Meaningless Words in Football

[jakarta]

Taking it One Game at a Time - an cunning ploy for a Team to follow as you can clearly play several games at a time during the season

 

[Superphil]

Soccer

An English word originally. The word "soccer" comes from the original name of the game "Association Football" or more precisely from its abbreviation Assoc. Assoc. was a slang term used in UK universities from about 1889. It later became socca, socker (1891) and finally evolved into soccer (1895).

The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863, and the name football was coined . The word soccer is a colloquial abbreviation of association (from assoc.) and first appeared in the 1880s. The word is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for breakfast and rugger for rugby football. In the late 19th century the word soccer tended to be used only at public schools; most people knew the game simply as football. Today the term association football is rarely used, although some clubs still include Association Football Club (AFC) in their name. The game is sometimes known colloquially as footy; the term footer was also once used but is now obsolete.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Custodian.

 

[Eric Potts]

Not meaningless , bit I've never seen appurtenances used outside of a footballing context

 

[The Large One]

Not meaningless , bit I've never seen appurtenances used outside of a footballing context

Nor aplomb.

 

[Acker79]

'shot stopper' as a goal keeper quality
'box to box midfielder'

 

[El Presidente]

"He's got no plan B"
"Taken the club as far as he can go"
"Systems"

 

[Spider]

"He struck it beautifully" when the player has missed. Pretty much the only defining margin when it comes to shots at goal is whether it went in or not, so striking something is surely only beautiful if it goes in the right direction.

 

[whitelion]

Rub of the green.....wtf

 

[smeariestbat]

offside?

 

[super-seagulls]

He's not quite match fit!

 

[Normal Rob]

Loyalty

 

[Razzoo]

The Mixer, as in get it in. I've heard a lot of mentions over the years of the "corridor of uncertainty".

 

[Mellotron]

"He's got no plan B"
"Taken the club as far as he can go"

I'd say both of those have obvious and correct meanings.

 

[SeagullSongs]

Excellent blog on Premier League clichés.

Football Clichés: 1992-2012: The Premier League in Cliché

 

[Lady Whistledown]

"The last man" as in "the referee's got it wrong there as he's clearly not the last man".

I'd love to know which page of the Football Association's laws of the game mentions this "last man" as I've been looking for years and never found it.

Another irritation is when experts suggest that because there's no physical contact, an act committed by a player can't actually be an offence. "Striking or attempting to strike an opponent" is just one example of where the degree of contact is irrelevant.

 

[Heffle Gull]

Imminent as in the singing of this new player is imminent.

 

[Rambo]

He hit it too well.

(used when a shot misses), never understood this one, surely if he hit it too well it would have been a goal??

 

[element]

Telepathic understanding

Often mentioned in relation to front pairings, who complete passes to each other more often than not...

 

[Acker79]

"he's done the hard part" - the bit that gets done so very much more frequently than the supposedly easier part.