The WatchESPN app (or site, or however you access it) was the way that many Americans were watching the US vs. Germany World Cup match on Thursday. So many, in fact, that the site had issues serving all of its users in the first half. Some folks, including me, couldn’t log on until many minutes into the match. Still, that didn’t stop ESPN from hitting a record 1.7M concurrent viewers during the second half, the company tells us. “We did investigate some limited issues due to unprecedented demand during the first half,” a spokesperson said in response to inquiries about streaming issues. The problems I had connecting appeared to be at the point where WatchESPN authenticates my cable provider in order to verify that I actually subscribe to the channel. Ironically, this is an issue that wouldn’t have occurred if they offered some sort of standalone subscription — which will not happen any time soon, no matter what cord-cutter fever dreams you might have.