We signed a petition, we sent emails, we moaned and complained, all in an effort to get NBC Universal to do something about the availability of the USA-Mexico match on August 12th.

I don't know if they listened, but it's clear they're making an effort to make the match available to a wider audience. While the game will still be broadcast on Telemundo's sister channel mun2, that network will now be available free of charge to DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers on August 12th.

The free preview of the channel will make it available in 56 million households that day, a significant increase over the 31 million homes that currently receive it.

In addition to this free preview news, Telemundo/mun2 also announced that the English-language broadcast team for the qualifier will be Phil Schoen and Marcelo Balboa.

A statement by mun2 Senior Vice Predident and General Manager Alex Pels:

"By offering a live a major sporting event on mun2 free-of-charge to the industry, we hope that all soccer fans and sports enthusiasts will recognize mun2 as uniquely American, game changing, connected and smart - our brand attributes. It is a great opportunity for new viewers to sample our quality programming and to see an historic game produced by Deportes Telemundo, the best sports team in the business."

This is fairly big news, and I'm happy to see that the match will be available to many more English-speaking Americans than before. Telemundo has played this smart, putting their other property (mun2) in front of a larger audience, giving the American soccer fans what they want, and leveraging the interest in the game.

If you're a cable subscriber, call your cable company and demand that they take advantage of this free preview; while DirecTV and Dish Network have signed on, cable companies may not unless pushed to do so by their customers.

Give me your thoughts on this news.