Why hundreds of seats were empty at the Netherlands vs Mexico World Cup game

The Round of 16 game between Netherlands and Mexico saw hundreds of empty seats. (Image from Daily Mail)

Netherlands beat Mexico 2-1 in a thrilling encounter yesterday with the winner coming in stoppage time thanks to a penalty converted by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

The match also saw the first official cooling break at the World Cup which saw the game halted for three minutes after 30 minutes in each half (30’ mark and 75’ mark) – something Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal was very happy to take advantage of.

But the game saw an alarmingly high number of empty seats. While World Cup tickets for the knockout stages were hard to come by for many fans, many viewers expressed their dismay on social networks at fans “not attending such a good match”.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The main reason there were so many empty seats was because of the heat and the sun bearing down on one section of the stadium.

If one looked closely, they would have noticed only the seats that were not in the shade were empty. While a handful of spectators braved the sun and the 39 degrees Celsius heat, most of the fans headed for the shade at the back of the stands.

The 60% plus humidity did not help either – it made the atmosphere at the stadium hot and sticky. Which is why the players must be credited for managing to get through the full 90 minutes and giving us an entertaining match.

But it also begs the question – how many water breaks will we see in Qatar?