Football: In many countries outside of the United States, soccer is referred to as football. Therefore, soccer games are commonly called football matches. Matches: The term "match" is widely used to describe a soccer game, especially in formal contexts and official communications within the sports community.

"Match" is usually used in the UK and other non-American English speaking areas, where the most popular sports include football/soccer, rugby and cricket. On the other hand, "game" is used when talking about largely American sports like basketball, baseball and American football.