The other form of football was being played: Mexico took on Nicaragua in the first round of the Gold Cup, a 12-team regional soccer tournament.
And while the dreary Coliseum was more crowded and livelier than it has been in a long time, it still wasn't full. The crowd that watched Mexico defeat Nicaragua 2-0 was 32,057 — the kind of gathering the A's would swoon for — but it wasn't capacity.
Mexico boasts perhaps the most enthusiastic soccer fans in the world, and its team usually draws 45,000-plus when it plays in Oakland. The diminished crowd might be a referendum on the economy. That's what Mexico Coach Javier Aguirre thinks.
"It's very difficult right now with a world crisis in the economy," Aguirre snapped when he was pestered about the size of the crowd.
Or the lack of a sellout could be a sign of the frustration and concern Mexican fans feel over their beloved El Tri.
Mexico is a team in crisis, and a 2-0 victory over Nicaragua, a nation that cares far more about baseball than soccer and one fielding a team more amateur than professional, isn't going to assuage any concerns.
Mexico is in fourth place in the region's World Cup qualifying standings, one point behind Honduras but only one point ahead of El Salvador in fifth place. Only the top three teams are guaranteed a trip to South Africa next summer. The fourth-place finisher faces a playoff with the fifth-place team from South America, a far stronger region than this one.
These Gold Cup games are fine, but what the Mexican fans really worry about is the World Cup. Mexico has qualified for four consecutive World Cups.
Aguirre knows as well as anyone how devastating a loss to the United States can be. Once the savior of Mexican soccer in 2002, when he took over the team and guided it through a rocky qualifying process, Aguirre was fired after his team lost to the United States in the second round of that World Cup.
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