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The Bay Area will be the center of the soccer universe on Wednesday evening, when the United States men’s national team plays a World Cup knockout stage match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara.
The San Francisco Bay Area Stadium — the temporary name for the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium — hosts the 5 p.m. match that will see the loser eliminated from the 48-team tournament that runs through July 19. It’s the first World Cup knockout match the U.S. team has played on home soil since the country last hosted the tournament in 1994.
The American team emerged from the group stage and its round of 32 match with Bosnia-Herzegovina will be viewed at watch parties around the Bay Area. The official U.S. Soccer watch party is taking place in San Pedro Square in San Jose, which has hosted up to 25,000 soccer fans for earlier U.S. matches in the tournament.
The Bay Area Host Committee, the nonprofit tasked with the planning and coordination of logistics for major local sporting events like the Super Bowl in February and the six World Cup matches being held in Santa Clara, is partnering with the San Jose Sports Authority and U.S. Soccer for the event. Fans are required to RSVP at sjearthquakes.com/soccercelebration/.
According to the Bay Area Host Committee, there are dozens of other notable watch parties happening around the region, including at San Francisco locations like the Thrive City plaza outside of the Chase Center home arena of the Golden State Warriors, Pier 39 on the northern waterfront, and China Basin Park near the Oracle Park home ballpark of the San Francisco Giants.
On the Peninsula, watch party locations include Courthouse Square in Redwood City, the B Street Pedestrian Mall in downtown San Mateo, and Wheeler Plaza in San Carlos. In the East Bay, the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton and Raimondi Park in Oakland will host events, while The Ruins Napa Valley venue in American Canyon will host a watch party in the North Bay.
A list of watch parties can be found here.
For people going to the match in Santa Clara, heavy traffic is expected and stadium parking lots will open four hours before kickoff. Fans are encouraged to take public transit, with Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light-rail service to the stadium and connections to other rail lines like BART, Caltrain and Amtrak Capitol Corridor service.
Gameday travel information can be found at sfbayareafwc26.com/transit.
Whoever wins Wednesday will play in the round of 16 against the winner of Belgium and Senegal, a match taking place earlier in the day. The American team has never won the men’s World Cup, finishing third in 1930 and getting no further than the quarterfinals since 2002.
Wednesday’s match will also be the last of six that Santa Clara will host in this go-around of the World Cup following five group stage matches.
This story was written by Dan McMenamin for Bay City News.
