Playing Football

Thematic Vocabulary Unit Nº 258 v.0.9

     Kicks

1. kick / boot / kicking |n| the act of delivering a blow with the foot.
2. "He gave the ball a powerfill kick."
3. "The team's kicking was excellent."
4. banana kick |n| a special kick in soccer which causes the ball to take a curved path.
5. bend |n| to kick in a way that will make the soccer ball curve in midair.
6. bicycle kick |n| a special type of kick in soccer where a player strikes the ball with his foot while inverted in midair.
7. blast |n| a very powerful shot; also called a bomb.
8. bomb |n| a very strong shot.
9. chilena |n| the bicycle kick, as it is called in Latin America.
10. chip shot |n| a shot made with the ball high in the air, usually made to avoid a tackle or put the ball beyond the goalkeeper's reach.
11. clear |n| to kick the ball away from one’s goal.
12. corner kick / corner ball |n| a free kick made by an attacker if the ball goes over the goal line and a defender was the last to touch it.
13. curled ball / curved ball |n| a ball kicked so that it takes a bent or curved path.

     Passes

1. 1-2 pass |n| another name for the wall pass, where one player passes the ball to a teammate and receives it after getting past the opponent defense.
2. assist |n| a pass in a football game which leads directly to a go.
3. back pass |n| to pass the ball to one’s own goalkeeper, a tactic often used to consume time or to preserve possession of the ball; also known as pass back.
4. caught in possession |n| an expression in football: a player who is “caught in possession” is someone who loses the ball to an opponent.
5. chip pass |n| a pass that gets the ball high in the air.

     Defensive Techniques

1. angling |n| a technique by goalkeepers where they make themselves closer to an attacker to narrow the angles that can be shot at.
2. away |n| a command given to a defender, telling him to kick the ball away from his goal.
3. back and face |n| an instruction, usually given after a turnover, telling players to drop back and defend.
4. build up |n| bringing the ball towards the opponent’s goal with the use of short passes and player movements, as opposed to a long ball where one player makes a long pass towards an advance teammate burn the act of beating an enemy player by the use of speed or dribbling abilities.
5. breakaway |n| to run clear of all the defending players; typically used in situations where an attacker has run.
6. boot |n| to clear the ball away from one’s goal.
7. caught square |n| when a pass beats two defenders because they were standing side by side each other, they are said to be “caught square”.
8. free from all |n| the defenders and is in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper.
9. charge |n| a shoulder-to-shoulder contact, made by a defender to steal possession from an attacker or by a player to get advantage over an opponent during a loose ball.
10. clean sheet |n| if a goalkeeper does not allow a goal until the end of the match, he is said to have kept a “clean sheet".
11. corridor of uncertainty |n| a cross or pass that travels between the goalkeeper and the last defender; called such because it is uncertain which of the player will play the ball and which one will leave it to the other.
12. cut down |n| the angle a phrase used to describe a goalkeeper’s move in which he goes near an attacking player to limit the angle that he can shoot at the goal.

    Offensive Techniques

1. a la Meazza |n| to score a goal after use of excessive dribbling, named after an Italian player in the 1930s.
2. a la Piola |n| to score a goal with a bicycle kick, from Italian player Silvio Piola who is credited for the “invention” of the bicycle kick.
3. check |n| to ask for the ball by communicating with a teammate and getting into good position.
4. close down |n| to put pressure on an attacker or the attacking team in order to limit passing and shooting options.
5. compress the field |n| a defensive command which tells players to go close to a dribbler to limit his passing and dribbling options.
6. contain / jockeying |n| to stay in front of an enemy without attempting to steal the ball from him.
7. counterattack |n| to attack quickly right after retrieving the ball in defense.
8. cover |n| to support a teammate marking an attacker by going behind or beside him.
9. cross |n| a ball kicked from the side of the field aimed at a teammate in or near the penalty area.
10. Cruyff turn |n| a dribbling move in which a player fakes a shot or long pass before making a 180-degree turn; named after Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff.

    Some Plays

1. ball watching |n| the tendency of a player to be unaware of what is happening because of focusing too much on the ball instead of the situation or movement of other players.
2. caught |n| in possession an expression in football: a player who is “caught in possession” is someone who loses the ball to an opponent.
3. chest |n| to control a ball in flight with the use of the chest.
4. chest trapt |n| he act of using one’s chest to slow down and control a ball in flight.
5. combination play |n| a play which involves two or more basic moves in football.
6. creating space |n| a player creates space for his attacking teammate if he moves away from the ball and makes the defending players follow him.
7. cul-de-sac |n| literally means dead-end in French, used to describe a player who carries the ball to a part of the field where it can have little effect on the game.

     Play Situations

1. 50/50 ball |n| a loose ball which two players from opposing sides have an equal chance of winning.
2. advantage |n| a situation where the team in possession of the ball outnumbers the defending team.
3. advantage rule |n| a clause in football which states that a referee should not stop play for a foul if it will benefit the offending team.
4. against the run of play |n| a term used to describe a situation that happens against the dominant flow of the game; for example, if team A has been having possession and scoring chances throughout the game but it was team B that scored, then that situation is “against the run of play”.
5. back and face |n| an instruction, usually given after a turnover, telling players to drop back and defend.

     Goals

1. goal 1 |n| an instance of sending the ball into or over a goal.
2. "Only one goal was scored in the entire match."
3. goal 2 |n| a successful attempt at scoring.
4. "The winning goal came with less than a minute left to play."
5. auto goal |n| a goal scored by a player in his own net, also know as “own goal” or “autogol” .
6. away goal |n| a goal scored by a visiting team on the home team’s stadium.
7. away goals |n| rule a method of tie-breaking in soccer tournaments where teams play each other twice, once at each team’s home stadium. The away goals rule states that the team that has scored more goals away from home will win if scores are equal at the end of a stage.

    Formations

1. 3-2-5 |n| an old football formation popularized by Arsenal in 1925, through legendary English manager Herbert Chapman; also called W-M and sometimes listed as 3-2-2-3.
2. 3-4-3 |n| a modern football formation played with three defenders, four midfielders, and three forwards.
3. 3-5-2 |n| a football formation popularized by Brazil, works as 5-3-2 in defense.
4. 4-3-3 |n| a formation often utilized by teams with many talented strikers.
5. 4-4-2 |n| the basic formation of modern English football.
6. 4-5-1 |n| the more defensive variant of 4-3-3; although these two formations are listed differently, they are essentially the same.
7. 5-4-1 |n| a very defensive football formation, which assigns five defenders, four midfielders, and only one attacker.

     More Post Related

1. Football Players
2. Players Positions
3. Football Fields
4. Referees
5. Teams
6. Extra Team Members
7. Supporters
8. Football Associations
9. National Football Teams

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