The second World Cup match for the U.S. Men’s National Team is a consequential one, both on and off the pitch.
The U.S. can clinch the top spot in Group D with a win over Australia Friday afternoon in Seattle if Paraguay also beats or draws with Turkey on Friday night.
This is good news for Fox, which had a whopping 18 million viewers for the USMNT–Paraguay opener. Millions more watched in Spanish on NBCUniversal’s Telemundo.
The match kicks off at 12 p.m. in Seattle (3 p.m. Eastern). That typically wouldn’t be an ideal broadcast window on a weekday afternoon. But Friday is Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., and many people have the day off of work.
This means television viewership at home could be big, as could the amount of people watching matches at Fan Fests and watch parties. In addition to all the food and beverage sales for host committees and local businesses, the watch parties make a difference for TV viewership, too: Fox says out-of-home viewership has increased World Cup ratings by 25%.
