To being what’s hopefully going to be a consistent blogging topic this next month, I’d like to kick off World Cup season with some ways of showing how you can watch the World Cup from anywhere in the world, especially the USA.
1. Straight up cable TV. The matches are being shown on ESPN, ESPN2, and (luckily for you over-the-air only people) ABC. Set your DVR or just park your butt in front of the TV.
2. Go to a bar. Pretty much every major city in America (and many minor cities) have a soccer fan presence of some sort, and there’s likely to be a watching party within a half hour of you. Do some googling and you’ll find something.
3. WatchESPN app. This is my preferred method, as I get to, uh, borrow my parents’ cable account since we don’t have anything of the sort. Not that we’re too poor or too isolated, we just watch everything through Netflix, Hulu, etc. But my method is either straight up watching on my iPad Mini or iPhone 5S, or plugging one of those devices into my TV through a sweet little device I picked up that connects anything with a lightning port to HDMI to mirror whatever’s on the screen. It works pretty well and I just pray my wi-fi doesn’t crap out during a crucial moment.
4. Sketchy-ass stream. This is what I did for years watching the Premier League (before NBC became the greatest thing for US soccer fans ever) and it can really suck, BUT it is free. My personal favorite for finding sites is Football Streaming and First Row Sports but they are definitely not reliable and ever so slightly illegal. You gotta do what ya gotta do.
Stay tuned for more World Cup stuff soon!