World Cup brings 2nd straight big crowd to Bay Area. Did Austria hold off Jordan?
The second World Cup game at Levi’s Stadium wasn’t considered a massive draw. Jordan, a small country with an economy far less rich than some of its Middle Eastern neighbors, was making its World Cup debut opposite Austria, which hadn’t appeared in a World Cup since 1998.
Additionally, the game kicked off at 9 p.m. Pacific, the latest-starting major event since the San Francisco 49ers’ home venue in Santa Clara opened in 2014. That time was aimed to give the home countries a television audience, with start times at 6 a.m. locally in Austria and 7 a.m. in Jordan.
The formula of two small countries without much World Cup track record, in traffic-riddled Silicon Valley on a Tuesday night, could have included many empty seats.
But the place was packed.
The announced attendance for Tuesday’s match was 68,527, just 300 short of the 68,827 capacity that FIFA announced prior to the start of the tournament. That marked a slight increase from the 67,966 fans who saw Qatar tie Switzerland over the weekend with an extra time goal to give Qatar its first point in World Cup history.
Levi’s Stadium might as well been in Amman, Jordan’s capital city. The stadium was filled with Jordan nationals making the near 7,500-mile trek to watch their countrymen make their World Cup debut.
They had plenty to cheer about — for most of the night.
Australia wound up winning the Group J match up 3-1, with the final goal coming in the closing minutes in extra time on a penalty kick from Marko Arnautovic, scoring his 48th career international goal. The match was tied at 1-1 as late as the 76th minute, when Austria scored on an own-goal coming on a corner kick.
Otherwise, the Jordanians had more shots on goals for most of the night despite Austria controlling possession.
“From time to time, unfortunately, we got ourselves into some trouble,” Austrian manager Ralf Rangnick said. “The equalizer was really unnecessary because we lost the ball to our opponent. During halftime, we said we should not allow counterattacks. And we kind of invited them to counterattack.”
Austria came in as a sizable 1.5-goal favorite as FIFA’s No. 24 ranked team against Jordan, ranked No. 63. They have the unenviable task of next going up against Argentina and mega star Lionel Messi, who put up a hat trick with three goals earlier on Wednesday in a 3-0 win for “La Albiceleste” over Algeria in Kansas City.
Austria was well represented as well, with a supporter’s group occupying four sections in the north side of the stadium, who enjoyed watching two second-half goals scored right in front of them.
What’s next in Bay Area World Cup action?
Levi’s Stadium will next host Turkey and Paraguay in Group D at 8 p.m. Friday, two teams fighting to remain alive for the knockout rounds after losing to Australia and the United States, respectively.
Perhaps the biggest game of the group comes earlier Friday, with the Americans playing Australia in Seattle at noon. If the U.S. wins and Paraguay beats or ties Turkey, the U.S. would win Group D outright, even with a game remaining in group play. Doing so means they would play at Levi’s Stadium in the Round of 32 on July 1.
