Chelsea plays at home against Swansea City today in the first leg of their League Cup game. For the Blues, it represents their first opportunity to move a giant step closer to winning their first piece of silverware this season. The match will give us another opportunity to see how Rafael Benitez will set up Demba Ba and Fernando Torres. Will they play together or will one get pushed to the bench?

For Swansea, it’s the first time in their 100 year history that the club has reached the semi-finals of the League Cup. And it’s only the third time in the club’s history that they’ve reached the semi-finals of a cup competition. The last time was almost 49 years ago when they lost in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Without a doubt, it’s going to be a wondrous game to watch between two sides who are desperate to gain the advantage in the first leg.

But, if you live in the United States, the game isn’t going to be shown live on television or Internet. It could be shown, but US media right owners beIN SPORT have decided that they’ll show the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final live instead.

“Ok, but the game will be shown on delay immediately following the Copa del Rey semi-final, right?”

No. beIN SPORT has decided to show their news show The Express instead.

“Okay, but then beIN SPORT will show the game after The Express, right?!”

No. beIN SPORT has decided to show a live U-20 CONMEBOL game. Instead, beIN SPORT will show the game between Chelsea-Swansea at 10:30pm ET, meaning that the first airing of the game on US television won’t end until 12:30am ET — almost 10 hours after the game kicks off at Stamford Bridge.

If you are interested in following the game live, your best bet is the live radio commentary from talksport.co.uk (or talksport.com, if you’re geo-blocked). Other than that, you’re out of luck (unless you decide to try a pirated stream).

In fairness to beIN SPORT, the game today between Real Madrid and Celta Vigo is a bigger match than Chelsea-Swansea primarily because the Copa del Rey match is the second leg. But it illustrates how frustrating it is for soccer fans where beIN SPORT currently doesn’t have the bandwidth to show more than one game at any given time where they have the rights to them. Case in point are the Championship games that beIN SPORT have the rights to, but those games have been “relegated” to off-hours or, more often that not, not shown at all.

As most of you know, I’m against the use of pirated streams, but for those who want to watch the game live today, beIN SPORT is offering no alternative.