When watching the World Cup, there may be some terms that seem foreign. But it all makes sense when you’ve got the language down.
Here’s a guide to soccer lingo:
Advantage: This is when a foul is committed, but the referee doesn’t call it because the attacking team still has a good scoring opportunity.
Booking: A player who gets a yellow or red card.
Boots: Cleats.
Clean sheet: When a team doesn’t allow a goal in a game.
Dummy move: A fake, often away from the ball, to get a defender to leave an area of the field.
Friendly: An exhibition game.
Kit: The uniforms.
Level: A tie game.
Marking: Defending a player.
Nutmeg: When a player dribbles the ball between an opposing player’s legs.
Offside trap: When all of the defenders move upfield and try putting the opposing players in an offside position as a pass is being made.
Overlapping run: When a player makes a run down the ideline and passes a teammate who has the ball but is being defended. This forces the defender either to go after the player with the ball or the player making the run, and the result usually is an open teammate.
Pitch: The field of play.
Run of play: This refers to free-flowing action, not anything that happens in set pieces.
Set pieces: These are plays that come after a stoppage in play, such as a free kick or a corner kick, and more often than not have been drawn up and practiced during training sessions.
Stoppage time: This is time added on by the referee at the end of the half because of injuries. This occurs because the clock never stops.
Tackle: When a defender makes a baseball-type of slide and knocks the ball away from the opposing player.
Through ball: A pass made between two defenders to an attacking player.
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A header means striking the ball with your forehead.
Vision
Ronaldinho, Brazil
Keeps his head up while dribbling through opponents, making his passes between defenders impossible to stop.
Heading skills
Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast
His ability to attack the ball on corner kicks makes Drogba a defense’s Public Enemy No. 1 in the box.
Upper body
Oguchi Onyewu, U.S.
The rock in the U.S. backline is built like, well, The Rock.
Stamina
Park Ji-Sung, South Korea
Among some of the most fit athletes in the world, he’s known as “Three-Lung Park.” Even they get tired from chasing him.
Speed
Thierry Henry, France
If it weren’t for his commercials, defenders wouldn’t know what Henry looks like. All they see is his back.
Right foot
David Beckham, England
If the British would put down the gossip and read the sports, they’d realize Becks still can bend it like no other.
Left foot
Roberto Carlos, Brazil
Carlos leaves goalkeepers watching and wondering as his dead-on free kicks strike the back of the net.
Cup-enstein!
This monstrous mash of footballers would make the perfect World Cup player.
–Tribune
