The U.S. beat Trinidad & Tobago Wednesday night and could clinch a World Cup berth with a win against Mexico in Columbus on Sept. 3. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

The most important soccer game on U.S. soil in 2005 currently is not scheduled to be televised live on English-language TV.

The U.S. men's national soccer team would clinch a World Cup berth with a win (and possibly a tie) when it meets archrival Mexico at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 3 in Columbus, Ohio. But as of Friday morning, the only English-language broadcast was scheduled to be shown on tape delay at 2:30 a.m. ET on Sept. 4 on ESPN2, according to ESPN's published listings.

Executives at ESPN, U.S. Soccer and Soccer United Marketing (which owns the rights to the game) say discussions are ongoing in search of a solution with the match two weeks away.

"It will be live on English-language television," vows SUM president Doug Quinn. "We'll know more next week, but we do have a number of options to ensure our fans that it will be on live TV."

Though officials from U.S. Soccer, SUM and ESPN refused to comment on the details of their partnership, sources told SI.com that if ESPN decides not to broadcast U.S.-Mexico live on any of its channels, the game could be shown live instead on another (likely smaller) outlet, such as the Fox Soccer Channel.

"Our intention is to televise the game live in the English language," says Leah LaPlaca, ESPN's senior director of programming and acquisitions. "We always try to have the World Cup qualifiers on ESPN or ESPN2, but on Labor Day weekend, with the start of the college football season, there are a lot of other games that we have commitments to that are already locked in."

If you speak Spanish, you're in luck. U.S.-Mexico is scheduled to be shown live en Español on Telemundo. However, the ESPN family of channels is set to broadcast a heavy menu of college football that Saturday night instead of soccer.

If there was ever a cold reminder to U.S. soccer fans that football trumps fútbol in the TV pecking order, all it takes is one look at ESPN's schedule that night (which is subject to change). At kickoff time for U.S.-Mexico, ESPN currently is slated to show these programs on its six-channel family:

ESPN: Boise State-Georgia college football
ESPN2: USC-Hawaii college football
ESPN Classic: Battle Lines: Billy Conn/Joe Louis I (boxing)
ESPNEWS: News
ESPN Deportes: Torneos de las Américas basketball
ESPNU: Delaware State-Florida A&M college football

U.S. Soccer originally had announced that U.S.-Mexico would be shown live on ESPN Classic, but ESPN's listings say otherwise. (U.S. Soccer's Web site now lists the broadcast outlet as "TBD.")