US v Mexico - no hablo inglés

I go away for the weekend and miss some really bad news (as far as US soccer is concerned) happens. ESPN will not broadcast the US-Mexico match live.

The game starts at 7:30pm EST on Sept 3rd, but the first English broadcast will not happen till 2:30AM on the 4th. Does this make any sense at all? This match sold out in something like 20 minutes and features the US's biggest soccer rival. It is bound to be one of the best pre-World Cup matches, yet ESPN will not air it live. For those of you not familiar with soccer, this is like a Yankees-Red Sox game not being covered or a Lakers-Celtics game from 1985. It makes no sense.

What makes even less sense is this coming so soon after ABC (parent company of ESPN) made a big announcement about carrying all the World Cup matches live in HD. It calls into question their comment to soccer.

So what will they broadcast instead?

ESPN: Boise State-Georgia college football
ESPN2: USC-Hawaii college football
ESPN Classic: Battle Lines: Billy Conn/Joe Louis I (boxing)
ESPNEWS: News
ESPN Deportes: Torneos de las Américas basketball
ESPNU: Delaware State-Florida A&M college football

I know how big college football is, but this game is bigger. This might just be the night that America punches its ticket for the biggest single sport event in the world and ESPN thinks that is worth a 2:30AM showing.

If you agree with me that this is a foolish choice by ESPN, why not click here and let them know about it.

Thankfully Telemundo is not being stupid. They will broadcast the match live in Spanish.