18 football language errors you need to know to not screw up today

Whatever happens this Saturday at Da Luz Stadium in Lisbon, we can guess that there will be a big loser. And no, this is not the Real Madrid and Atletico, but the dictionary, that during the tvc wo hour duration of the game will be dragged through the mud, kicked and beaten, not only by the effusive users of new technologies and prefer "contratakar" to "fight back", but also for all kinds of sports journalists.

But really that bad announcers talk radio and television, or is it just a myth? Some, in fact, has been worth their role as creators of language. This is the case of the participants in the seminar on Journalism and Language held in San Millan de la Cogolla in 2012, which concluded that "language creates more than sporting destroys."

The great sin of the sports media can be, in any case, lack of creativity and obsession with repeating phrases and buzzwords: "scratching seconds to the timer", "leave a message", "goal of honor" "extract oil from a play", "close it out", "out of the goal", "have a foot glove", "remove the cobwebs of the squad" ... public places, however, take hold of figurative senses of the Castilian and that the speed demanded by the sports idiom, it is logical to use.

Several books, such as spoken correctly Sport July Bernárdez García (University of Oviedo) or current trends in sports language (Vision Books) by Néstor Hernández Alonso are devoted entirely to sports language, so inspired by the military and the sailor. But are not limited to: Fundéu BBVA has published over the past two years a number of articles that clarifies some of the most common questions about this topic. Then collect some expressions that often lead to further confusion. Learn them so you will not get scored an own goal.

1. "He went out bottom line": what happens to the items?

One of the customs that have been rooted more strongly in recent years has been to remove items and demonstrative, maybe the influence of English? As Fundéu notes, the result are expressions somewhat "You atarzanadas" as "finished with his right foot" (why anyone would say, instead, "topped with head"?), Perhaps as an influence of the stenographic oral language broadcasting ( "pass over, kick, stop ..."). It is advisable to use the item.

2. Penalties are transformed, but not goals

According to the fourth dictionary meaning of the SAR, "transform" means "in football, a goal achieved in the execution of a penalty or a foul." Remember that one thing becomes another, so it would be correct to note that "David Villa converted the penalty in the first goal," not "David Villa converts the penalty." In any case, "the goal was changed to the edge of the first part."

3. Playmaker

May God rest his soul Andres Montes, but David Gallego shown little convinced that "gamer" is an appropriate term. Why? Because the suffix "on", accompanying a verb usually has a pejorative sense, "pacifier", "voyeur", "glutton" ... (well, maybe "flirt" is the exception).

4. Crack

Yes, crack is contained in the dictionary of the RAE, as well as "derivative of cocaine drug" (I do not think we mean it) as "sportsman of extraordinary quality." It is preferable, however, to use "crack", since "crack" is alien to Spanish graphics system.

5. Trivote

One of those neologisms that will be applauded by the most liberal and rejected by the more conservative, there is something beyond all doubt that the process of generation of the term is at least debatable, as it uses the prefix "tri" to indicate " Three "... When" pivot "no prefix meaning" two, "and could be" bi ".

6. Hits divided

A term under discussion in the blog The truth of sport, which uses metonymy and some degree of representation: of course, is not the ball which is divided, but that is in dispute between two players from different teams. It is the taste of the speaker is too ask whether figurative or whether, on the contrary, is considered an inspired use of language.

7. "Diego Costa trained properly"

Believe it or not, "coach" is a transitive verb, which means that necessarily requires a direct object. "Simeone Atletico trains", therefore, is correct, but it would not be "the Real Madrid training"; best introduce a "will" and write "Real Madrid trains."

8. Pyrrhic Victory

Although there who think this expression has nothing to do with José Martínez Sánchez, "Pirri" but with Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who after a battle said "another victory like this and just go back home." It is a good example of such expressions drawn from military jargon often used with an incorrect meaning. Usually, to express that a game has been won by a difference of a few many: "Atletico won a pyrrhic victory in the last minute." It would be acceptable, however, if the winning team had suffered heavy casualties-injury, is meant-among their ranks. Its use was already reflected in 1982 by Dart's word Carreter Fernando Lázaro.

9. Ascend

Some take many liberties with the language and states that "Madrid has traced the score the equalizer." Nice try, but no school: the comeback is just the situation in which the net return (another phrase!) Is given, not even.

10. The faults are not signaled

Not the same "point" that "signal", and the arbitrators will usually do the former and the latter rarely, unless their own initiative to put a sign out of the locker room "signaling" the way the field. The correct term is "point", ie, "to call attention to someone or something, designating it by hand or otherwise."

11.  "The defense has made waters"

We have said that sports journalists seem influenced by military jargon, but in this case it seems that also for health. Indeed, water breaks, but things did not "make water", but "leaky." While the dictionary supports the first expression as synonymous with the second, since "make water" means "urinate", better not give rise to any confusion.

12. "Having the ball"

Highly redundant expression, however, it is used with great frequency. As David Gallego explains, "it makes sense to save energy" and admit that it is better, if we want to refresh our style, type "get the ball". We tend to speak of "possession" since it is the name given to these statistics collection when it appears on television.

13. Props

Despite what the 142,000 results suggest that finding sheds "kitman" on Google, the word does not exist. "Props" should be used, with one "l" to refer to "the person in charge of Requirement service football players."

14. "Leadership" is not the same as "leadership"

Perhaps as we get a little late, finished with the league, but what kept Atletico in recent days was not the "leadership" (although there are those who say so), but the "leadership": this word derives from "leader" , to which is added the suffix "ate", indicating a condition-in this case, leading-while "leadership" is a "position of superiority that is a company, a product or an industry within its scope. "

15. Milan or Milan??

The war on the gender of the football teams still open, but for those who always have wondered why it is called the team in Milan "Milan", a plain word, the answer is that the team was founded by the British in 1889 under the name "Milan Cricket and Football Club". Ie as british as Liverpool or Manchester.

16. Forgiving a chance

Chances neither forgive nor met, just take advantage. If we do not use "fail" as a synonym for "forgive" in any other case ("the team is not allowed to forgive this match"), why yes sometimes when we talk about? As Lazarus explained Carreter, "forgive" is a voluntary action, so send a ball clouds should never be an act of forgiveness (unless premiums be outdone are large).

17. "Take three minutes"

This is tricky. The added time at the end of each of the parties is called "time off", actually, but that mean that the referee deducts minutes at the end of the meeting or, rather, that add up? You may be subject to dicusión, but while saying that "time is three minutes off" is correct, more doubtful is accusing the referee of "discounting three minutes."

18. Defending a player

We left for the final one of the nicest cases, reminiscent of Spanish wealth. This is one of those words that can have antonyms meanings (known as "autoantónimos" as "rent" or "weaken"), since it can be applied both in a positive sense ("Sergio Ramos defended Pepe in the middle of the discussion ") and negative (" Miranda will be in charge of defending Benzema ").