With just over 100 days to go until the 2010 FIFA World Cup, organisers are still hard at work preparing South Africa to be the first African country to host football's showcase event.
At the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, venue for the opening and closing games, the stadium is ready, but thebeautification process is still on-going.
Around the streets of Johannesburg, the World Cup signs that have been attached to lampposts and the graffiti on the walls point to South Africa's growing readiness to host the Africa's first football World Cup.
On Wednesday, South Africa will celebrate the 100-day countdown to the 2010 tournament when it plays Namibia in a friendly in Durban, but the local organising committee has admitted to disappointing ticket sales for the host's World Cup games.
Concerns still surrounds disappointing ticket sales within South Africa, so the nation's footballing body will take its new team bus on a six-week tour of the country as it attempts to convince local fans to get behind the host nation at the World Cup.
FIFA announced earlier this month that 413,072 World Cup match tickets had been allocated to South Africans, but did not give details of which games they were for.
So are the hosts really feeling the buzz and excitement associated with host a football World Cup or is the football fever engineered and a result of marketing and hype?
Danny Jordaan, CEO of the local organising committee for the FIFA World Cup, says that the nation is feeling the buzz and excitement associated with hosting a football World Cup.
He disagrees that the football fever in the country is engineered by marketing and adds that he has observed the excitement growing since South Africa was announced as the hosts of the 2010 World Cup.
Jordaan is certain that South Africa will rise to the occasion, even though he publicly said in January that he was concerned by ticket sales to the host nation's matches.
"I have no doubt that as we've seen in the Confederations Cup, as we've seen in the Rugby World Cup, we will see the passionate support of this event during the World Cup," said Jordaan from his office next to Soccer City.
Jordaan says that the nation should be proud of what they have so far achieved as they prepare to become the first country in Africa to host the World Cup after 103 years of international football.
Nowhere is this passion more on show than during a local derby at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
Rival teams Orlando Pirates and Kaiser Chiefs can boast some of the most passionate supporters in the country.
Dressed in team colours, wearing home-made 'makaraba' hats (painted hard-hats) and blowing 'vuvuzelas' (plastic trumpets), their passion for the game is matched only by the noise they make. And if the supporters attending the derby two weeks ago are anything to go by, South Africans can't wait for the football's show piece to kick off.
"South Africa is excited about this World Cup, because it is a great opportunity for us and we've been long willing to host the World Cup in our country, so we are proud of it," said one supporter outside the Orlando Stadium.
Another man who was attending his first Soweto derby said the nation was 100 per cent behind the World Cup.
Even the impartial can sense the excitement growing.
Udesh Pillay is a human-sciences analyst and author of the book "Development and Dreams: The Urban Legacy of the 2010 Football World Cup.
He believes that South Africa's historical love of football will make the 2010 World Cup a memorable one.
"We are a football-mad country historically and I think all that 2010 does is help us sustain and continue that momentum. So, we are looking forward to the event," Pillay added.
AP