• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 18, 2010

A surge in traffic during Friday's U.S. soccer match at the World Cup led to a crash in Univision.com's live online stream. Univision, which is making all 64 games available gratis on its Web site, did not detail how long the stirring game was inaccessible.

Viewers likely watched in droves while at work, and Univision said the game was offline for a "limited time," but it was able to quickly fix the problem and get "most of our viewers back." As the stream went down, a message appeared on-screen in Spanish urging viewers to refresh their browsers.

Yet such a large audience trying to reconnect at once may have led to the blackout continuing. Some viewers missed a chunk of the second half as the U.S. made a gallant comeback to tie Slovenia 2-2.

Univision's feed of the England-Algeria game that followed the U.S. game on Friday did not have any interruptions.

ESPN experienced a similar issue during an early game in the tournament when customers of its ESPN3.com product lost access. Unlike Univision.com, the ESPN site is only available to subscribers of some cable services.

Univision has been touting its free online service for some time. On its Spanish-language Web site, four words appear in English: "Watch the games live!"

Twitter has also acknowledged that a traffic balloon has caused troubles with its service during the World Cup.