ESPN (Not Surprisingly) Accidentally Takes Full Commercial Break In The Middle Of Major Soccer Match

A lot of international football (soccer) fans were far from thrilled to have their match (yes, some people enjoy soccer) interrupted when ESPN played a full-commercial break in the middle of the action.

That. Is. Frustrating.

Manchester United was leading Arsenal by two goals in the 53rd minute of a friendly (so in fairness, why keep watching anyway; that game was as good as over).

That's when all of a sudden, Premiere League Soccer was replaced with an ad for pizza, the latest hunk of donkey excrement Transformers flick, and Brian Cox yelling about satellite dishes and ironically "doing TV wrong."

While the NFL is king in terms of sports ratings, the entire reason ESPN is broadcasting this game is due to the growing popularity of the sport -- and Premier League specifically -- in the United States. More than 3 billion people across the world follow the league closely and Manchester United and Arsenal are two of the biggest brands in all of soccer.

Not a great look for ESPN, a company that has been in the news for the wrong reasons a lot recently.

This is insane if it was on purpose, but considering the feed cuts out momentarily before the break, the folks at the Worldwide Leader in Sports may have cut to commercial while they tried to fix the issue.

Still, in some sports, cutting to commercial in the middle of the action is commonplace, though soccer isn't one of them.

I'm a big racing fan and this sort of thing is commonplace and it drives me completely insane. NASCAR broadcasts do it and so do IndyCar. I understand everyone has bills to pay, but have a little bit of dignity instead of completely whoring yourself out.

One particular broadcaster does this so much that it makes some races unwatchable.

Screw it, I'll put them on blast: CBS Sports has ruined Formula E for me. I can't tell you how many times they've cut to commercial only to return with someone in the wall or a new leader. It's enraging.

But anywho...

ESPN returned to the match, which Manchester United held on to win that match 2-0 (I told you. it was over), and fortunately, nothing happened during that quick, unscheduled break in the action.

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