WORLD CUP USA ’94 / ROUND OF 16 : SPOTLIGHT : COMING HOME AT HOME

Peter Bridgwater, World Cup venue director for Stanford Stadium, said he expects a capacity crowd of 83,900 for today’s game between the United States and Brazil.

If the two previous games in Palo Alto involving Brazil are any indication, about 83,000 will be dressed in green and yellow, carrying drums and cheering for Brazil.

But Bridgwater said he believes the crowd’s loyalty will be evenly divided.

“Most of the people who came to those two games obviously were not Brazilians, because there are only between 10,000 and 20,000 fans who followed the team to the United States,” he said. “Most of those people you saw were Americans who adopted the Brazilian team.

“So two things are going to happen in this game. One is that we will reclaim those Americans for the U.S. team. Secondly, a lot of non-Brazilian foreign fans who have been coming to our games will be pulling for the underdog.”