This glossary is intended to
offer a working vocabulary for those not thoroughly familiar with either the language of football in
general or of English football in particular. This list of
terms and phrases is by no means complete. From time to time, as we have
the time, we will add to the list and fill in the definitions. We
are not experts on the origins or history of football or its language. But we
have followed the game long enough to become fairly familiar with football
usage. Terms and phrases appearing in red in the definitions are
themselves defined in this glossary. Some are linked
to fuller explanations appearing elsewhere on this website.
We welcome contributions, corrections, additions and
suggestions.
__________
1/8 final - The
designation given to knockout matches in the quarterfinals of tournament play,
particularly in Continental Europe and Latin America, since eight teams remain
in contention at that stage of the competition. The teams emerging
successfully from the quarterfinals, either by winning the match or by
outscoring their opponents in a penalty kick shoot-out after play has ended in
a draw, proceed to the semi-finals.
1/16 final - The
designation given knockout matches in the round of 16 teams in tournament
play, particularly in Continental Europe and Latin America, since 16 teams
remain in contention at that stage of the competition. The teams
emerging successfully from the round of 16 teams, either by winning the match
or by outscoring their opponents in a penalty kick shootout after play has
ended in a draw, proceed to the quarter-finals.
11 - The
number of players on the pitch for a team when it is at full-strength.
It is often used in the U.K. as shorthand for "team," as in
"the England 11 dominated throughout."
2-3-5
4-4-2
4-2-4
4-3-3
3-5-2
XI - The
Roman numeral designation for the number of players on the pitch for a team
when it is at full-strength, 11. It is often used to designate a
representative team specially assembled for a commemorative occasion or a
tour, as in, "An F.A. XI visited Canada long before the full senior
England team did."
a.e.t. or aet -
The abbreviation for "after extra-time."
AFC -
A team - The No. 1 or strongest
team
a club or a country fields. It is sometimes referred to as the senior
team
or side.
Abandonment
Adidas
Advance
Advantage
Advantage clause
Aerial game
Aerial skills
After extra-time
All - The
term used in England to denote a draw, as in "They
finished 2-all." Why "2-both" is not used instead of
"2-all" since only two tems play a match is unknown to
us.
All-seater
All-ticket
Appearance[s] -
The term used to denote a player's participation in a match, as in, "He
made 10 appearances for Arsenal last season," or "He made a
single appearance for England." In international
football, a player is said to earn a cap
for every appearance for the national side, whether it is starting
or a substitute
appearance.
Amateur
Are you [fill in the blank]
in disguise?
Argie-bargie
Artificial surface
Artistry
Association football
At the end of the day -
A phrase which has recently become indispensable to conversation about
football in England, particularly when addressing something unpleasant to
contemplate. It apparently means something similar to "after all is
said and done," as in, "At the end of the day, they were better than
we were" or, "At the end of the day, we just can't make those kinds
of mistakes without paying a price." It
rivals "massive"
as the most overused term or phrase in English football today.
Assist - A
term common in basketball and especially ice hockey and denoting the credit
given to one who contributes directly to a score by another as by
furnishing the ball to the player who scores the goal.
The assist
concept is slowly creeping into football, although it is meeting strong
opposition from traditionalists. It is strange that football, as much a
team sport as either ice hockey or basketball, has no formal method of noting
the contribution to a goal of players other than the scorer himself, for often
a goal is far more the product of the playmaker than the scorer, who may, for
example, merely tap the ball into an empty net after it has been served to him
on a silver platter through a brilliant piece of play from
another. Opposition in England to credit for assists is no doubt
premised largely on dislike for anything smacking of American sports,
including their love of statistics.
Attack
Attendance
Awareness
Away
Away goals rule
Azzurri
BBC
B team
Back door
Back heel
Back line
Bafana Bafana
Ball
Ball control
Ball distribution
Ball-holding
Ball skills
Ball-wasting
Ball-watching
Ball winner
Balloon ball or shot
Banana kick
Barrister
Bash
Belt
Between-the-legs tackle
Bicycle kick
Blast
Blind side
Block
Block tackle
Bobble
Body swerve
Booking
Boots
Bouncing
Brave - A
popular description among English football journalists for a favoured team
that has lost an important match. Its use is almost always required if
the winning team is foreign and the losing team is English, in which case it
is rejected out of hand only if the losing team displayed abject cowardice on
the pitch. It is often accompanied by "little," as in
"brave little Ipswich went down to Real Madrid last night, 6-0,"
although "brave" is used without "little" if the losing
team is England's national side or Manchester United, which, we suppose, is a massive
club even to journalists.
