Fergie time and 10 more football expressions you need to know

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

So that you understand after what match you can say “cleansheath”, when “paninka” happened and what happens on the field if one of the teams decided to “park the bus”.

12th man

The "twelfth player" is usually called the fans who actively support their team, but there is another, less popular meaning - a referee, if, in the opinion of the fans of one of the teams, he is suing the other.

Fans are prone to all sorts of conspiracy theories. Some, for example, believe that half of the matches in any league are negotiable (that is, their outcome is agreed in advance), so there are enough experts in the groups on the VKontakte social network who can accurately predict the outcome of the Manchester United - Liverpool match. Others play high stakes, believing that one of the teams bribed the referee of the Champions League final.

There are indeed some reasons for this: periodic investigations prove that match-fixing does happen in reality. For example, during the so-called Modjigate (aka Calciopoli), it turned out that Juventus Turin bribed the referees in the 2004/2005 season and agreed that the right referees would work at the right matches. After that, Juventus was disqualified and sent to the second league.

But in most cases, the words about the "twelfth player" are still idle speculation. Which, however, is not particularly scary: if only the fans let off some steam in words, and not start, for example, to threaten the judges on social networks, which has been happening more often lately.

Anti-football

This term denotes "closed" (ie defensive) play that is unpleasant for the fans. "Antifootball" is not the direct work of the team to create a goal, but the purposeful destruction of the opponent's game.

This term has been used frequently since the early 2000s. At first, this was said primarily by the players and coaches associated with the Barcelona school: Frank Rijkaard and Cesc Fabregas accused their rivals of “playing anti-football” in the middle of the 2000s. Recently, however, the geography of "anti-football" has expanded significantly. For example, recently the coach of the Vietnamese national team (!) Called the football performed by his rivals - the Philippines national team (!).

Clean sheet

For the goalkeeper, this is a match in which he did not concede a single goal, a “clean sheet” (by the way, recently they also began to say “cleansheath” in Russian). He's shutout.

According to one of the versions, the name means that on the sheet of paper (sheet), where the conceded goals are indicated, it will be empty - clean sheet. Folk etymology, however, is more physiological, which can be said about the folk etymology of the phrase "dry match" in Russian. One of the most important indicators of a goalkeeper's reliability is the total number of clean sheets per season.

Fergie time

A situation in which an important goal for the outcome of the match is scored in stoppage time. For example, by the end of normal time, a draw remains, the score is 1: 1. It seems that the match will end like this, but suddenly, in the 95th minute, one of the teams manages to score the winning goal. And it's Fergie time!

The expression comes from the legendary Manchester United coach Alex Fergie Ferguson. Moreover, it can be used both as a praise to Ferguson, who, they say, brought up the players so that they did not stop playing and fight until the very end, and as a condemnation. In such cases, it is emphasized that Manchester United under Ferguson allegedly put pressure on the judges and bribed them. Therefore, in matches in which United lost, the referees added more time to increase their chances of scoring.

Compilation of Manchester United goals at Fergie time

Goal-line technology

The automatic goal detection system is a special technology that shows whether the ball has completely crossed the goal line or not. According to the rules of football, a goal is not counted if at least some part of the ball remains outside the goal. It is often difficult to determine this by eye, especially if the situation developed quickly and the ball subsequently flew out of the goal.

For example, here is a selection of situations where a player took the ball literally "from the ribbon" (that is, from the goal line). And here are even more egregious examples: in all these cases the goalkeeper saved the goal, but it was possible to find out exactly this only with the help of goal-line technology.

Many football officials resist technological innovations, claiming they are killing the "spirit of the game." A lot of controversy is caused by the video replay system; not immediately made its way into life and a special disappearing spray, with which the judge marks the line of the wall. But the automatic head detection system is one of the most harmless new products, so it is already used almost everywhere.

