FOX Sports provided an interesting behind-the-scenes look at its USMNT marketing campaign for the World Cup. The shoot happened in Austin, Texas in June. The preview gave the crew an opportunity to take photos and videos of the United States Men’s National Team together.

Many of the squad members play in different countries all over the world. In fact, only eight of the 25 players recently called up to the USMNT actually ply their trade in Major League Soccer.

The opportune time to shoot the marketing campaign in Austin came at a time the squad was together. In fact, it followed a win over Grenada in the Nations League, 5-0, on June 10.

While FOX Sports had a chance to get the team all together, the thorough shoot still took three days to complete. Rod Chiabai, SVP of off-air marketing at FOX Sports explained how rigorous the ordeal needed to be.

FOX shows USMNT marketing campaign for Qatar 2022

“It’s an immense amount of planning,” said Chiabai. “You’ve got to cover your bases and capture anything that you might need, and sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to need until after the fact.”

“So you want to get these guys in every position and every pose, looking at camera, or looking away from camera. You don’t want to be two weeks later and go ‘oh, I wish I would have gotten that shot.’”

Mark Ruberg, producer for FOX Sports marketing, explained the goal of these campaigns.

“As a huge soccer fan, and someone whose family kind of revolves around it, we want to see the sport grow and this is kind of our chance to introduce the country to these player’s stories, connect with them, and maybe some kid out there will see Weston McKennie or Gio Reyna, hear their story, and say ‘I want to be like him one day. I want to make the national team. That’s my dream, too.’ And that’s why we do it,” claimed Ruberg.

Ruberg has worked on these marketing campaigns with the USMNT for years now. He was previously tasked with doing the video shoot for the team’s 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup run. During a similar look behind the camera, the producer stated it was his objective to make people stop flipping channels to focus on the work he has helped create.