Telemundo’s increased women’s World Cup coverage is another sign of women’s soccer’s growth

Those relatively new to soccer might imagine that given the women’s World Cup’s popularity, every game of a tournament has long been televised in English and Spanish. That’s been the case with the men’s World Cup for decades, and it’s been a dozen years since the U.S. women relaunched themselves into the spotlight with a dramatic run to the 2011 final.

In fact, a fully televised women’s World Cup broadcast in the two most popular languages of the United States has never been the case until now. Though English-language women’s World Cup broadcasters have televised every game since 2007, this year’s tournament will be the first one in which every game is on traditional TV in Spanish.

Telemundo, owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast, isn’t just making the move because of the U.S. team’s popularity, or because many games in Australia and New Zealand are at odd times here. It’s doing so because the sport as a whole is growing across the Americas.

The expansion of the World Cup this year to 32 teams means more teams from Spanish-speaking nations in North, Central and South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, debutant Panama, and a U.S. squad that’s the most diverse it’s ever been.

The American team this summer could have two players of Mexican descent (Sofia Huerta and Ashley Sanchez); one each with roots in Brazil (Catarina Macario) and Peru (Alyssa Thompson, also of Filipino descent); and a record number of Black players (at least six and likely more, if they’re all healthy), including one of Ethiopian descent (Naomi Girma).

» READ MORE: Mallory Swanson’s injury is a reminder that the USWNT’s depth is its biggest asset

“I think just as much as the U.S. men’s national team, the U.S. women’s national team represents our society as a whole, not just from the Hispanic perspective,” Telemundo’s famed lead play-by-play voice Andrés Cantor said. “It’s a very well-blended group of very talented players. The young generation, it’s very interesting to watch and to see how they will evolve, and we’re looking forward to seeing [if] that mix of the old guard plus the young, upcoming stars can help them for the three-peat.”

Telemundo plans to put 33 of the tournament’s 64 games on its flagship broadcast network and 31 on cable channel Universo. The total for Telemundo is the most on an over-the-air broadcast network in women’s World Cup history, regardless of language, though Fox hasn’t announced its plans yet. But 33 is a bigger number than Fox’s 16 in 2015 and 22 in 2019.

“The audience for women’s football is growing significantly — we’ve seen that with some of our executions already with Team USA on our platforms, our support of [Mexico’s] Chivas Femenil as well on the Liga MX side, and other executions that we’ve done in the past,” Telemundo’s executive vice president of sports Eli Velazquez said.

“We saw a good reaction to our coverage of 2019 [in] France,” he continued. “And we’ve noticed that over the course of [the] last four years, there has been significant investment and significant development in Latin America, for the national teams and league teams that feature women’s football … We’re bullish on how big it has gotten, and how big it will get.”

» READ MORE: A look back at how Telemundo covered the 2019 women’s World Cup

There will also be live streaming of every game on Peacock, following Telemundo’s success doing so with the men’s World Cup in Qatar last fall. That will give cord-cutters another way to watch games.

Cantor will be Telemundo’s lead play-by-play voice, as he has long been. The lead analyst will be Manuel Sol, Cantor’s longtime broadcast partner for soccer of all kinds — including U.S. women’s team friendlies that Telemundo bought the rights to this year.

Cantor and Sol won’t call every U.S. game, though. Velasquez said the plan is for them to call some U.S. games, but also have some latitude to go to other big games in the tournament.

That will mean a lot of travel. It’s a four-hour flight east across the Tasman Sea from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand; and a five-hour flight west from Sydney to Perth, nearly the full length of Australia.

“The approach is focus on the Team USA path, and then let’s take a look at all of the other meaningful matches that surround that,” Velazquez said. “And then logistically, let’s see where we can send them.”

» READ MORE: A look back at how Telemundo covered the 2015 women’s World Cup

It may run up a big bill for Comcast, but Velasquez is happy to pay it. And this time, he won’t just be doing so for Cantor and Sol. The network’s studio hosts will be traveling a lot too — and really, they won’t be “studio” hosts. Telemundo won’t have one central studio the way Fox is expected to. Instead, the four hosts — Ana Jurka, Miguel Gurwitz, Carlota Vizmanos and Carlos Yustis — will work from the sites of big games.

Jurka hosted coverage in 2019 from Paris and Lyon. She said she asked Cantor for tips on how he’s done it for all these years.

“He goes, ‘Well, you can’t bring four suitcases — you have to bring just one carry-on and a backpack,’” Jurka said. “It’s going to be a different challenge, and for us as hosts it’s going to be exciting. Because we always are in the same place.”

Other game broadcasters named so far include play-by-play announcers Copán Álvarez, Jorge Calvo, Daniella Lopez-Guajaro (coming over from Fox) and Sammy Sadovnik, and analysts Eduardo Biscayart and Natalia Astrain — the coach of the U.S. under-17 women’s team who won widespread acclaim for her work on Telemundo’s coverage in Qatar. They will all work from Telemundo’s Miami studios.

More broadcasters are still to be named, as are reporters who will be on site.