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Rebecca Lowe has revealed FOX Sports World Cup final coverage was nearly derailed by a helicopter ride through New York City.
The World Cup came to a close last weekend, with Spain defeating Argentina 1-0 in extra time thanks to Ferran Torres' 106th-minute winner. Following Spain's victory, ugly scenes ensued, with Argentina's players fighting some members of the Spain squad before disrespecting them during the trophy lift.
While the final in New Jersey was not necessarily the spectacle some hoped for, the tournament as a whole was a success this summer. FOX wanted to make a big deal of broadcasting the final, prompting the network to send Lowe, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Alexi Lalas on a journey to MetLife Stadium.
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It is safe to say that the journey, which saw the quartet and some of the FOX studio crew travel by sea, land, and air, did not go to plan. During the pre-game show, Lowe and co left the set in Brooklyn Bridge Park to take a ferry across the East River before driving to a helipad to get a helicopter through New York.
However, according to Lowe, the decision to embark on the wild journey almost caused FOX's team to miss the World Cup final.
"We had to get from Brooklyn Bridge Park all the way to MetLife while we were on air. So we started with a boat from the ferry stop over the East River to another pier, into a car to take us a couple of piers down to the heliport,” Lowe said on the After The Whistle podcast.
"Now, I’ve been on a helicopter once, and I swore I’d never go on one again, but then Fox Sports employed me for the World Cup, and I said, 'Sure, that sounds great'."
But it was once they were in the helicopter that things started to go south. Lowe continued, "So, we get in the helicopter. It’s supposed to be seven minutes. Wasn’t seven minutes, it was 30 minutes. And let’s just say, Zlatan, God bless him, didn’t say a single word. I was pretty close to that as well, pretty scared, not going to lie.
"We were circling. I kept seeing the Yankee Stadium again and again and again. …Terrifying, and it’s very bumpy up there, and it was horrible. Alexi Lalas, I’ve never seen him happier. Out the window, pointing out all the amazing sights and sounds, I was like, 'This guy.'
"We eventually land at the wrong helipad. So now we’re at a random- by the way, we had to be back on air at 1:15. We eventually get out, we film our little link, and eventually realize we’re not at Teterboro, I think is it called? We’re in Kearny, New Jersey. We didn’t know where we were.
"We were supposed to meet a police escort, a couple of cars, to take us then to MetLife. Well, they were at Teterboro. So now we’re calling them, they come to get us, that’s 15 minutes. We’re filming another piece just saying, 'We don’t know where we are.'
She continued, "And at this point, I’m thinking, 'Are we going to make it?' And at this point, we’re about an hour and a half before kickoff of a World Cup final, and I’m thinking, 'I’ve done this World Cup for 39 days, and I’m not going to get to do the final because I’m going to be in a car on the New Jersey Turnpike.'
"So at this point … we have to be on air for 1:54. So we get into the police escort, we were going 105 miles an hour. 105. And it was very scary. So that was the helicopter — scary. Then we had the police escort — scary. Then we finally get there, we circle the stadium a couple times because no one knows how to get into this place. Pull up, we go under, we get on the elevator, it’s now 1:51. I go on the set at 1:52. We go on air at 1:54."
