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It did not escape anyone's attention that there were plenty of empty seats for South Korea's Group A clash with the Czech Republic.
The Estadio Akron stadium in Zapopan - officially referred to as Guadalajara for the purposes of the tournament - looked to be far from packed out, despite FIFA claiming the attendance was just a few hundred shy of capacity.
That is a terrible look for the tournament organisers, who were stringently (and correctly) criticised for their ticket policy in the run-up to the World Cup.
FIFA ticket policy questioned again after empty seats in Guadalajara
A lack of transparency over ticket costs, the use of dynamic pricing, and the ultimately enormous cost of attending a game in Canada, Mexico or the United States of America led to staunch criticism from fan groups.
Tens of thousands of tickets have been available on resale sites, leading to reasonable suspicions that FIFA may have been putting them on there themselves in a desperate bid to fill the grounds.
But even the World Cup's second-smallest venue looked to be very far from full as South Korea came from behind to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 on Thursday night.
Estadio Akron has a tournament capacity of 45,664, with Toronto's BMO Field (43,036) the only smaller stadium among the 16 that will be used throughout the tournament.
Some venues are almost twice that size, with Mexico City's Estadio Azteca and East Rutherford's MetLife Stadium both topping 80,000 seats.
All but four of the venues - including all of the stadia in the US - hold at least 64,000 fans.
For there to be so many vacant pews in Zapopan could yet prove to be an omen of things to come around the rest of North America over the next few weeks.
FIFA nonetheless announced the official attendance for the South Korea-Czech Republic game as 44,985, despite visual evidence saying otherwise.
The biggest empty patches were mostly in the 'VIP' sections closest to the pitch, where a general admission ticket would set you back around $400 (£298).
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has remained adamant that ticket demand has been 'unprecedented ... by a factor of 10 or more.