Bribe
British Championship - The
British Sports Writers'
Association
Bundesliga
Bung
By-line
CAF
CONCACAF
CONMEBOL
Calcio - The name given
the
game of football in Italy.
Capacity
Caps
Captain
Career
Carry
Catenaccio
Caution
Central defender
Centre
Centre back
Centre circle
Centre-half[back]
Centre spot
Change of pace
Charge
Cheating
Chest
Chest save
Chip
Circle
Clean sheet
Clearance
Clockwork Orange
Close down
Club
Club side or team
Coach
Coaching staff
Coin toss
Combination
Comfortable on the ball
Commemorative match
Competition
Competition rules or
regulations
Competitive matches -
A term of comparatively recent origin designating matches which are part of a
tournament or stand-alone matches which are played for a cup or other award or
prize. It is sometimes used to refer only to matches which are part of
one of the major tournaments--the World Cup, the Confederations Cup and the
various confederation championships, such as the European Championship
and the Copa América.
The term is often used in a pejorative manner to denigrate friendly
matches--unfairly
since even friendly matches are competitive in the sense that both teams are
trying to win (or supposed to be trying to win under FIFA's fair play rule).
Conditioning
Confederations
Confederations Cup
Consolation match -
Continental
Continental European
Control
Copa América
Corner arc
Corner flag
Corner kick
Cover
Cramp
Craque
Creativity
Cross
Crossbar
Cross-pitch or
cross-field
Crowd
Crowd barriers
Cruciate ligament injury
Crush barriers
Cup competition
Cup-tie
Curled ball
Curved ball
Dangerous ball
Danger zone
Danubian style
Dead ball
Dead kick
Dead leg
Deep
Deep-lying
Defence
Defend
Defender
Deep
Deep-lying
Derby
Direct free kick
Disallow
Discipline
Dissent
Distribute
Dive
Divisions
Double
Draw - The
result when two
teams score the same number of
goals in a
match. This result is
sometimes called a tie.
Draw - The
allegedly random process by which teams are selected to play each other in a
round of a cup competition or to
play in a group in the initial stage of a tournament. FIFA has turned its World Cup
draws--held both before the preliminary or qualifying stage of the tournament
and, after qualification has finished, before the final tournament--into huge
events, replete with entertainment celebrities, famous footballers and stage
shows, televised around the world. Because a team's fate often depends
upon which group it is drawn into--on which hinges which opponents it must
play--a huge audience tunes in. FIFA's current president, Joseph
S. Blatter, achieved worldwide fame when, as plain old Sepp Blatter before his
promotion to the top spot, he presided over televised World Cup draws,
particularly after American comedian Robin Williams insisted on calling him
"Mr. Bladder" at the draw for the 1994 tournament in Las
Vegas. While not quite as extravagant, UEFA's European Championship draws are
televised throughout Europe. Football Association
Challenge Cup, more commonly known as F.A. Cup, draws are also
widely-watched televised events in England, with well-known football
personalities usually making the draws that pair
the teams for the next round in the competition.
Draw lots
Dribble - The
feints, twists, turns, tricks and general ball artistry by which the player in
possession of the ball attempts to deceive, outwit or simply outmanoeuvre a
defending player to get past or away from him.
Dribbling game
Drop back
Drop ball
Dubbin
Dummy - See
"Selling the dummy."
Eighth-final
Eire
Elimination
Equaliser
European Champions League
European Champion Clubs' Cup
European Cup Winners' Cup
European Football Championship
European Super Cup
Exhibition matches
- See Friendly matches.
Expulsion
Extra-time - the
additional playing time, consisting of 30 minutes in first class football,
which is added on to a tournament or cup elimination or knockout match when
the teams are level or drawn after regulation time has ended. It is the
equivalent of overtime in ice hockey playoff matches, although football
purists bristle when they hear extra-time called overtime, as it is sometimes
in North America.
F.A.
F.A. Cup
FC
FIFA
Fair play rule
Fairs Cup
Fans
Far corner
Far post
Far side
Fast
Fast surface
Field of play
Final
Final match
Final tournament
Finals
Finishing
First Division
First half
First-time
First touch
Fit
Fixture
- A match
which has been arranged to take place between two designated teams at a
definite place and time and which thus has been "fixed."
