SANTA CLARA — A record crowd of more than 50,000 fans witnessed the first match to take place on a World Cup playing surface at Levi’s Stadium.
The 50,978 tickets sold Saturday night set a franchise high for the San Jose Earthquakes, who weren’t able to capitalize on the homefield advantage, fell behind early and lost to Los Angeles FC, 4-2, in a match that was largely decided within the first 12 minutes.
It wasn’t the showing that coach Bruce Arena had hoped for in one of the marquee matches in franchise history, breaking the previous attendance record set against their other Los Angeles rival, the Galaxy, at Stanford Stadium in 2019.
The loss dealt a blow to the Quakes’ playoff hopes, their lead on the last postseason seed down to a single point over Real Salt Lake with four games to play.
But it did show the appetite for soccer in the region, offering a preview of what Levi’s Stadium could look like less than a year out from hosting the first of six World Cup matches. The grass field served as a test run for the pitch they plan to use in June for the international tournament.
“A crowd like this is nothing but positive for our franchise and the league,” said Arena, whose squad trailed 3-0 by the 13th minute. “I think the crowd tonight shows what a great area for soccer this is in this country. … I wish we could have put on a better show, but LAFC did.”
Another franchise first: Opening the upper deck of the four-story stadium, allowing last-minute ticket buyers such as Yi Xuan, 31, and Hoji Nam, 36, from San Mateo, to attend their first match. The couple bought their tickets for Section 412, row 18, five hours before kickoff for $40 apiece.
Part of the impetus for playing at larger venues than PayPal Park, which holds 18,000, is to attract new fans, Earthquakes president Jared Shawlee said. It will be hard to win over the couple from San Mateo, though, who said they were unaffiliated when it comes to MLS but came to see LAFC star Heung-Min Son.
“Just like all the Koreans we know in the Bay Area,” Xuan said, adding that the sun-drenched east side of the stadium “felt like a grill” for most of the match.
It was Mexican Heritage Night, with a live band performing a concert at halftime and lucha libre wrestlers staging a match outside beforehand, but there was just as much Korean regalia. And it didn’t take long for Son to give them a reason to cheer, breaking away from one of two early Quakes turnovers at midfield and finding the back of the net in the opening minute.
Denis Bouanga made it 2-0 in the ninth minute, added another goal three minutes later and finished off his hat trick with a score in the 87th minute that sealed the match.
The Quakes dominated the time of possession, completed more passes and took more shots.
“I don’t give us that many pats on the back for being maybe in control of the game in the second half,” Arena said. “The only way they decide winners in this game, from all my years being involved in it, is the scoreboard. We won all the other categories, I don’t know if we get any prizes for that. … If you’re the other team in the locker room at halftime, you basically know you’ve got the game won and can play pretty smart and conservative in the second half.”
Leading up to the match, the Levi’s Stadium grounds crew tore up the artificial turf that is typically in place for 49ers home games and installed approximately 80,000 square feet of natural grass, a requirement for high-level soccer. With no more soccer on the docket until the World Cup arrives in June, the Earthquakes game gave the grounds crew an opportunity to test how it played.
Shawlee, who also serves on the board of the Bay Area Host Committee coordinating the World Cup, said it was a “great opportunity for the Levi’s Stadium staff to see the learnings from this match and apply them as we continue to plan for the World Cup.”
The pitch got five stars from midfielder Ian Harkes, who said, “The ball was moving nice and the pitch looked great.”
It wasn’t quite an exact replica of the festivities on tap some 10 months from now, which Shawlee said will be the equivalent of “six Super Bowls.” Each match is expected to sell out the 70,000-capacity stadium, and there will be multiple security perimeters, opposed to the free-flowing situation in the parking lot Saturday.
While there were supporters sections drumming, cheering and waving flags behind each goal, Joe Rias, 29, of Santa Clara, said he expects the environment to be much livelier for the World Cup. Looking at mostly empty seats surrounding him and his three friends in the 400-level, Rias said, “I think all these seats will be packed.”
With which countries’ fans is still to be determined. The draw for the tournament takes place December 5 in Washington, D.C., after which, “that’s when everything hits the accelerator button” for the Host Committee, Shawlee said.
“That’s when fans start making travel arrangements,” he continued. “Back at the ’94 World Cup, when Brazil was here, they just took over the South Bay and the town of Los Gatos. That’s why I think it’s so exciting to see which teams we’re going to get. Tens of thousands of people are going to travel to the Bay Area, not coming to the game. They just want to be where their team plays. That’s where everyone in the community is going to feel the impact.”
Related Articles
Quakes return to Levi’s Stadium expecting record crowd vs. LAFC, superstar Son
Landon Donovan tops San Jose Sports Hall of Fame’s 2025 class
Sloppy San Jose Earthquakes fall 3-1 to Austin FC, drop to ninth place in playoff chase
Chicho Arango and Preston Judd score goals, San Jose Earthquakes beat Dynamo 2-1
SJ Earthquakes’ Buck never stops, brings bigtime energy as super-sub
Arena, a veteran of international soccer as the two-time head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team, found one other area to nitpick.
“Obviously they’ve got to make the field bigger,” he said.
The playing surface Saturday stretched almost from grandstand to grandstand, with just enough room for the benches behind the west sideline, measuring 70 yards wide by 110 yards long. According to Arena, a veteran of international soccer, “in a World Cup it has to be at least 74 by 115.
“So they’re going to have to expand it,” he said. “You can’t play a World Cup game on a field that size. Not that it was bad. Believe me, LAFC had no problems. It’s a great venue, a great climate and especially the months of June and July, the weather here is terrific compared to other parts of the United States. So this is an absolutely brilliant facility for the World Cup, it really is.”