Football English

 The European Championships are well underway. 

This time there are no British teams in the final, but there is probably a lot of English being spoken by supporters from around Europe in Switzerland and Austria. Here are some expressions we use to talk about the ‘beautiful game’.

People and Things

a match - a game of football

‘Is anyone going to watch the match tonight?’

 a pitch -  the field on which a game of football is played.

‘The pitch was soft after all the rain.’

a goalkeeper - the player who can use his hands and wears gloves.

a defender - a player who tries to stop a team from scoring. There are often 4 defenders.

‘Maldini is a very experienced defender.’

a midfielder – a player who plays in the middle part of the pitch

a striker/ a forward/ an attacker - a person whose role is to score.

‘Lionel Messi and  Ruud van Nistelrooy are my favourite strikers’

a captain- a player who wears the armband - the team leader on the pitch. 

Also called ‘the captain’

a substitute- a player who does not start the game, but may come on to play later in the game to replace a player. 

a manager – the boss of the team. He decides who will play. Donadoni is the current Italy manager.

Actions

to foul – verb ( a foul – noun) to break the rules of football. For example, kicking another player or touching the ball with your hands.

‘Players couldn’t stop Zidane, so he was often fouled.’  

to take a penalty – a kick which is taken for a foul which happened inside the area.

‘The referee gave a penalty, but the crowd didn’t think it should have been.’

to take a free-kick – a kick which is taken for a foul outside of the area.

‘Ballack is one of the best free-kick takers in football.’

to be given/shown a yellow card – a warning to a player for a strong foul. Also known as ‘a booking’.

‘He was booked for using his hands.’

penalty shoot out - Each team takes 5 penalties each after the end of 90 minutes and extra time (30 minutes if there is no winner).

sudden death – the situation where there is still no winner after teams have taken 5 penalties each. The first team to miss loses. 

to score a goal.- to get the ball into the goal - the object of the game. 

‘Ronaldo scored two goals in the final game.’

to score an own goal – to score a goal in the wrong goal. A big mistake!

‘England lost after their captain, John Terry, scored an own goal.’

to win- to score more goals than the team you play against. 

‘I’m glad Germany won.’

‘Who do you think will win?’

to draw- a game with no winner - both teams get 1 point.

‘France drew with Italy, 1-1.’

to lose – not a win or a draw. ‘

‘My team lost. They were terrible.’ 

‘There’s no way Portugal can lose.’

to knock out – when a team is loses and can no longer play any more games they are ‘knocked out.’

‘Denmark were knocked out after losing their first three games.’

to be given/shown a red card- when shown a red card the player must leave the pitch. This usually happens after two yellow cards. Known as ‘sent off’

‘He was sent off for two serious fouls.’

Time

half-time – the break after 45 minutes of play.

‘They were lucky to get to half time without letting in a goal.’

full-time – the end of the game after ninety minutes.

‘The players looked tired at full-time’

injury-time – usually two or three minutes added on to the end of the game.

extra-time – an extra 30 minutes of play used when there is no winner after 90 minutes.