SANTA CLARA — A record crowd of more than 50,000 fans witnessed the first match to take place on a World Cup playing surface at Levi’s Stadium.

The 50,978 tickets sold Saturday night set a franchise high for the San Jose Earthquakes, who weren’t able to capitalize on the homefield advantage, fell behind early and lost to Los Angeles FC, 4-2, in a match that was largely decided within the first 12 minutes.

It wasn’t the showing that coach Bruce Arena had hoped for in one of the marquee matches in franchise history, breaking the previous attendance record set against their other Los Angeles rival, the Galaxy, at Stanford Stadium in 2019.

The loss dealt a blow to the Quakes’ playoff hopes, their lead on the last postseason seed down to a single point over Real Salt Lake with four games to

See Full Page