Still if it was hockey you might see up to 10 goals.

Thats what makes it exciting, the goals.

It's for both teams included

High scoring games are less rare that people think

And those happened in the last two weeks in very important matches

And how can you not love football, with games like this one (this is one of my personal favourites, one of the best games I've ever watched, even with only 5 goals scored)

And a yesterday match from my league, fantastic, awesome match

In the US, soccer is for little kids and girls. Most boys move onto basketball, real football, and baseball by highschool. Soccer is only big in grade school.

Soccer is kinda like anime. 10 minutes of fun in two 45 minute long episodes.

At least anime eps are only 20 minutes long.

"By 2003-04 there were 1,8 million registered players and corporate sponsorships reached more than R640 million. Without question, football in the ‘new' South Africa is a powerful economic, cultural, and political force." Source

"Football - or soccer, as we call it - is the most widely played sport in South Africa, with its traditional support base in the black community. For many South Africans the country's proudest sporting moment came when we won the African Nations Cup on home turf in 1996." Source

"Association Football in South Africa (commonly referred to as soccer), is the country's most popular participation sport, and is especially popular among the Black population." Source

"Football in Africa is followed passionately from Morocco on down to South Africa. You'll know when an important football match is being played in Africa because the country you are visiting will literally come to a standstill." Source (=> a friend of mine from Ghana recently confirmed this statement; he said, whenever Ghana's national team plays a match, the country literally comes to a complete standstill)

So no, the FIFA are not attempting at all to boost the popularity of football/soccer in South Africa. There's no need, as it is obviously already the most popular sport, not only in S.A., but in most (if not all) other African countries. The FIFA were just giving the continent what it already deserved and was eagerly awaiting for a long time - the opportunity to host a Football World Cup.

ok lol i was misunderstood. I was purly and simply going on the fact that the only sport i recognise south africa with was Cricket but then again there isnt much of a black support for the sport. I could only name one or two south african footballer off the top of my head and thats Steven Pinaar Everton and Benni Mcarthy Blackburn.

 Lol at this, everyone knows real football is the one everyone(except US and a few countries that dont matter) plays.

The World Cup is terrible soccer compared to other leagues around the world. You look at a guy and get red carded. It's lame.

With that said, I don't particularly enjoy soccer but I watch it at times. I just found a soccer bar here in Milwaukee and have been there a few times, mostly just to get drunk and yell, which is what soccer fans seem to enjoy most. Back in Long Beach I would roll down to an English bar and watch some Premiere league with the guys there.

Give me MLB, NFL, or NBA any day of the week. There just isn't enough scoring in most soccer games to keep me interested. It's not terrible on the level of cricket (and I am a baseball fan so I can't say much), it just doesn't appeal to me that much.

Dunno, last time America won anything in soccer a chick started stripping on the field.

Of course, she was a player but it was still pretty awesome.