Spring Break
Out of the Pouch
Confessions of a reforming couch potato
Dan Stroud
Issue date: 10/1/07 Section: Sports
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But still, given the intricacies of the sport, couldn't we bring the language of soccer a little closer to the mainstream?
The gap between soccer's terminology and that of myself and other fellow couch potatoes watching the big three is far wider than comfort normally allows.
Terms like a bicycle kick, when a player attempts to kick a ball that is careening back above his head, and booking, when a referee calls a penalty on a player are just a couple of less familiar terms.
There is the term to compress the field, which is what we basketball fans call a full-court press. To close down an opponent is the same as covering a player like a glove. Going to the penalty spot is the same as taking a trip to the free-throw line.
Players do not get into arguments with officials, they engage in dissents. Soccer athletes don't perform like other sports on a field, they play on the pitch.
American football players engage in tackling at nearly the same ratio as soccer athletes. But there is a significant difference in this area as well. The latter method refers to challenging an adversary in possession of the ball with your feet, while the former deals with physical abuse to each other's bodies.
Setting up a counter attack is the same as basketball's fast break. A decoy in other sports competitions is referred to in soccer as a dummy.
Finally, in soccer there is extra time added to the end of a game, soccer's version of overtime. Curiously in this version, the referees add the time when injuries hold up play as the clock continues to run. Why can't they just stop the clock?
Needless to say, anyone not yet acquainted with the international sport has much to learn. That's not to say it's not worth the effort. After watching a double overtime game between the Kangaroos and the University of Evansville on Thursday that ended one to nil (yeah, OK, 1-0 or one to nothing for the other major sports), there certainly seems to be good reason to believe soccer can be a happening game.
Ready to learn the ropes? Head out to Bourke Field on Oct. 3 and cheer your Roos to victory. RooYah!!
disrzf@umkc.edu
The gap between soccer's terminology and that of myself and other fellow couch potatoes watching the big three is far wider than comfort normally allows.
Terms like a bicycle kick, when a player attempts to kick a ball that is careening back above his head, and booking, when a referee calls a penalty on a player are just a couple of less familiar terms.
There is the term to compress the field, which is what we basketball fans call a full-court press. To close down an opponent is the same as covering a player like a glove. Going to the penalty spot is the same as taking a trip to the free-throw line.
Players do not get into arguments with officials, they engage in dissents. Soccer athletes don't perform like other sports on a field, they play on the pitch.
American football players engage in tackling at nearly the same ratio as soccer athletes. But there is a significant difference in this area as well. The latter method refers to challenging an adversary in possession of the ball with your feet, while the former deals with physical abuse to each other's bodies.
Setting up a counter attack is the same as basketball's fast break. A decoy in other sports competitions is referred to in soccer as a dummy.
Finally, in soccer there is extra time added to the end of a game, soccer's version of overtime. Curiously in this version, the referees add the time when injuries hold up play as the clock continues to run. Why can't they just stop the clock?
Needless to say, anyone not yet acquainted with the international sport has much to learn. That's not to say it's not worth the effort. After watching a double overtime game between the Kangaroos and the University of Evansville on Thursday that ended one to nil (yeah, OK, 1-0 or one to nothing for the other major sports), there certainly seems to be good reason to believe soccer can be a happening game.
Ready to learn the ropes? Head out to Bourke Field on Oct. 3 and cheer your Roos to victory. RooYah!!
disrzf@umkc.edu
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
JJBones
posted 10/02/07 @ 9:20 AM CST
Thanks for the look at the sport from a somewhat outside perspective. I agree that it would really help the game here if more US sportswriters knew the terminology. (Continued…)
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