Fixture list
- A list of fixtures, of matches to be played; a schedule of future matches.
Flick
Flighted ball
Floodlights
Flexibility
Fluke -
The term applied by the English media to describe any goal scored by foreign
team against an English team by way of skill not possessed by English players.
Flying kick
Folha seca -
Falling leaf. The Portuguese phrased used in Brazil to refer to the swerving
free kick invented by the wonderful Didi to circumvent the defensive wall.
It was so named because of its unpredictable curving quality, much like the
eddies of a falling leaf.
Football Association
Football Association
Challenge Cup
Football club
Football League
Football League Cup
Football Writers'
Association
Footballer
Footballer of the Year
Footwork
Foreign
Foreign players
Form
Formation
Forward
Forward line
Foul
Foul throw
FourFourTwo
Fourth division
Fourth official
Free kick
Friendly matches
- Stand-alone matches which are not part of a tournament or a contest for a
cup or other award or prize and which are played for the sake of the match
alone. They are sometimes referred to as "exhibition" matches
by those who do not consider them competitive in the strictest sense of the
term, regrettable usage since all matches are competitive in the sense that
both teams are trying to win (or supposed to be trying to win under FIFA's
fair play rule) and thus not merely putting on an exhibition.
"Friendly matches" is often used loosely--and incorrectly--to
include all matches not part of one of the major tournaments--the World Cup, the
Confederations Cup and the various confederation championships, such as the
European Championship, formerly known as the European Nations Cup, and the
Copa América,
formerly known as the South American Championship. Thus it is sometimes
used to include matches that are part of minor tournaments and matches
regularly played for minor cups or awards. On this website, we have tried
to use the term in its proper sense as a reference to stand-alone matches
played merely for the sake of the match itself, and we have separately
categorised matches that were part of a minor tournament and matches regularly
contested for a cup or other award or prize.
Front block tackle
Frozen pitch
Full international
Full side
Full team
Fullback
-
The name of a
position occupied by players who constitute or are part of the team's last
line of defence. They play all the way back--fully back--and, hence they
are fullbacks. In the earliest of the modern formations, the 2-3-5
formation which dominated the game until the late 1920s, the last line of
defence consisted solely of left and right fullbacks playing directly in front
of the goalkeeper. In the late1920s and 1930s, when the centre-halfback
was moved back into a position between the two fullback in the modification
of the 2-3-5 formation known as the W-M formation (3-2-2-3 or 3-4-3), he
became a central defender (although the British still confusingly referred to him as a
centre-half) and the left and right fullbacks played either side of him.
The 4-2-4 formation, which first appeared in the late 1950s, made use of two
central defenders, still between left and right fullbacks, as did the more
defensive 4-4-2 formation of the 1960s, which is still in vogue today.
In these formations, the fullbacks were sometimes allowed to make occasional
forays on attack, taking temporarily a position in advance of their team's
halfbacks or midfielders and thus becoming overlapping fullbacks. A
still later formation, the 3-5-2, dispenses with traditional fullbacks
altogether, deploying three central defenders who are assisted at the back by
so-called left and right wingbacks, who fill the fullback's defending role
when required but are also expected to play in the midfield and even on attack
as a regular matter.
Full-blooded drive
Full-time
Gaffer
Game - The
sport of football, as in, "The influx of big money has ruined the
game." "Game" is also often used as a synonym for "match,"
a specific contest between two teams on the field of play, although it
is more properly used as a reference to the entire sport.
Gazza
Gloves -Long
an indispensable part of the kit for
goalkeepers. They now have a special
adhesive quality that makes it easier to catch, grip and hang on to the
ball. Many outfield players in the colder climates have long worn gloves
in the winter months, but they were rarely seen on outfield players in English
football until the recent influx of foreign players used to warmer
climates. In England, gloves on outfield players are still widely
considered an unbecoming accoutrement indicating weakness.
Go-ahead goal
Goal
Goal aggregate
Goal area
Goal average
Goal box
Goal celebrations
Goal difference - The
plus or minus sum reached by subtracting goals scored against a team [goals
against] from the goals scored by that
team [goals for].
