Portugal-United States Was The Most-Watched American Match In History

If you're looking to make the argument that soccer has finally gained a foothold with the American sports-watching public, you'd be off to a good start by citing the TV ratings from last night's thriller between Portugal and the United States, because they were bananas.

According to , ESPN's broadcast of the game averaged 18.22 million viewers, while Univision brought in another 6.5 million. That's the most viewers either network has ever had for a soccer match involving an American team, and as Deitsch points out, the actual number of viewers is likely a fair bit higher due to how many people watched the game at various viewing parties. Here's a jarring sentence:

The match was ESPN's most-viewed sporting event on its airwaves excluding NFL and college football telecasts and is a clear indication of the growth of the World Cup as a television event.

For comparison's sake, Game 7 of the 2013 NBA finals averaged 26.3 million viewers, and as Joe Posnanski pointed out, only one World Series game in the last decade—Game 7 in 2011, if you're curious—has done as well. So yeah, a lot of people are watching soccer. Sorry, Dan Shaughnessy.

[ SI]