The football glossary

196 terms explained simply — from tactical vocabulary to dressing-room slang. Search a word, or browse the list.

30-15 intermittent test: A field test alternating 30 seconds of running and 15 seconds of walking, with speed increasing in stages. Its intermittent format often makes it closer to football than a continuous running test.
Academy: An accredited structure within a professional club that develops young players by combining football and schooling. Very few players get in, and only a minority of those who do turn professional.
ACL (anterior cruciate ligament): The knee ligament whose rupture means a long spell out. The risk is markedly higher for female players, which makes preventive work all the more important.
Active recovery: Very light activity after a match or an intense session, rather than complete rest. One of the building blocks of a recovery protocol, alongside sleep and nutrition. Recovering after a match
Acute to chronic workload ratio: The comparison between this week's load and the average of the preceding weeks. A sharp rise is a classic warning sign — the metric itself is debated in the research, but the principle of building up gradually still holds.
Added time: Minutes added at the end of a half to make up for stoppages (injuries, substitutions, celebrations). The referee remains the sole judge of it.
Advantage: The referee lets play continue despite a foul, if the team fouled keeps a favourable situation. He can come back to the foul if the advantage doesn't materialise.
Aerobic capacity: The ability to sustain an effort for a long time without running out. It's the foundation: without it, a player recovers badly between the intense efforts of a match.
Aerobic power: The ability to sustain a high intensity for a relatively long time. It's what lets a player string together the intense runs of a single passage of play.
Age groups: The U6, U7, U8… up to U19 and then Seniors bands, calculated on year of birth. A "U13" is a player who is under 13 on 1 January of the current season.
Agility: The ability to change direction quickly in reaction to what is happening around you. Not to be confused with a cone course learned by heart: with no information to process, it stops being agility.
Assist on a plate: A perfect assist, leaving nothing to do but tap the ball in.
Assistant referee: The official positioned along the touchline, whose duties include flagging offsides and balls out of play. In amateur football the role is often filled by a club official or a volunteer parent.
Attacking transition: The seconds that follow winning the ball back, while the opposition is still unbalanced. It's often the moment in a match when goals come most easily. Transitions course
Backheel: A pass or flick played with the heel, often to surprise an opponent in a tight space.
Between the lines: The space between two opposition lines, typically between their defence and midfield. A player receiving there almost always has time to turn: it's the area every possession-based team looks for.
Block: The group of players defending together and connected to each other, rather than each in their own corner. A compact block keeps its lines close; a stretched block lets them drift apart. Defending in a low block
Brace and hat-trick: Two goals, then three goals scored by the same player in a single match.
Building out from the back: Getting the ball out of your own half, goalkeeper included. Playing out short requires players who are comfortable under pressure and a clear structure; going long requires an organised fight for the second ball.
Call-up message: The message telling selected players the venue, the meeting time and the kit. A single channel and a fixed sending day often limit last-minute absences.
Captain: The player who wears the armband and links the group, the coach and the referee. You pick him more for the example he sets and his ability to lift others than for his level of play.
Centre-back: The central defender, responsible for duels and cover. In the modern game he is increasingly asked to carry the ball forward when nobody comes to press him.
Centre-forward: The furthest forward player on the pitch. Depending on his profile, he pins the defenders and plays with his back to goal, or attacks the space behind them — few genuinely do both.
Clean sheet: A match finished without conceding. The expression is used for the defensive runs of a team or a goalkeeper.
Closing down: Going towards the player on the ball to stop them playing forward. Closing down well isn't charging in: it's arriving at an angle that shuts off one side and forces them to play where you're waiting.
Coaching qualifications: In France, the federal pathway runs from entry-level certificates to the BMF and the BEF, then on to the professional diplomas. Each level opens access to certain age groups and divisions.
Coming for crosses: The goalkeeper's intervention on a high ball (cross, corner). The decision — come or stay — matters more than the leap: a call made clearly then abandoned halfway is the most dangerous option of all.
Compactness: The distance between the lines of a defending team. The closer the lines (often 8 to 15 metres), the less space the opposition finds between them to play.
Concussion: A blow to the head causing symptoms (confusion, headache, nausea), with or without loss of consciousness. The rule is not up for discussion: if in doubt, the player comes off and does not return, and medical advice is needed before playing again.