Goal difference is the most popular means for breaking the deadlock in the table
or standings occuring when two or more teams
have earned the same number of points
in league
or group
play. The team with the better goal difference is given the
advantage. The means
Goal line
Goalkeeper
Goal kick
Goalmouth
Goal net
Goalpost[s]
Goals against
Goals for
Goalscoring
Gold Cup
Golden goal - The
name FIFA has formally given to a goal
scored in extra-time which wins the match
for the scoring team and brings an end to the match. It is also known as
a "sudden death" goal.
Governance
Governor or Guv'nor
Greasy surface
Great Britain
Groin
Ground
Group
Group of death
Group phase or stage
Group play
Hack
Half
Half-time -
The interval which occurs midway through
the match, between the first half and the second half, which are each 45
minutes in length plus any time added on.
Half-time was once 10 minutes in length in English football, but, after the
advent of televised matches, it was lengthened to 15 minutes.
Halfway line
Halfback
Half volley
Hand of God
Hands or hand ball
Hard man
Hat-trick
Head
Head on
Head to head
Header
Headless chicken
Hold
Home
Home countries or
nations
Home International
Championship
Home truth
Honours
Hooligans
Host
Howler
Hug the post
Icy pitch
In play
In the meantime or Meanwhile
- The
phrase/term typically used by many English football writers and editors to
introduce a matter entirely unrelated to what has gone before in the story
(other than than that it concerns football in some way) and not even
hinted at in the story's headline, which never indicates that the story
contains a news round-up. This technique thereby guarantees that readers not
interested in the topic of the headline will not read the matter that
follows "in the meantime" or "meanwhile," whether or not they
are interested in it. Thus, for
example, after a headline and story about Colchester United's new signing, one
who is sufficiently interested in Colchester's new signing to read that far
will find something like, "In the meantime, the Football Association announced that
England will play Brazil in May." The upshot is that Colchester
United fans are well-informed about the new England fixture, but England
fans not interested in Colchester United remain ignorant. Once serious
football fans become aware of this technique, however, they make it their
practice to read every world of every football story. Much of
their time is wasted, but, hey, it's good for the game, which gets
promoted at all levels.
Indirect free kick
Indomitable Lions
Infringement
Injured
Injury
Injury time
In-form
Inside left
Inside right
Inspection
Instep
Inswinger
Intention
Intercept
Interchange positions
Intercontinental Club Cup
Interfere
International
International Football
Association Board [IFAB] -
Internet news groups
Interpretation
Into touch
Jab kick
Jersey
Jockey
Keeper
Kick
Kick and run
Kick and rush
Kickoff
Kickoff time
Kit
Keepy-uppy
Knockout competition
Knockout phase or stage
Laces
Late tackle
Laws of the Game
Lay off
League
League Cup
League play
Left-footed
Left [full]back
Left wing[er]
Libero
Libertadores Cup
Linesmen
Line-up
Lion of Vienna
Lisbon Lions
Live coverage
Lob
Lofted kick
Long ball
Long ball game
Loss
Lots
Lout
Macca
Maestro
Magazines
Magical Magyars
Man of the match
Man short - The phrase used
when a team is lacking a man from the original 11 in the lineup
which started the
match
through expulsion
by the referee
or injury
after all allowable substitutions
have been made. Before substitutions were first permitted, teams
sometimes were forced to play a man short, or even two, three or four
short, through injury. Hobbled players remained in the match if at
all possible, but were placed where they did not see much of the ball,
usually on the wing. If a team lost more than four men, the match
had to abandoned. In international
football, two substitutes have been
allowed since 1970 and three since 1990 in tournament
play, and even more in friendly matches
by advance agreement of the teams. It is thus rare these days that a
team is forced to play a man short through injury. If a team plays a man
or more short, it is usually because of player expulsion.
Man-to-man marking
Manager
Maracanã
Mark
Massive - An
adjective in massive vogue throughout the football community in England.
It apparently means "huge," as in, "We are a massive
club," and it is usually repeated a massive number of times, apparently
to ensure the listener is massively impressed. It rivals "at
the end of the day" as the most
overused term or phrase in English football.
Master
Master class
Match - The
basic unit of the sport, the contest between two teams on the field of play,
usually 90 minutes in length unless extra-time is played to break a deadlock
in the score, as in some tournament and cup matches. Sometimes "game"
is used instead of "match," although it is more properly used to
refer to the entire sport of football. Our guess is that the term
"match" originated because two teams were matched against each
other.
