SOCCER: WORLD CUP LIVE, IN ENGLISH.

Byline: Tom Hoffarth Staff Writer

Forget the crash course in Spanish - but get the pot of coffee brewing.

This summer's World Cup will come live to English-speakers via the ABC family of networks, it was announced Wednesday. That also means, because of the time difference, most games will take place in the middle of the night.

The deal took awhile to pull together, causing many in the industry to believe the games would only be available in the U.S. through Spanish-language Univision. But ABC and its all-sport ESPN and ESPN2 channels will have all 64 games from South Korea and Japan starting May 31 and ending with the June 30 final.

The U.S. team's first-round games are on June 5 vs. Portugal (2 a.m. PDT, ESPN2), June 9 vs. South Korea (11:30 p.m., ESPN2) and June 14 vs. Poland (4:30 a.m., ESPN). The final game, carried by ABC, starts at 4 a.m.

Culver City-based Univision will also show every game live in Spanish - 56 on its network that reaches about 70 percent of U.S. TV homes and eight on a new network it will soon launch. Many will be replayed in prime time to reach a bigger audience. Play-by-play man Andres Cantor is expected to call most of those games.

Of the 2002 World Cup, more than half - 46 - will be aired on ESPN2. ESPN carries 17 and ABC has the final, plus eight other games on tape. ESPN and ESPN2 will also replay some games on tape.

Four years ago when the tournament was in France, ESPN showed 27 games, ESPN2 had 23 and ABC carried 14. All were live.

``From at least a ratings perspective, it's going to be difficult to project. We understand there's a small audience in the middle of the night,'' ESPN senior VP Mark Shapiro said. ``When it comes to this upcoming World Cup, it's not about ratings, it's about providing our viewers with a service.''

The deal, which includes the 2006 World Cup and 2003 Women's World Cup, was actually constructed through Major League Soccer, which bought the U.S. rights from German media company Kirch. The MLS developed its own television company with Phillip Anschutz's Entertainment Group, which owns the Galaxy as well as five other teams from the league.

The MLS paid about $50 million for the TV and radio rights fees from Kirch, which bought all the media rights from FIFA last May.