Constraint: The rule added to a game to make a behaviour appear (number of touches, compulsory zones, bonus points). Well chosen, it teaches more effectively than an explanation.
Cool-down: The end of the session, at low intensity. Its physiological effect is modest, but it's a useful moment to bring the group down and say a few words about what has just been worked on.
Core stability: Strengthening the deep muscles of the trunk. What matters is not how long you hold a plank, but the ability to keep that alignment during a run or a duel.
Corner: A corner kick awarded when a defender puts the ball behind his own goal line. It's one of the rare situations where you can prepare a move in advance. Corner routines
Counter-attack: An attack launched straight after winning the ball back, while the opposition is still pushed up and disorganised. It lives on speed of decision as much as speed of running.
Counter-pressing: Pressing immediately after losing the ball, before the opposition can get organised. It is also known as gegenpressing. If the ball isn't won back within the first few seconds, the instruction becomes to drop back. Gegenpressing explained
Cover: Positioning yourself behind and slightly diagonal to a team-mate going into a duel, ready to step in if they get beaten. It's what lets you defend aggressively without risking everything.
Cross: A ball delivered from a wide area into the box. Its quality comes above all from its height and the zone targeted: near post, far post, or cut back to the edge of the box.
Cruyff turn (roulette): A dribbling move where the player spins on himself keeping the ball under his feet, to escape pressure coming from behind.
Curled shot: A shot struck with the inside of the foot, wrapping around the ball to give it spin and a curve back towards goal.
Cushioned control: The touch that takes the speed off an aerial ball and puts it on the floor. You do it by going with the ball rather than blocking it.
Cut: A sharp change of direction with the ball to beat an opponent or open up an angle. Inside or outside of the foot depending on which way you want to go.
Cut-back: A ball played backwards from the byline or from inside the box, towards a player arriving at speed. One of the most rewarding goalscoring situations in the modern game.
Debrief: The feedback given after a match or a session. It focuses on a few precise behaviours rather than on the result, and works better when the players speak first.
Defensive transition: The seconds that follow losing the ball. Only two possible responses: counter-press immediately, or drop back together. The mistake is doing both by halves.
Depth: The space behind the opposition defence, and the threat you put on it. Without a player attacking in behind, the opposition can push its line up and suffocate the game.
Derby: A match between two clubs close to each other geographically. A context where managing the group's emotions often counts as much as the game plan.
Direct and indirect free kick: From a direct free kick you can score without another player touching the ball; from an indirect one, a second contact is required.
Direct play: Looking forward quickly, often with a long ball to a striker who can hold it up. It is not a clearance: two or three players must push up immediately to contest the second ball.
Directional first touch: A first touch that already sends the ball towards the free space, instead of stopping it. It's the action that buys the most time on the pitch, and it depends directly on scanning before the ball arrives.
District and Regional League: The organising tiers of French amateur football: the District runs county-level competitions, the League the regional level. It is the District that sets most of the local rules for youth age groups.
DOMS (muscle soreness): Muscle soreness appearing 24 to 72 hours after an unusual effort, often linked to decelerations and eccentric contractions. It is not a reliable indicator of how good a session was.
Dressing room: Beyond the room itself, everything to do with the life of the group: leaders, atmosphere, tensions. "Losing the dressing room" means no longer having the players with you.
Dribbling with the ball: Moving with the ball at your feet. You train it by varying the contact surface, the speed and above all the head position: carrying the ball without looking up is useless in a match.
Dropped ball: The restart after a stoppage caused by no foul at all (injury, burst ball, outside interference). The ball is returned to a player of the team that last touched it, at the spot of that last touch, and all other players must move away.
Dropping back: Retreating as a block after losing the ball, instead of pressing. It's the alternative to counter-pressing, and often the right one when players are too far from the ball.
Dropping off: The movement of an attacking player coming back towards the ball to become available. It often drags a defender along and frees the space behind them for a team-mate.
Duel: A direct contest between two players for the ball, on the ground or in the air. A team can make up for losing duels with its organisation, but rarely for a whole match.
Eccentric contraction: A contraction during which the muscle lengthens, typically when braking or landing from a jump. It's the most demanding mode, very present in football and central to hamstring work.
Energy systems: The different ways the body produces energy depending on the intensity and duration of the effort. In football they are constantly mixed, which is why interval work matters.