Match conditions
Match-fit - The
term used to describe a player's physical readiness for match play. A
player may be generally fit in the sense that he has recovered from an injury
and yet still not match-fit because he has not yet achieved the physical
condition required for the rigours of match play.
Match-sharp
Match of the day
Match observer
Match presenter
Measured ball or pass
Metatarsal bone
Metodo system
Midfield
Midfield anchorman
Midfield general
Midfielder
Midlands
Minutes
Mistimed tackle
Mitropa Cup
Motty
Movement
Movement off the ball
Mundiale
Mundialito
Narrow the angle
National side or team
Near corner
Near post
Near side
Net
Neutral venue
Newspapers
Nike
Nil
Nod
Non-league football
North
Not fit
Nutmeg
OFC
O.G.
Obstruction
Off the ball
Official match
Officials
Off-season
Offside
Offside law
Offside trap
Olympic Games
On the ball
On the day -
A phrase used by those associated with the team that has lost a match to imply
that things might well go differently on another day, as in, "They [the
winning team] were the stronger team on the day."
Onion bag
Opposition
Oriundi
Out of form
Out of play
Outfield players -
Outside left
Outside right
Outswinger
Over-the-ball tackle
Overhead kick
Overlap
Overlapping fullback
Own goal
P.K.
Pace
Party -
[1] The term most commonly used in the U.K. until the 1980s and 1990s to
designate the gathering of players, including reserve players,
from which the team or side
which actually plays in a match is selected, as
in, "Tommy Lawton was one of the 16 players chosen for the England party
which will embark on a Continental tour featuring matches against Italy,
Jugoslavia and Roumania." Nowadays it is more common to refer to
this assemblage of players as the squad.
[2] The entire entourage accompanying the team to a match, including the
coaching staff, team officials and, in the case of an England game, certain
Football Association officers and employees, as in, "The England World
Cup party, led by manager Walter Winterbottom, arrived
in Brazil hailed as 'the Kings of Football.'"
Pass
Pass and run
Pass back
Passing game
Pear-shaped
Pen.
Penalty
Penalty arc
Penalty area
Penalty kick
Penalty shootout
Penalty spot
Pinching
Pitch
Pitch condition
Pivot kick
Place kick
Placement
Play
Play in
Play on
Play the man
Play the ball
Player
Player eligibility
Player of the Year
Player release
Player eligibility
Playmaker
Playoff
Points system - The method
by which teams engaged in league play or tournament group play are ranked in
the competition. Throughout most of the modern history of the game, two
points were awarded for a win, one point for a draw or tie and no points for a
loss. Recently, in an effort to encourage attacking football, the number
of points for a win has been lifted to three.
Pools
Pools panel
Position
Positioning
Post[s]
Preliminary match
Premier League
Premiership
Press [1] - England's
national broadsheets, which are the full-sized daily and Sunday newspapers,
are normally relatively traditional and restrained in their news coverage, as
opposed to the tabloid press. These broadsheets--the Times and Sunday
Times, the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, the Guardian (Monday to
Saturday), the Observer (Sunday) and the Independent and Independent on
Sunday--have highly-talented football journalists whose
stories are often both intelligently and gracefully written. The national
daily and Sunday tabloids--the Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Mirror,
the Sunday Mirror, the Daily Mail, the Sun (Monday through Saturday), the Star
(Monday through Saturday), the People (Sunday) and the News
of the World (Sunday)--offer sensationalist news coverage, often outrageous in both
content and tone, but they also have extremely capable football journalists,
and their football coverage is extensive, although the occasional story,
usually produced under the pressures of fierce tabloid competition, turns out
to be unreliable. All these newspapers have websites, although the
online football offerings from the Express newspapers, the Daily Mail and the News of
the World are slender. Many local or provincial
newspapers --for example, the London Evening Standard and the Manchester
Evening News--also have extensive and often superb football
coverage.
Press [2]
Pressure
Preston plumber - A
nickname for England winger Tom Finney, coined because of his background in
the plumbing business.
Primera Division
Professional
Professional Footballers
Association
Promotion
Protect the ball
Puma
Punt
Purple patch
Push and run
Quarter-final
Qualifying or qualification
match
Quick
Radio
Rankings
Rebound
Red card
Re-election
Referee
Referee's assistants
Referee's whistle
Reflex
Reflex save
Regulation time
Regulations
Relegation
Representative matches
Reverse pass -
A pass
made by a player in a direction opposite to the way in which he is
moving. Thus a player moving from the wing
towards the goal,
dragging one or more defending
players with him, may play a reverse pass back to a player who has moved into
the space he thereby created.
