Telemundo Is Winning the World Cup

BOSTON — Tonight, the United States men’s national team faces Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 in Santa Clara, California. As a massive USMNT fan who has a “put up or shut up” attitude towards this year’s selection, I will be rooting for the team I have been following since the late 80s.

I will also be watching the game on Telemundo.

In Spanish.

Sure, the numbers back up that decision. According to an NBC Sports June 30 press release, nearly one in two people watching the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the United States is watching in Spanish on Telemundo or Peacock. While U.S. Latinos represent 20 percent of the population, Telemundo and Peacock captured 48 percent of the combined World Cup audience during the group stage. The U.S. men’s national team delivered the three most-watched Team USA World Cup matches in Spanish-language media history.

But this is way more than just numbers or how the cool kids in the U.S. are happily choosing Telemundo over Fox Sports, the official U.S. English-language broadcaster.

Telemundo is just hitting different, and ahead of tonight’s game, I spoke with Miguel Lorenzo, SVP of Sports Content Production at Telemundo Deportes, about how they built this coverage and what it says about where Spanish-language sports media in the U.S. is headed.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Julio Ricardo Varela: I’ve been watching the U.S. games on Telemundo during this World Cup, and I have been incredibly impressed. It’s not just the general product, which has been excellent, but there is something specific and intentional in how you’re covering the U.S. team that feels different from anything I’ve seen before on Spanish-language television. Can you walk me through that?

Miguel Lorenzo: It starts with the fact that Telemundo is the Spanish-language home of U.S. Soccer. We recently renewed that partnership with U.S. Soccer for another four years, and that has really helped inform our strategy for Team USA in this World Cup.

When we look at Team USA, we see many nuances. This is a team supported by this country, but this is a very diverse country, whether we’re talking about language, background, or fandom.

Soccer fandom in Miami looks completely different from soccer fandom in Kansas City or Seattle. That diversity guided our approach. This is the team of everybody. We cover it in a credible, soccer-driven way, but we also cover the passion behind the fandom. Why does a family with Mexican roots, whose kids were born in this country, root for both countries? That dynamic is nuanced, and we wanted to reflect it.

JRV: Let’s talk about talent, because I think this is where it gets really interesting for me as someone who covers Latino media. You brought in former USMNT players Jozy Altidore and Alejandro Bedoya as your voices for Team USA, and I think that choice says a lot.

ML: We prioritized bringing Jozy and Alejandro because they are immensely popular names in U.S. soccer. And to the surprise of many on social media, they speak Spanish amazingly well. The social sentiment around our World Cup coverage has been tremendous, whether it’s the passion our coverage brings, the announcers, the production, the footprint, or the talent. People couldn’t believe they were seeing Jozy Altidore speaking Spanish on Telemundo. But it makes complete sense.

JRV: If you go to any club game, any Sunday rec league, you’ll hear Spanish, Portuguese, English, Creole, and other languages. That’s soccer in the United States.

ML: Exactly.

JRV: I’m a Gen Xer, so I remember watching U.S. Spanish-language sports coverage in the 80s, and it felt very different from what you’re doing now. More isolated, more narrow. Over the last few years, I feel like Telemundo has made a very deliberate turn. It feels like you all looked at each other one day and said, we are a Spanish-language sports network based in the United States, and we are not going to stay in the lane that was imposed and assigned to us. We are going to produce the best product, period. Am I off?

ML: You're not off at all. You answered your own question. It’s an accumulation of everything, starting with leadership, and then going into talent, production, and a real commitment to covering soccer in an entertaining and authentic way. The differences between our audiences are not what separate us. They’re what unite us. Look at Tuesday’s Ecuador-Mexico game.

Our audience is heavily Mexican, but it’s also Ecuadorian, Colombian, Argentine, and so on. We were intentional about having former Mexican players Andrés Guardado and Carlos Salcido, and former Ecuadorian player Antonio Valencia on set. We are speaking to Hispanics across this country, not just one community.

JRV: What is the secret sauce? Is it representation? Biculturalism? The fact that once you get the right Latino sports executives together, you stop asking for permission and just build the thing you always wanted to build?

ML: It’s an accumulation. Leadership here at Telemundo Deportes set out to change how we cover sports, not just covering soccer, but doing it in an entertaining way, an authentic way, reveling in the nuances that make this audience who they are. The differences don’t divide us but only unite us. And when you weave that into the storytelling, you go beyond what soccer audiences typically expect. It becomes generational. Immediately after the Mexico game, we were on the field with Andrés Guardado and Carlos Salcido when the Mexico team came over and started throwing them up in the air. Yes, they’re part of the Telemundo team, but it speaks to a connection that goes so far beyond just this particular broadcast.

JRV: It also doesn't hurt that the U.S. national team head coach is a Spanish speaker. I think about what it means for your coverage to be able to speak with Mauricio Pochettino in his language, and what it means for Latino fans watching at home to see that reflected.

ML: Hiring Pochettino has been amazing for a lot of reasons. The results speak for themselves — Team USA finished first in their group. But beyond results, his background helps him connect with players of Hispanic heritage. It lends natural credibility and authenticity. You already have an American audience that will support Team USA in any sport. But when you have a head coach who can connect with audiences of different backgrounds in this country, how can you go wrong? And winning is the antidote for everything.

JRV: Last question, and I want to end here because I think this is the thing that really caught my attention during this World Cup. I am seeing a lot of love for Telemundo's coverage from people who don’t speak a word of Spanish. Non-Spanish speakers are saying the product is better, that it’s just better. Did that surprise you, or was that part of the plan all along?

ML: It was very intentional, even if it might sound easy to say that now when you see it working. Our marketing campaign, with Sofia Vergara teaching Owen Wilson Spanish in time for the World Cup, was geared toward that English-dominant American audience. And when you look at our full production plan, it isn’t surprising.

We saw some English-dominant viewership in Qatar. But it has gone to a whole new level here. We set out to create over 700 hours of live original World Cup programming, the most ever, across linear, streaming, digital, social, and fast platforms. We had 92 games live on Telemundo over-the-air, the most ever. We were present at all 104 matches. This is the most local World Cup ever because it’s happening in our country, in our backyards. And we made it our own.

The emotion, the fandom, the coverage across platforms — that is a universal language. And I think it’s the clearest sign yet that Spanish-language sports coverage in the United States is no longer niche. It never should have been, and we are changing that at Telemundo Deportes.

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Episode 5 of Our Copa: If you want more of Our Copa, the podcast I co-host with Merritt Mathias and Musa Okwonga, a new episode dropped this week. The religious and political tensions that defined life in Ireland in the latter 20th century came to a head not only on the nation’s soccer fields but also in its stadiums, altering the careers of some of Ireland’s most prominent players.

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director. He edited and published this edition.

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