Marcos Breton: As Bay Area World Cup ticket sales rev up, here's why I won't be buying

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — To see Brazil play a World Cup game against Cameroon in 1994 at Stanford Stadium, I took the Amtrak from Sacramento to San Jose and then hopped a Caltrain up the peninsula to Palo Alto. It was like being transported to a small slice of Carnival. Everywhere, there were Brazilian fans in the trademark colors of their team, samba gold and green. It was like no sporting event I’d ever seen in the United States.

Unfortunately, with the World Cup returning to the Bay Area, I’m not planning a repeat trip.

Another batch of FIFA World Cup tickets go on sale Thursday, but the six games scheduled for Levi’s Stadium have me asking this question: Why would anyone who doesn’t have ancestral roots in Qatar, Jordan, Austria, Switzerland, Paraguay or Australia go? These are the national teams confirmed to play in Santa Clara starting June 13, fine nations one and all — but hardly World Cup dynasties.

An additional unspectacular European team will join this group, when a March play-in tournament will produce a final entrant from a four-team field of Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey.

Honestly, I’ve been trying to get fired up for this up lineup of misfit toys since Saturday, when the World Cup game times were announced, and Northern California became Charlie Brown at Halloween. We were hoping for candy, got handed a rock.

Will there be empty seats for some of the games? It’s entirely possible.

No Messi, no marquee teams

There was a chance Santa Clara would get Argentina, the reigning World Cup champions featuring Lionel Messi, who is so great and so famous he transcends his sport. Even people who hate soccer know who Messi is. People who love soccer know he is either the best player of all time, or the only living member of a shortlist of immortals such as the late, Pele, the OG from Brazil — or the late, Diego Maradona, Messi’s countryman from Argentina.

But no, instead of Santa Clara, Argentina will play two games in the home of the Dallas Cowboys and one at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

As one of 16 stadium venues in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, Santa Clara drew the shortest straw of all.

There are no teams headed this way from the top 10 of FIFA’s World rankings. The best of the lot, at least on paper, is Switzerland, ranked No. 17. They’re solid. Their captain, Granit Xhaka, plays in the Premiere League in England. So does Noah Okafur, a young attacking forward and one of Switzerland’s brightest young stars. Their goalie, Yann Sommer, plays for Inter Milan, one of Italy’s premiere teams.

Australia could be good and could draw a lot of fans from down under when they play Paraguay in Santa Clara on June 25. That could be a game to see, but not for a ridiculous price ... at least for me ... because I’ve already experienced what can happen when Northern California is visited by a world-class team in a World Cup competition.

In the 1994 World Cup, Northern California saw the best teams

In 1994, the last time the World Cup was held in the U.S., and I attended that game at Stanford Stadium, Brazil was the big draw and eventually became the champion that year.

The Brazilians played with such flair that they overwhelmed Cameroon, 3-0. I remember Bebeto and Romario, Brazil’s dynamic duo or attacking forwards, pushing the action and causing thousands in the crowd to not simply cheer, but gasp with delirium as they floated past opponents as if they weren’t there.

Romario, a legend in a nation of legends, scored in the 39th minute when he took a long pass, controlled it magically on his right foot, split two defenders and beat the opposing goalie, all too slow to react. In the 73rd minute, Romario almost scored again, his shot was blocked, and it bounced to Bebeto who tucked past the goalie from an impossibly tight angle.

Then I saw Brazil play the United States in an elimination game, in the Round of 16, on the Fourth of July. It was the best team in the world against the underdog home team, the host nation. Just to reach this game, the Americans had beaten heavily favored Colombia in a thriller at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The Brazilian guy next to me knew this, but wasn’t worried. “USA, Not Today,” he kept chanting. And he was right. Brazil eliminated the Americans, 1-0. In all, they played five of their seven games in California, three at Stanford and two at the Rose Bowl, on the way to immortality. I also saw a quarterfinal game in Palo Alto, where Sweden won on penalty kicks, advancing to the final four of the tournament where they lost to Brazil before finishing in third place.

Pumped about Austria vs. Jordan?

We saw the best that World Cup had to offer in Palo Alto: the eventual champion, the home team and the third place team in a late round elimination thriller.

We may get the Americans at Santa Clara in a Round of 32 game on July 1, if the Americans win their group. Jordan is playing in its first ever World Cup. Austria qualified for its first cup since 1998. If Turkey gets in, that could be interesting for soccer nerds.

But Austria versus Jordan at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night at Levi’s Stadium?

My wallet is not moved.