Right-footed
Reserve[s]
Result
- [1] The general term for a win,
loss
or draw.
[2] The final score
of a match,
as in "The result was 2-1 for England." [3] In
England, the term is often used colloquially to mean a win or a draw, as in,
"We need to get a result on Saturday."
Right [full]back
Right wing[er]
Right-half[back]
Rival
Round of 16 teams
Round robin play
Rules
Running off the ball
Safe hands
Satellite television
Save
Scissors kick
Score
Screen
Season
Seats
Second Division
Second half
Seleccion -
Selection - 1.
The act of choosing the players who will form the team,
either a national
or club
side,
that plays a match.
The selection is usually performed by the manager, coach or technical
trainer. 2. In international football, the act of choosing the
players who will form the larger squad
from which the team or side that will play a match or matches is drawn.
3. The team, side or squad so chosen.
Self goal
Selling the dummy -
The pretence, accomplished by body movement, even if only a glance of
the eyes or perhaps a simple feint of the arms or legs, through which a player
deceives the opposition into believing the ball is going to one player when in
fact it is going to another. The classic example occurs when a
player tricks his opponent into believing that he is going to receive the ball
when in fact he lets it go through or by him to a team-mate. He has sold
the dummy, which is himself. A player may also sell the dummy by
deceiving the opposition into believing he is going to give the ball to one
team-mate when in fact he sends it to another or keeps it himself,
perhaps for a shot on goal, the dummy in those cases being a team-mate
rather than himself. He has also sold the dummy if he deceives the
opposition into believing he is going to collect the ball himself but lets it
go through or by him directly into the goal.
Semi-finals - The
penultimate knockout
stage of a tournament
in which four teams remain in the competition,
Team A playing Team B and Team C playing Team D in two separate matches for a
place in the final match.
Sending off -
The
expulsion
of a player from the field of play for egregious foul
play
or other serious infraction of the Laws
of the Game or (since 1970 in international
play) for two cautions
for foul play or other infractions in the same match.
The terms "sent off" and "sending off" originated in
British football and are still used there. But, also since 1970 in
international football, the referee has shown a player about to be expelled a red
card, and it is common to say a player
has drawn or been shown a red card or that he has been red-carded.
Senior team
Serie A
Set piece or
play - any play made from a dead-ball situation, such as a free
kick, a corner kick, a penalty kick, a goal kicks or a throw-in.
Shape
Shelter the ball
Shepherd
Shield the ball
Shoes
Shin guards
Shin splints
Shirt names
Shirt numbers
Shirt-pulling
Shirts
Shoot
Shoot Magazine
Shoot-out
Short-passing game
Shots
Shots off target
Shots on target
Shorts
Shoulder charge
Show the ball
Shut down
Sicknote
Side
Side-foot
Sideline
Signing-on fee
Silky skills
Sir
Sitter - A
ball so situated that only the slightest and simplest of efforts from an
attacking player is needed to put it into the net for a goal, a ball just
sitting there waiting to be put into the net, as in, "Jimmy Greaves
missed a sitter when he lost his footing, enabling the late arriving fullback
to clear the ball" or "Nat Lofthouse missed a sitter when his header
from Stanley Mathews' inch-perfect cross struck the cross-bar of a wide open
net.."
Sixth forward
Skills
Sky Sports
Slick
Sliding tackle
Slip
Smooth
Snap shot
Soccer -
Short for "association football,"
the official name of the game, this term is much frowned upon by most of the
English football community, including the media, apparently solely because it is the name by which
the game is known in the U.S.A. to distinguish it from gridiron
football. "Soccer" was actually coined by
students at Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the 1880's, and it was common usage,
alongside "rugger," the nickname for rugby football, throughout England until at least
the 1970's. Youngsters may be excused their ignorance of the term's
pedigree, but today's English football writers know better yet present a
blinkered view, perhaps from fear of losing readers if they use the dreaded
"s" word. One only has to look at older football book
titles to see the truth--Tommy Lawton's My Twenty Years in Soccer
(1955), for example. Tommy was hardly under American influence, although
he did meet legendary baseball player Babe Ruth once and talked player wages
with him; there was very little soccer in the U.S.A. at the time. Those who vehemently protest
the use of "soccer" have thus allowed an absurd fear of the influence
of the U.S.A. to co-opt a venerable English nickname for England's most loved sport.
