Football words and expressions beginning with S

[Alex Case]

Save- Stop the ball from entering your goal. Mainly used to talk about what the GOALKEEPER tries to do
Score (a goal) - Put the ball into the OPPOSITION goal
Scoring opportunity- A chance to SCORE
Scout - A member of staff whose job it is to find new players for the club, for example by watching matches in lower divisions and trying to spot good players (especially young ones) to buy
Scraped into- Only get just enough points to do things, e.g. only be above the team below by GOAL DIFFERENCE, like a boat scraping over the rocks at the bottom of the sea or a bus scraping its roof as it goes under a low bridge
Seagulls (the)- The nickname for the excellent but surprisingly little known English side Brighton and Hove Albion
Season- Similar to an academic year for a university, e.g. “The 2008-2009 season ran from late August 2008 to May 2009”.
Season ticket- A ticket with which you can see all the HOME GAMES of your club, usually with one designated seat number
Second half- The second period of 45 minutes of the game after the fifteen minute HALF TIME break.
Secure the services of- Have a player join your team, e.g. by buying them from another club
See out his contract- Play with one club for the year or two until your contract period comes to an end rather than TRANSFERring to another club, either to retire when your contract comes to an end or to go to another club on a BOSMAN (free) transfer and so increase your wages
Semi finals- The matches that are played after the QUARTER FINALSto decide which two teams out of four will be in the FINAL
Sending off- A RED CARD
Senior team – The top team within one club, the opposite of the YOUTH TEAM or RESERVE TEAM
Set play- A FREE KICK, THROW IN or PENALTY
Set up (a goal)- Pass the ball so that it is in a position where someone else on your team can score

[Alex Case]

continued:

Shielding the defence- A MIDFIELDER helping to defend
Shimmy- Moving your hips in order to GO AROUND a player or as a FEINT
Shin pads- Protection for the bone at the front of your leg below the knee, worn under the socks
Shirt sponsors- Companies who pay for their company name to be printed on the team’s shirts
Shirt tugging- Pulling at a player’s shirt to restrict their ability to move. A minor offense.
Shoot- Kick the ball towards the goal to try and get the goal in it and therefore score
Shoot out- see PENALTY SHOOT OUT
Shot - The noun of SHOOT
Shots off target – The number of attempts at scoring goals by one team or player that wouldn’t have gone in even if the other team hadn’t been there
Shots on target – The number of goals that a player or team would have scored if the defending team had not got in the way
Side- A team, e.g. “The MANAGER says he is finally happy with the side he has put together for this season”
Sign a player- Have a player join your team, e.g. by buying them from another club
Signing-on fee – The money that a player gets when they TRANSFER from one team to another
Signings- New players, often bought from other clubs
Silky skills – Usually used to talk about skilful and apparently effortless PASSing and DRIBBLing
Silverware- A way to say TROPHIES, only usually used by journalists
Sitter- An incredibly easy shot, as if the ball is sitting there waiting for you to kick and score whenever you feel like it. Often used to say that someone should have scored an easy goal but missed it.
Six pointer- A match where you are playing against your closest rival and therefore a win (3 points) for you is also like taking another 3 points off them by stopping them winning and getting those points
Six yard box- The smaller of the two boxes around the goal
Skinhead - A fashion style with very short hair and often tattoos, tight jeans and Doctor Marten boots, associated with hooligans and extreme right wing groups
Skipper- An informal way of saying CAPTAIN
Sliding tackle- Trying to take the ball off someone by slipping along the ground towards them, easiest to do when the PITCH is wet but often leading to dangerous play
Slot it in - Score a goal, usually meaning due to accuracy rather than power, and maybe meaning from short range
Soccer field- American English for FOOTBALL PITCH
Soccer- Short for “Association Football”, in contrast to “Rugby Football”. Used by American to contrast with American Football, which they call “football”. Generally avoided by Brits nowadays, as they hate sounding like Americans and so prefer the term FOOTIE
Special One (the)- The nickname for Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho
Spectacle- Excitement and skill, the things that make a football match good to watch
Sponsors – Advertisers whose money goes to the team, e.g. SHIRT SPONSORS
Sportsmanlike- see UNSPORTSMANLIKE
Spot kick- A fairly common way of saying PENALTY KICK
Spurs- The nickname for English side Tottenham Hotspurs, from the last syllable of their name. The original meaning of “spurs” is the spiked things that horse riders wear on their shoes.
Squad- The players on a team
Stamp- Step on a player who is on the ground, usually meaning deliberately and quite hard, and so often a RED CARD offense
Stand- One section of the stadium, e.g. one side of the rectangle. Often the four stands have different names. See KOP for an example.
Starting appearance – Playing from the beginning of a match, usually one better than being ON THE BENCH at the beginning of the game
Starting line up - The players who will be on the PITCH from the first moment of the game.
Stay up- Not be RELEGATED, usually used because it was assumed you would GO DOWN
Stoppage time – A more official way to say the INJURY TIME that is played at the end of a half of the match
Stoppages - Times when play is unexpectedly interrupted, e.g. waiting for injured players to get off the pitch or get up and start playing again
Stopper- A way of saying GOALKEEPER. Much less common than GOALIE andonly usually used by journalists.
Straight to the arms of- A SHOT that is very easy to catch by the GOALKEEPER, without them even needing to move their body
Stretchered off- Taken off the pitch on a kind of portable bed, usually because of a bad injury but also possibly just due to CRAMP
Stretches- Exercises that players do to make their muscles flexible before they start playing
Striker- An attacking player who plays near the opposition goal and whose main role is to score goals
Strip – Another way to say football KIT
Studs- Things that stick out of the bottom of the sole of a FOOTBALL BOOT, stopping players slipping but also sometimes causing injuries during TACKLEs
Sub- Short for SUBSTITUTE
Substitute- A player who starts the game ON THE BENCH and maybe exchanges positions with a tired or injured player during the match
Summer signings- Players bought during the time when there are no championships in Europe, the most popular time for such deals
Summer tours – European club sides visiting Asia, America etc to raise money and get match fit before the beginning of the new season (usually in late August or September)
Sunday league- An amateur competition that is run on Sundays, for example one in which PUB SIDEs play against each other. Often used as a simile to talk about bad play by professional teams
Super sub- A player who is ON THE BENCH but because they are likely to surprise the other team when they COME ON rather than because they aren’t good enough to be the manager’s first choice
Supporter- A more official way of saying a FAN
Supporters’ club- A group of FANs who exchange information about the club, travel to AWAY MATCHes together etc
Suspension– The time when a player cannot play for a team, for example because they got a RED CARD or several YELLOW CARDs, e.g. “Davids is serving a two month suspension for a positive drugs test”
Swan song- The final match or competition of a player, usually one who has had a distinguished history.
Sweeper- A CENTRAL DEFENDER with more flexibility to move backwards and forwards than other central defenders
Switch flanks- Move from the RIGHT WING to the LEFT WING, or the other way round

The links to all other letters of the alphabet are here:

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ge...ngenglish.html

[BobK]

'Set play- A FREE KICK, THROW IN or PENALTY' I've more often heard the expression 'Set piece' (also a 'training ground move'). The important thing is that it's not just 'a FREE KICK, THROW IN or PENALTY' but a rehearsed series of moves immediately following one.

Incidentally, under D, do you have 'dead ball' - a ball that is not moving. This expression is commonly used in the phrase 'dead ball skills' - the ability a player has to make a ball that's not moving (at a free kick or penalty) do something unexpected; people like Ronaldo and Beckham are famed for their dead ball skills.

b