USA vs. Belgium World Cup Match Tests ESPN Stream

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United States' DaMarcus Beasley, second right, shoots across Belgium's Jan Vertonghen out of the penalty zone during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Belgium and the USA at the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, Brazil, Tuesday, July 1, 2014.

Image: Themba Hadebe/Associated Press

By Jason Abbruzzese2014-07-01 21:19:12 UTC

ESPN's live stream of the USA vs. Belgium match has again caused some frustration among customers who found the stream cutting out and sometimes inaccessible.

The first half of the match topped out at 1.5 million simultaneous streams, according to ESPN. The previous USA match against Germany saw 1.7 million concurrent streams, while Univision said it served 745,000 streams.

See also: Battle of the Foods: The Belgium-USA World Cup Chowdown

Streaming video demand tends to test the limitations of existing systems, with problems seen at other big events such as the Oscars and the season premiere of Game of Thrones . Users tend to blame the provider, in this case ESPN, although problems can occur at a variety of places throughout a network.

Frustrated fans vented frustrations on Twitter.

Others gave credit to ESPN for being able to provide the service despite the overwhelming demand.

Topics: Business, ESPN, Media, soccer, Sports, Video, world cup