We, too, much prefer football because it is more descriptive of the game
played primarily with the feet and because it is its official name
(or part of it, per "association football"), but the use
of "soccer" should be no big deal--and isn't, except to those
who blow up every time they see or hear "soccer" used. Our
own dislike is for "footie," which sounds to us like
a game played by pansies or beanie babies. If a nickname is
wanted, we prefer "footer," a term widely used in the
England of the 1940's and 1950's.
Socks
Solicitor
Song
South
South American Championship
Speed
Spin
Sponsor
Split the defence
Sponsors
Squad
Square
Square ball
Stadium
Stand
Starting appearance
Statistics
Stewards
Stockings
Stop
Stoppage
Stoppage time
Stopper
Stretcher
Striker
Strip
Studs
Studs-up tackle
Substitute
Substitution
Sudden death goal
Summer tours
Sunday shot
Super Cup
Super Eagles
Supporters
Suspension
Sweeper
Sweeper system
Swerve
Swiss bolt sytem
Swivel
Swivel kick
TFC - The
Football Confederation. The name the North American and Caribbean
confederation adopted to replace "CONCACAF."
It does not seem to have caught on; the confederation is still commonly
referred to as CONCACAF.
Table - The
term used in the U.K. for the ranking of the teams engaged in league or
tournament group play according to the number of points
they have earned, the team having the
highest number of points being placed at the top of the table and the team
with the lowest number at the bottom. In other parts of the world, this
table is referred to as the standings or the classification. Teams
sharing the same number of points may be separated by their
goal
difference or goals
for or number of wins, according to the
rules of the particular competition in which they are engaged.
Tackle - The
act of engaging an opposing player in possession of the ball in an effort to
take it away from him or at least to force him to lose possession.
Tackling at its best is an art,, but it is fast disappearing in the wake of
revisions of the Laws of the Game and their interpretation allowing the
referee to call a foul whenever the slightest physical contact is made with
the player in possession of the ball.
Tackle from behind
Tackling back
Tactics
Tap - A
gentle nudge of the ball with the foot, as in "Stanley Matthews did all
the work for the goal, evading half a dozen defenders with his patented body
swerve and acceleration before passing to the far post, where Stan Mortensen
merely had to tap the ball into an empty net."
Target man - A
term of comparatively recent origin, and apparently only used in the U.K.,
referring to a ball-holding forward,
usually a central striker.
Such a player is good at receiving a long ball, holding it, often with his
back to the goal, until his team-mates arrive, and laying it off to one of them
or using them as dummies and having a go at goal himself. Hence he is
the target man to whom the ball is played from the back.
Taxi cab driver - An
occupation fraught with a peculiar hazard since those who peruse it are
frequently the target of abuse, physical and verbal, from U.K. footballers who
have enjoyed a long night out.
Technical advisor or
consultant
Technical skills
Technical trainer - The
designation used in much of the world, particularly Continental Europe and
Latin America, for the team coach--the person in charge of the playing side of
team operations. In the U.K., however, "trainer" generally has
been reserved for personnel who look after the players' physical fitness.
Technique
Team
Teamwork
Television
Ten men -
Terraces
There's only one
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Third back
Third division
Third division north
Third division south
Third-place match
Three lions
Through ball
Throw
Throw-in
Ticket
Tie
Tights
Time
Time added on -
Total football system
Touch
Touchline
Tour
Tournament
Toyota Cup
Track
Trainer
Training
Transfer
Transfer fee
Trap
Trip
Turnstile
Two-footed
Two-footed tackle
UEFA
UEFA Cup
Umbro
Under-21
Under-23
Ungentlemanly conduct
United Kingdom
Unofficial
Unplayable conditions
Unsettled
Unsportsmanlike conduct
Use the ball
Venue
Verrou sytem
Versatility
Video
Video replay
Violent conduct
Vision
Volley
Victory international
W-M formation
Wall
Wall pass
Wartime international
Wasted ball
Water-logged pitch -
Websites
Weighted ball
Wembley
Wembley Wizards
Whistle
Win
Winded
Wing
Wingback
Winger
Wing-half
Wingless Wonders
Winter break
Wireless
Withdrawn
Wizard
Wizard of the Dribble
Woodwork
Work rate
World Club Championship
World Cup
World Soccer
Yellow card
Zonal marking
England
Football Online