As Fox Sports signed off on a magnificent, Super Bowl-like World Cup final performance Sunday, host Rebecca Lowe was reduced to tears as she turned to her analysts Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas.Eight hours after the foursome first signed on in a different state, after taking a ferry, a helicopter and having a police escort from Brooklyn, N.Y., to East Rutherford, N.J., Lowe was closing the curtain on Fox’s presentation of an epic television beast of 104 matches over 39 days in three countries.“For me, it’s a huge thank you to you three; it’s been the honor of a lifetime,” Lowe said to her on-air partners as the emotion gripped her.Moments before, Zlatan — in Zlatan fashion — appeared to retire from network TV.“This is also my farewell to the studio,” Zlatan said. “This is the first and last time for me.”Lalas said, “Oh, you retired.”Zlatan added, “You have to retire on top.”If it is indeed one-and-done for Zlatan, he went out in style with the last moments of the program perfectly encapsulating why it ended up working after a slow start. There was emotion and levity.On its third try, Fox finally got the World Cup right. After Lowe’s sincere words, Fox signed off with an equivalent of the men’s NCAA Tournament’s “One Shining Moment”: a montage of images and sounds set to the Louis II song “The World Can Be Ours.” It was the chef’s kiss.At the beginning of the tournament, Zlatan and Lalas were the problems, with their lack of nuance and abundance of ego. By the end, Lowe and Fox’s producers had all the answers to the test.Though this will be remembered as Zlatan’s TV World Cup, Lowe was the Rodri of Fox’s record-setting U.S. production. Like Spain’s “Golden Ball” winner, she was the backbone that made it all work.It is not easy to create a strong studio that has the chemistry and star power that Fox’s NFL and MLB programs possess. And to do it in five weeks, it is quite an accomplishment, even (and maybe partly) because we can imagine Zlatan cracking that the team played down a man — with Lalas.In the lead-up to the tournament, Fox president Brad Zager first targeted Lowe and landed her on loan from NBC.Zager had swung and barely missed for ESPN’s Rece Davis for the job, but with the Lowe addition, it changed Fox’s studio as Lowe and Fox’s producers made Zlatan come to life on air.Zager’s lieutenants, Judy Boyd and Kevin Callahan, and Zlatan’s primary producers, Joel Santos and Zac Kenworthy, combined with Lowe to put him in position to score.They propped up Zlatan with creative skits naming him Fox’s Employee of the Month, making him a vice president at the company and having him take Lowe’s place to host a segment. It worked because it found his strength and provided some fun.But Zlatan has skills, even in a language that’s not his first. He was at his best when he showed another side to himself.On Sunday, the foursome began the show on a perfect set under the Brooklyn Bridge at 11 a.m., and then by a little after noon, they were on their way to “New York/New Jersey Stadium” in East Rutherford. To get there, they took a ferry, a helicopter and a car with a police escort.On the ferry, Zlatan was fine, even kicking a ball into the East River. However, in the helicopter, Mr. Confident himself, Zlatan acknowledged his nerves, using a not-meant-for-TV expression about going to the bathroom in his pants as he sat next to Lowe, Henry and Lalas.“I don’t like helicopters,” Zlatan said.Lowe immediately cracked up at Zlatan’s line, as she has done for five weeks, effortlessly transforming a moment that could be awkward into gold.She made it all connect. Henry was so sincere and confident about the game and TV, and Lalas scored points with his patriotism.Zlatan sometimes would move away from his “I’m the greatest” schtick, which works but can only go so far.On the first pregame show of the World Cup on June 12, Zlatan gave a little revelation about himself.“I’m very emotional,” Zlatan said. “Once you come in my inner circle, I have a big heart.”Lowe asked whether the trio were in it. Henry added, “How big is that circle?”Zlatan said, “It’s small.”It got a little bigger over the last five weeks. Lowe deserves the credit.‘He’s going to be off! He’s going to be off!’The job of game broadcasters is to explain what is happening as if they are sitting next to you in the seats. In a World Cup final, with a larger, more casual audience, it becomes even more important.In the 92nd minute, with Spain dominating but scoreless, Argentina’s Enzo Fernández, already playing on a yellow, made a reckless tackle. Immediately, Fox game analyst Stu Holden exclaimed, “He’s going to be off! He’s going to be off!” The World Cup wasn’t necessarily decided at that moment, but it made it even graver for Argentina.Holden was all over it, as he was on every penalty and card throughout the match. As for Holden’s partner John Strong, he was prepared and had a solid call. Overall, Strong didn’t distract and was informative, though his words are unlikely to be remembered.Extra time• Mexican all-time leading goal scorer Javier “Chicharito” Hernández had a really good tournament. He was on the second-tier studio desk but stood out with a strong delivery. His pride in how Mexico opened the Cup and reached the round of 16 also showed through.• Host Jules Breach also impressed on the road with the second team. She displayed similar qualities to Lowe in finding the right questions for her analysts at the right time.• It’s probably not on reporter Jenny Taft, though she did conduct the interview for Fox, but it would have been correct to ask President Donald Trump about the Folarin Balogun red card situation when discussing the World Cup with him. Trump did say he would like the World Cup in the United States while he is still around. Trump would be 92 in 2038, which is the next unassigned Cup.• Darren Fletcher was rightly given a lot of accolades as a Fox play-by-player — the way he called a game was fun — but he was a bit over the top in calling Saturday’s third-place game, England’s 6-4 win over France, the match of the tournament. Given neither team was playing defense, making it a virtual all-star game, and there were so many classics over the past five weeks, it probably was not in the top 10.• The unneeded halftime music was modeled after the Super Bowl. It seemed pretty well produced, but extending the halftime to make room for it, combined with the hydration breaks, does not put FIFA in the best light as a steward of the game. Of all the acts, Shakira was the best.• The television rights for the 2030 and 2034 World Cup have not entered the negotiation stage yet. Basically, all major platforms will have interest in owning them, though, with the next two hosts being a combo of Spain, Portugal and Morocco in 2030 and then Saudi Arabia (which likely will be in the fall/winter) in 2034, the TV inventory — especially game times — won’t be as convenient for U.S. viewers as a World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Bidding will be very competitive, but Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks helped his hand with the production and ratings of this one. Money almost always wins, but it can’t hurt.