U.S.-Ghana game fifth highest rated in ESPN history

NEW YORK -- The United States' 2-1 loss to Ghana that knocked the Americans out of the World Cup was the fifth highest-rated soccer game ever on ESPN.

The network got a 3.2 rating for Thursday's game, which was watched in an estimated 2.9 million homes. The most-viewed game in ESPN history was the U.S.-Germany quarterfinal in the 2002 World Cup, which had a 4.4 rating and was watched in about 3.8 million homes.

Through Thursday's games, ESPN is averaging a 1.5 rating, up 150 percent from an 0.6 average in 2002, when the tournament was played in South Korea and Japan and most of the games were on television in the United States in the middle of the night or the early morning. ESPN2 is averaging a 1.0 rating through 28 games, 67 percent higher than the 0.6 in 2002.

Through two weekends of play, ABC is averaging a 2.5 rating, up 89 percent from 2002.