I spent most of my first year as a soccer fan confused. There were so many new terms and allusions that I couldn’t keep up. I soon realized that if I was going to enjoy this pastime, I needed to learn the vocabulary. I’m starting to get comfortable with some of the terminology, so for you fellow soccer neophytes, here are some I’ve come to be familiar with.
Match: a game. Easily applied because of other sports, like tennis. “The Fulham-Arsenal match starts at 1:00 tomorrow.”
Pitch: the field of play. Didn’t take too long to figure out and seemed like a cool name for this blog. “The pitch at Anfield is in good condition.”
Side: refers to a team in an upcoming match. Again – another one of those common sense terms, but not something we hear in American sports. “Sunderland are a respectable side.”
Club: another name for a team on the business side of the soccer world. Easy to apply because we sometimes refer to baseball teams as clubs and college has club sports. “David Beckham has now played for three clubs in his professional career.”
Kit: the full uniform – jersey, shorts and socks. “When I was younger, my father bought me all the London team kits.”
Cap: the number of appearances a player has with a club or international team. You see this as a common statistic when watching games. “Abby Wambach will receive her one hundredth cap today.”
End line: the goal line or line on either end of the field that runs even with the goal. Pretty self-explanatory, but I always heard it as goal line. “The defender clears it off the end line.”
Touch line: the sidelines of the pitch. This one was not as obvious as the end line for me. “The line judge raises his flag as that ball crosses over the touch line.”
Derby: denoting a major rivalry between two teams, usually within close proximity of one another. The first time I heard this, I thought there was going to be a race between two teams. I didn’t know. “Liverpool and Everton will once again battle in the Merseyside Derby.”
Friendly: an exhibition game. I think I was familiar with this before. “The U.S. and Argentina tied in their international friendly match today.”
Form: the condition of a team. This is all I hear analysts say. I guess it is a standard in the soccer world. In considering one’s form, I think people are taking into account the condition, camaraderie, and recent performances of a team. “Portugal look in top form going into qualifying.”
Leg: refers to a single game in a series. Again, easily applied to the soccer world if you have an ounce of vocabulary skills. “Celtic took the first leg 2-1 against Barcelona.”
Aggregate: collective goals scored in a series. This is important in Champions League play, as only away goals count towards the aggregate. I don’t understand this at all. There have been some games late in the Champions League where the home side won by two or three goals yet lost on aggregate because they had fewer away goals. Very strange rule by American standards. “Chelsea and FC Porto tied, but Chelsea advances on aggregate 3-2.”
Clean Sheet: a game that ends in a 0-0 draw or a goalie’s number of shutouts. “After ninety minutes, Inter Milan and Real Madrid have played a clean sheet.”
Real: translation in Spanish is “royal.” Started with kings dubbing clubs as “Royalty” and thus coming up with royalty supported teams such as Real Madrid and Real Sociedad. So what I want to know is what royal Utah family dubbed Real Salt Lake of MLS? Ridiculous name.
United: a club created from two former clubs. Newcastle United and Manchester United are the best examples. I think it’s silly that the MLS has mimicked names like Real and United (D.C. United) that actually have a reason elsewhere. What a cheap ploy to somehow validate themselves in the soccer world.
FC: means “football club.” Many clubs have this in their complete name, but few actually use it in what I guess we’d call their public or common name. Contrary to United and Real, I do like the MLS using this term as a public name for some of their clubs, with examples being Toronto FC and FC Dallas.
AC: means “athletic club” or “alliance club.” AC Milan is the first team that comes to mind.
AS: means “sport association” when translated from Italian. Can only think of one team, AS Roma of the Italian league.
Special thanks to Yahoo member Ruud_Kaka_Niko_Fan for simply and succinctly breaking down the soccer club names at Yahoo Answers. He links to the Wikipedia sites that helped me in my quest over a year ago to explain the names like Real and United. His response can be viewed here.
A brilliant piece indeed lad.
I only hope non-footballers take a moment to read your thorough listing and maybe catch a clue about the Beautiful Game! Thanks.
Muels – I really do appreciate your comments and insight on my posts. I realize the battle I’m fighting in writing about soccer on the American sports frontier. I, too, was raised on baseball, football, and basketball. I still spend way more time with those than I do soccer. But there is something unique and exhilarating about delving into a professional sport you’ve never followed. I’m enjoying it and will keep the posts coming.
While watching PTI this summer – Michael Wilbon said if he was to start his sports writing career again, he would like to cover soccer.