This month, drama will unfold, regardless of the teams or their anonymity among the Levi’s Stadium fans, who will range from soccer-craving supporters to big-event influencers selfishly looking to expand their brand (like FIFA).
You may not know much, if anything, about the teams or players on the manicured pitch. And you may dig it. A few rows back could be a fan in a Philadelphia Phillies cap loudly taunting a guy in a Brazil jersey sitting a few seats ahead of you, while Japanese fans flank your left and more strangers are passionately cheering to your right.
Still dazed by my first and only Grateful Dead show at Shoreline the previous night, my endorphins raced with patriotic pride as I rooted on the ultimate home team — in the United States’ 1-0 loss to Brazil on the Fourth of July. Now the World Cup is back. If you host it, will they come? Ticketing and pricing snafus invite skepticism.
It could be up to soccer purists and the Bay Area’s big-game hunters to save the day — or the late night with those 9 p.m. kickoffs. Team USA could make its encore 32 years later to play another knockout-stage game here in the Bay Area, 13 miles down Embarcadero to Highway 101/237 to Great America Parkway.
That idyllic return would not be until July 1, when the Group D winner takes on another group’s third-place finisher at “San Francisco Bay Area Stadium,” as it has been unbranded by FIFA. The U.S. will have to override Group D co-tenants Australia, Paraguay and Turkey.
Those three countries will play Bay Area group-stage games while the U.S. is reserved for two engagements in Los Angeles sandwiched around a Seattle show on June 19. From Sam’s Army to the American Outlaws, the evolution of U.S. Soccer fandom shouldn’t be complicated. Nor should rooting for others.
Just watch the ball crisply pass from insole to insole, then await a corner/free/penalty kick that might deliver a goal and appease Americans’ offense-centric mind. I’ve been in Europe when past versions have unfolded and captivated nations, where cities essentially shut down until the game’s end. And I’ve been in America – on the soccer beat as a Bay Area reporter — when the women’s version made for a blissful 1999 summer romance.
Five years after the U.S. men lost to Brazil at Stanford Stadium, the script flipped at Stanford Stadium on Independence Day 1999. The U.S. women, headlined by Mia Hamm, claimed a 2-0 semifinal win over Brazil.
Then it was onto Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, where 90,000-plus saw San Jose’s own Brandi Chastain punctuate a shootout triumph over China for the cup. I consider it the greatest combination of clutch teamwork, high-profile event and successful outcome that I’ve covered in over 30 years with this news organization.
Twenty years later, a family vacation through southern France detoured to a pair of Women’s World Cup games, neither of which involved the U.S. We were handed free tickets outside the gate of Montpellier’s modest stadium to watch Cameroon edge New Zealand 2-1. Two days later, we boarded buses on Nice’s shoreline, settled in with over 45,000 fans at Allianz Riviera and saw our adopted Australia team eliminated in penalty kicks against Norway.
This month, drama will unfold, regardless of the teams or their anonymity among the Levi’s Stadium fans, who will range from soccer-craving supporters to big-event influencers selfishly looking to expand their brand . None of the five group-stage matchups at SFBAS is going to attract rabid fans the way, say,June 22: Jordan vs. Algeria, 8 p.m.None of those countries has won a World Cup. That’s not worth agonizing over anymore.
Take a cue from the NCAA’s March Madness frenzy and prepare for, supposedly, the greatest show on Earth. Admire the artistry that comes with 11 players a side striving to best represent their country. Restrain your anger and disappointment over FIFA’s corporate greed and unabashed ploy to capitalize on this every-four-year money grab. Settle into your seat, ideally after prices plunge, and watch strangers become friendly neighbors.
We’re all in this together. There’s only one world … and one World Cup here this summer.
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