In writing about former USMNT defender and longtime Fox studio analyst Alexi Lalas, sports pundits reaching for a succinct adjective tend to err on the side of generosity. In the past two weeks, the 56-year-old has been referred to as a “polarizing” element of Fox’s FIFA World Cup coverage, an assessment that is irksomely imprecise, as it suggests the existence of pro- and anti-Lalas factions that are bitterly divided on the issue of his essential appeal.
By all accounts, the pro-Lalas camp doesn’t exist. If anecdotal evidence is anything to go by, the tens of millions of viewers tuning into Fox every day for the soccer spectacle can be lumped into a single body, inasmuch as everybody—as in, like, everybody—seems to dislike Lalas … or at least the version of himself that he’s ginned up for TV.
Lalas’ apparent delight in courting the enmity of the American viewing public also extends to his co-hosts—so much so that his early verbal scuffles with Zlatan Ibrahimović have gone more viral than whooping cough. The chemistry between the brash Yank and the imperious Swede is akin to that of a tomcat and a vacuum cleaner; while Lalas has established himself as a delivery system for frequent cocksure harangues, Ibrahimović prefers to fling the occasional thunderbolt from the ramparts of his towering self-regard.
