Wednesday, fans crowded into San Pedro Square to watch Brazil take on Scotland for a chance to advance in the tournament. But even more packed the area to root on Mexico, which has already clinched a spot in the next knockout round. The World Cup viewing is still the biggest show in town for fans whether their team has made it to the knockout round or not. Brazil made it in just a couple of hours ago, while Mexico clinched earlier in the tournament. No matter what, it’s been hard for fans to find a seat unless they came early; in some cases, very early. Marianna Montenegro and her family were the first to arrive for the Mexico World Cup game against Czechia, in front of one of the big TV screens in San Pedro Square. She said she learned her lesson at the last Mexico game. “This time, because the game does start all the way until 6 p.m., we did sacrifice our time and day to get here like hours ahead, so we got here at 10:30 a.m. instead so we’d be able to get a seat in front of the big screen,” she said. It didn’t take long for the México fans to start arriving, and many said it didn’t matter that Mexico has already clinched the knockout round and that Wednesday’s game didn’t mean much for the standings. Some of the local businesses said it’s been busy the entire World Cup, but they’ve seen huge spikes during Mexico and the United States games. One vendor said it’s pretty tough finding Mexico team souvenirs now. “Honestly, for adult and sold out within the first week or so. For kids, it’s sold out the second week, so, in about two weeks, we sold out pretty much on all the Mexican apparel,” Kevin Valencia said. There were pretty good crowds for the Switzerland-Canada matchup, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina against Qatar, and then things got really crowded and noisy for Brazil and Scotland. Mexico fans were already in those crowds, Montenegro said she made the right decision to come in the morning for the evening game. “People are still able to get in, and it’s so much easier, even though the crowd is very loud and very energetic, you’re still able to come in compared to last time,” she said. ...read more read less