Thousands of soccer fans, young and old, seasoned and new, flooded the streets of Santa Clara on Wednesday in their red, white and blue finest as the U.S. Men’s National Team won an elimination match at Levi’s Stadium against Bosnia-Herzegovina’s squad.
The knockout game marked the first time the men’s team, which trounced Bosnia 2-0, has played a World Cup match in the Bay Area in 32 years and added a layer of drama and excitement to what was the last of this tournament’s games hosted locally.
Naseem Farooqi, decked out in an American flag t-shirt, a cowboy hat and boots, smoked a celebratory cigar outside the stadium after the game.
“We were able to pull through and execute when we needed to,” the Rancho Cucamonga resident said. “It’s a freaking good time, man.”
Casandra Rojas agreed. The 26-year-old Redwood City resident came to the game with her dad, Rudy.
“We’re a Latino family, so soccer truly means everything to us,” she said. “It’s part of our culture, part of who we are. It runs in our family.”
Even the tournament’s youngest attendees recognized they were witnessing something special.
“This is like a golden age of players,” said Sammy Oltmans, an 11-year-old San Francisco resident and self-described big soccer fan. “It’s very fun to watch … every fan is cheering their loudest.”
Levi’s, which was temporarily renamed the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium for the World Cup, previously hosted group stage matches, largely between teams that don’t garner as much attention on the world stage.
Fans of the U.S. team were thrilled the Stars and Stripes earned a chance to play at Levi’s and will play Belgium next week in a Round of 16 elimination game.
In a parking lot near Levi’s ahead of the match, thousands of American Outlaws, an unofficial support group of the team, celebrated, ate burritos, chanted, “USA, USA,” and sang anthems like John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and Woody Guthrie’s “When The Yanks Go Marching In.” The group’s drummers and horn players kept spirits high before much of the crowd headed out for a drumline-led march to the stadium.
Jacob Wong, a 29-year-old San Francisco resident, took the day off to attend the game.
“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Wong, who was certain the U.S. would win “by 100.”
“You can feel the energy,” he said. “Everyone is excited.”
“It feels like Christmas morning,” said Joe Duffy, who, along with two friends, each paid $3,000 to sit in nosebleed seats.
While they were smaller in number, Bosnia fans were equally as excited to see their team take the pitch.
“It’s a homeland versus a motherland,” said Lejla Kuhinja, who was born and raised in Bosnia before moving to the U.S. in 1995 at age 16.
The Gilroy resident had hoped Bosnia would come out ahead. “It’s definitely amazing to see our little country make it here,” she said.
Armina Husic said the “love and happiness” of Bosnia’s local appearance in the World Cup was a welcome change of pace. “For many years, our country was recognized for war and suffering,” she said, referring to the civil war that gripped the country in the early 1990s.
The women tried to snag last-minute tickets to the game but had backup plans to go to a nearby bar.
To the north, bars in San Francisco were packed with soccer fans. Revelers at Standard Deviant Brewing in the Mission District cheered after the U.S. clinched its spot in the Round of 16.
“Exciting!” Quinn Reilly said. “We had a good time!”
Many attendees making the trek to Santa Clara, heeding warnings about road closures and traffic, took public transportation to the game and local transit authorities said they were prepared for an influx of riders.
Caltrain said it saw a 20% increase in ridership on game days and expected even larger crowds for the U.S. match. The agency was running two additional trains before the game and said it was keeping additional trains on standby to accommodate post-game crowds.
Raj Patel flew into town from Atlanta and rode the train from San Francisco with his college roommate, Sid Balireddy. The pair were luckier than Duffy’s crew. They scored tickets for $800.
“We don’t get this kind of thing in Atlanta,” Patel said of Caltrain. “A lot of other places could do with something like this.”
Their train, full of boisterous fans, some of them sharing beers with new friends, experienced a brief delay in Menlo Park for what a conductor said was a quick “reset,” but continued on its way after a few minutes.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which has a light rail stop near the stadium, said it was expecting a record ridership day and was running supplemental bus service ahead of the game because trains were full.
VTA said it had about 80 train cars available after the game and planned to run them one behind the other to move people as quickly as possible. Trains were crowded after the game, but the platform was orderly.
Outside the stadium wasn’t the only place bursting with fans in the South Bay. Interest in soccer appears to be growing in the Bay Area, if the huge crowds gathering for watch parties in places like San Pedro Square in downtown San José are any indication, much to the delight of local boosters and businesses.
