaking at the right time — and Stone, for all his candor elsewhere, gives the Argentine credit for a "quiet, thorough job" of building the roster without making noise about it.
The two pre-tournament tune-ups are the on-ramp. Whatever those games show, they need to show momentum.
Is this Fox's farewell to the World Cup?
Fox's broadcasting rights with FIFA expire after this tournament. The network's leadership has openly discussed "rebalancing" sports rights. Stone knows what that means even if he won't linger on it. "This could be our last World Cup," he acknowledged, before pivoting to the work in front of him.
The coverage itself is getting a road-show format — moving location to location rather than broadcasting from a fixed hub, giving it a feel closer to Fox's college football Big Noon Kickoff than past World Cups. Stars like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Tom Brady are part of the tent. A 'Coaches Corner' feature with three former U.S. coaches — including ex-USMNT boss Gregg Berhalter — will dig into the tactical and psychological side of tournament management across ten episodes.
On politics, Stone was measured. Fox won't look away from incidents involving Trump or immigration enforcement if they force their way into the coverage. But they're not building segments around it either. "We're here to celebrate this sport," he said. Whether that balance holds through a 39-day tournament on American soil, during an election-adjacent political climate, is a different question entirely.
Stone has been doing this long enough to know that tournaments take on a life of their own once the ball moves. He mentioned Argentina's opening loss to Saudi Arabia in Qatar as a reminder that the best-laid editorial plans evaporate in 90 minutes. "You need that speedboat mentality." If the USMNT stumbles early, Fox's entire narrative has to pivot on the fly — and the whole country will be watching to see how they handle it.