Golden generation

The "golden generation" is an extremely successful set of players who happened to be born in the same country at about the same time. Playing together on the national team, in theory, they should achieve great success simply at the expense of the sum of their talents. But in fact, they talk about the “golden generation” when everyone understands that a very strong team on paper has not been able to achieve great success for many years. Then football journalists and the public as one begin to ask: will this "golden generation" never win anything?

For example, in recent years, these words are increasingly pronounced in the address of the current national team of France, Belgium or Argentina. According to one of the versions, for the first time they began to talk like this at the beginning of the 2000s it was about a group of Portuguese players. They won the youth world championships in the early 1990s and, according to the press, should have achieved great success in the early 2000s already in adult football, but they never achieved it. The most famous of these was Luis Figo.

Hand of god

In a narrow sense - the goal of Argentina striker Diego Maradona in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup against England. After the match, the footballer was asked if he played along with his hand. He replied that the goal was scored "partly by the hand of God, partly by the head of Maradona." How it really happened - decide for yourself.

In a broad sense, hand of God is the ironic name for any hand scored goal that the referee nevertheless scored. In football, in general, it is extremely rare to revise the results of matches, for this something extraordinary must happen - for example, if a UFO landed on the field.

But a goal by hand is not such a rare event. So, if the referee counted it, the player may subsequently be disqualified, the referee may be suspended from matches, but the result of the game will remain the same. This leaves many fans with non-healing wounds. For example, France striker Thierry Henry in the 2010 World Cup qualifier gave an assist against Ireland. The Irish still hate Anri and remember this goal at every opportunity.

Hat-trick

When a player scores three goals in a match, he is said to have “scored a hat-trick”. According to one version, the name came from hockey: there, if a hockey player threw three goals per game, the audience allegedly threw caps and other hats on the ice. According to the other, from cricket: according to this version, back in the middle of the 19th century, one of the famous cricketers scored three points in a row, for which the admiring spectators bought him a hat.

In football, it is believed that the author of a hat-trick has the right to take the ball as a souvenir. But usually the referees just collect the balls after the match and hand them over to the appropriate department. By the way, it has long been impossible to assign the ball if it flew directly to your podium: all the balls have been counted, so wait for the steward who will come and take it away. A footballer who scored two goals is said to have “made a double”, and if four, then “poker”.

Mexican wave

“Wave” is a way of collective entertainment for fans at the stadium. Each person in a row raises and lowers his hands (in another version - gets up and sits down) at the right time - a little later than the neighbor. As a result, it seems that a wave is rolling along the podium.

The name "Mexican Wave" is apparently associated with the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, when American newspapers wrote about this technique of supporting the team. However, the very method of "making a wave" appeared in American university stadiums at least in the 1960s: this is how American football players were supported there.

Panenka

A special way to shoot a penalty. The player runs up, clearly showing with body movements in which corner of the goal he will hit. The goalkeeper jumps in this direction, and the player at the last moment slightly turns his foot and mockingly slowly sends the ball into the goal in a high arc. That is, if the goalkeeper had not previously fallen, he would have easily taken this blow. Panenka is a way to score a penalty, deliberately humiliating for the opposing team and especially for the goalkeeper. It is named after the Czech Antonin Panenka, who authored this trick in the 1970s. But the real heyday of "Panenka" fell on the 90s and 2000s.

In today's testosterone-filled football, hitting has become part of the repertoire of many tough players looking to dominate their opponents' goalkeepers. Among them are Andrea Pirlo, Zinedine Zidane, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sergio Ramos.

To park a bus

This means sitting in a defensive position and almost the whole team staying in their own half of the field, counting only on rare counterattacks.

It is believed that this expression in English was first used by the Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho back in 2004, referring to the fact that, they say, "they say in Portugal." Jose tried to offend his rivals, Tottenham, with this expression, meaning that they had “parked the bus” and it became difficult to play against them. And this is ridiculous because in recent years Jose himself has been considered the main "bus valet" in world football.