Closed streets, massive TV screens and special permission from the city to allow outdoor drinking have drawn in several thousand to tens of thousands of people per match, with some of the most popular games, including Wednesday’s U.S. match, bringing people to the area hours ahead of kickoff to nab spots.
Brian Kurtz, CEO of the San José Downtown Association, said watch parties exceeded expectations. He chalked up much of the success to the increasing popularity of soccer and the diversity of the city.
“The World Cup celebrates culture, it celebrates countries, diversity and heritage. And what we’re seeing in downtown, in a city where more than 40% of our population is foreign-born, is that coming to real life,” Kurtz said. “And I see this as something that’s only going to grow and grow as the years go on.”
There have been some tense moments near watch parties, however. One man was killed, and another was critically wounded on Sunday in a shooting just blocks from San Pedro Square.
In San Francisco, SPARK Social on Wednesday abruptly canceled all of its remaining watch parties “in the interest of protecting the safety of our guests, staff, vendors, and community” after two people were wounded in a shooting in the area.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie acknowledged the incident but said police responded quickly.
“We feel like our city is incredibly safe and people should feel welcome to come out to our watch parties,” he said during a halftime interview with KQED.
Lurie, who was attending the game, called the U.S.’s goal in the first half “electric.”
“It’s just epic,” he said. “This is a culmination of a great first three weeks of the World Cup and to have the U.S. here, we couldn’t have asked for a better wrap-up in terms of hosting.”
Overall, the atmosphere surrounding the game near the stadium and at watch parties across the region has been upbeat and friendly.
A sea of red, white and blue jerseys took over the Chase Center courtyard in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco on Wednesday.
Visitors hoping to experience some of the excitement happening in the South Bay found what they were looking for, with fans donning face paint, downing beers and, in some cases, dressing as founding fathers.
Carissa Umanzor traveled across the bay from Martinez to join the party dressed as George Washington and cheered with a drum in hand. She’s been following the tournament closely and went to two earlier matches at Levi’s.
“This is once in a lifetime,” Umanzor said. “I’ve been watching all the videos of people who are coming from other countries and then seeing another perspective of people’s experience in America, and I love that.”
Tenzin Samten, 23, arrived more than two hours early to get a seat in front of the mega screen broadcasting World Cup games at Thrive City outside Chase Center. After picking up food nearby, Samten, who was watching with his parents and sister, eagerly waited for the U.S. kickoff as the Senegal versus Belgium game played.
“It feels more fun to come out and support the team when they’re close by,” the Richmond resident said.
Dolores LeDesma, 69, sat in a folding chair alongside her son Jarmar, 41, at Chase. The two are major fans of Arsenal FC and have been enjoying seeing the tournament so close to home.
“I’m a proud Native American Indian of the Navajo tribe, and I can’t believe that there’s so many diverse people and different cultures that are coming together for the World Cup,” LeDesma said.
James Talcott, 69, also strolled through the Thrive City watch party early on Wednesday to get some food and find a seat before the 5 p.m. kickoff.
The Tenderloin resident was thrilled to watch the U.S. play and see the Bay Area hosting games. He recalled attending World Cup matches when the tournament took place at Stanford University in 1994.
“It’s been great, but I’ll tell you what, I went to the one they had 30 years ago here, at Stanford. And I remember the tickets were free. Now they’re talking about tickets like $3,000,” he said. “I mean, come on.”
Ticket prices weren’t the only thing spiking. Just a five-minute walk from Levi’s is the Hilton Santa Clara, which recently completed a renovation and hosts a “TailG8 Zone” for the public to gather, eat and drink before and after major events at the stadium.
Sales and marketing director Kunal Khandwala said it had been difficult to predict what bookings would be like for FIFA World Cup matches because so many factors, including inflation, war, politics and travel restrictions, could influence how many fans were attending various games.
But Khandwala said he saw a lot of demand with the U.S. team playing a match locally.
“We just picked up a lot more rooms over this past weekend. Once, I guess, the final teams were announced, people got more excited, and they started picking up hotel rooms and last-minute ticket sales at the stadium as well,” he said.
Rooms for Wednesday night at the hotel appeared sold out this week. Rates for a standard room on Tuesday night began around $500 and increased to more than $1,000 for a suite, according to the website.
Source: KQED
