Seen two soccer games there and it's crap, horrible sight lines, concession stands in the middle of the concourse, one entry/exit for all bathrooms. Did I mention it's crap?
Austria - Jordan was a good game. Surprisingly close. Both teams had chances. Austria got a PK at the very end. Both teams had their chances. I want apfelstrudel!!
I went to the game - I had low expectations. I thought - OK, how many Austrian or Jordan fans can there be? It's probably gonna be a bunch of neutrals and it'll be like a morgue in the stadium. And the game won't be competitive because Jordan is ranked like 64th and Austria is 20-something. I was totally wrong! The crowd was like 80% pro-Jordan and they were loud! Every time Jordan went on an attack there was a roar. I didn't know there were that many Jordanians in the world let alone at Levi's stadium. I saw one clearly Austrian section but it was small and they weren't making much noise. Polite Europeans I guess. And the game was quite competitive. It was the typical one team possessing against a bunkered defense that is looking for the counter kind of game. But Jordan did really well - dangerous on the counter and defended well. It was 1-1 into the 70-something minute. And would have ended 2-1 except for a last minute handball in the box.
They said there were 68k in attendance. If that is true, that’s another sellout and that’s pretty incredible for a Tuesday night game. If an Austria -Jordan World Cup match were held abroad, I doubt they would draw that many fans.
The football keeps coming 🍿#FIFAWorldCup— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 17, 2026 GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! GO USA!!! VAI BRASIL!!! -G
How about Argentina! I thought MLS diminshes skills? Messi 3 -Algeria 0! ARGvsALG 06-16-2026 | MLS Match Recap
I could see lots of empty seats at Levi's; I wasn't sorry not to be there. Although I watched one of the most entertaining games ever at Levi's -- Mexico vs Chile, which Mexico lost 0-7 -- as the Mexican fans started raining down beer blasts with every goal scored against them. I've only sat in the lower bowl, maybe the sightlines are decent higher up?
I'm sure there were some empty seats, but it was a big crowd and it was surprsingly electric, mostly Jordan fans erupting in excitement every time Jordan went on the attack. There was definitely an electricity in the atmosphere, more so than any other soccer game I've attended. We were in the skinny 3rd deck, below the north side scoreboard. I had low expectations but you had a super clear view of the game, and there's a nice wide concourse behind it, that doesn't get crowded because it's a thin level - just not many people up there. So easy access to concessions and restrooms. The only negative was getting out of the stadium. We had someone drive us and drop us off on the northeast side of the stadium. That worked out very well - we left at about 8:15 and were in our seats at kickoff just after 9pm. But it was chaotic on the way back, with a sea of people and buses and light rail and lots of waymos getting in the way.
The only patches of empty seats were in the most expensive sections, basically the middle three sections of the 100 level on both sides. So that's very visible on TV, but irrelevant to majority of people there.
In recognition of @don gagliardi edibly honoring his ancestral national team that isn’t currently in the World Cup a few nights ago, I headed to Marie Callender’s in Sunnyvale yesterday to edibly honor my ancestral national team that isn’t currently in the World Cup with a plate of Beef Stroganoff (along with a lemonade, a slice of banana cream pie and free cornbread & butter). I actually forgot to take a picture of it , but it looked exactly like this: And with England’s first game later today, I just had some fish and chips (along with some oysters, a beer and a Rockside Brownie for dessert) at Blue Water Seafood & Crab in San José. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! GO USA!!! VAI BRASIL!!! -G
Unlike with so many others in the last few years , it’s heartening to know that Marie Callender’s (as well as some other restaurants) is still around. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! GO USA!!! VAI BRASIL!!! -G
And which is another one that I’d visited fairly recently. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! GO USA!!! VAI BRASIL!!! -G
There is one in San Jose too and I can get DoorDash from there... when my son is being picky on food, I threaten to get that.
And unlike the other restaurants I visited in this thread thus far, Blue Water Seafood & Crab (where I ate the fish and chips today) was very World Cup decked out, with all the TV’s in the bar area showing the World Cup games. That’s where I watched the Portugal - DR Congo match. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! GO USA!!! VAI BRASIL!!! -G
These are restaurants that were there when I was growing up Sunnyvale, about a million years ago. We'd go there from time to time. The Round Table on Stelling at Homestead was there for a really long time also (though finally gone now I think). I think it might have been there at the creation of the earth. I played Little League baseball right near there and we had "shirt sponsors" (way ahead of our time), but it wasn't just shirt sponsor, that was the name of the team. So we had teams like Round Table, U-Haul, and Rexall (drugstore), etc. I was on "Underwater Sciences". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