Expected goals (xG): A metric that estimates the probability of a shot becoming a goal, based on its position and situation. Useful for judging the quality of chances rather than their number, but poorly suited to the small sample of an amateur season.
Explosiveness: The ability to produce a lot of force in very little time: first step, jump, change of direction. You train it preferably fresh, at the start of a session, rather than under fatigue.
Extra time: Two additional periods played when the scores are level, in knockout competitions. They do not apply in league football.
False nine: A centre-forward who systematically drops into midfield instead of staying on the centre-backs. It creates doubt: if a centre-back follows, the line opens up; if nobody follows, he receives free.
Fast attack: An attack carried out in a few passes before the opposition has finished getting back into shape. It sits between the counter-attack, which is immediate, and the positional attack, which is patient.
Feedback: The information given back to a player about what he has just done. More useful when it is targeted and immediate than when it is saved up for the end of the session.
Feint: A movement designed to suggest something else: a shot feint, a pass feint, a body feint. Its effectiveness comes from how convincing the first movement is, not from how complicated it is.
Festival day: A gathering of youth teams over a morning, with short matches and stations. The reference format for the youngest age groups, where league tables have no place.
First touch: The first contact with the ball. It's often what decides everything that follows: well oriented, it buys half a second; badly weighted, it cancels out everything that came before.
Flick-on: A light touch that changes the path of the ball without controlling it, often with the head from a corner or a long ball.
Formation: The way players are arranged on the pitch, described by a run of numbers read from defence to attack (the goalkeeper isn't counted). It's only a starting point: a team changes shape depending on whether it has the ball or not. Which formation to choose
Forward and backward options: The two options offered to the player on the ball. The forward option is ahead of them (you progress), the backward one is behind (you keep possession). A team that never offers a backward option loses a lot of balls under pressure.
Foul: An unfair action committed against an opponent, punished by a free kick or a penalty. The sanction depends on how careless the action was, not only on its outcome.
Full-back: A wide defender. Depending on the model of play, he pushes up to provide width, or steps into midfield to help build up — that's what people call an inverted full-back.
Futsal: Indoor five-a-side football, with a heavier ball that bounces less. Excellent for developing quick decision-making and technique in tight spaces.
Game formats: The number of players per team by age: 5-a-side, 7-a-side, 8-a-side, then 11-a-side. Each format has its own dimensions, rules and development aims. 8-a-side football
General physical preparation: The foundational work — endurance, strengthening, movement skills — that builds the base before more specific training. Traditionally placed at the start of pre-season, it's worth maintaining all year round.
Glycogen: The form in which carbohydrates are stored in the muscles and the liver. It's the main fuel of a match: low stores often explain the drop in intensity in the last twenty minutes. What to eat before a match
Goal kick: The restart from inside the box after the ball has gone behind the goal line, last touched by an attacker. The ball is in play as soon as it is kicked: a team-mate may receive it inside the box.
Goalkeeper distribution: The goalkeeper's ability to take part in the build-up. It has become a skill in its own right: it gives the team an extra player when playing out, provided he also knows how to go long when the pressure is too high.
Groin pain (osteitis pubis): Chronic pain in the pubic region, common in football, favoured by repeated changes of direction and striking of the ball. It sets in gradually, which makes the first signals easy to overlook.
Half-space: The channel between the centre and the wing, when you divide the pitch into five vertical strips. A player standing there is hard to pick up — too central for the full-back, too wide for the centre-back — and can see the goal as well as both sides of the pitch. Positional play course
Handball: A foul given when a player deliberately touches the ball with the hand or arm, or makes his body unnaturally bigger. The interpretation has changed a great deal in recent years.
Heading: Striking or flicking the ball with the head. You train it by insisting on the timing of the jump and the contact area (the forehead), not on the number of repetitions.
Holding midfielder: The defensive midfielder positioned just in front of the defence, tasked with protecting the middle and offering an outlet in the build-up. Often the first role to make reliable in an amateur team.
Hoof: A ball hit very high with no clear direction, usually in a panic. The term is pejorative: a hoof gives the opposition time to reset and makes the ball nearly impossible to keep.
Hydration: Maintaining the body's water level. Losing just a few per cent of body weight in fluid can be enough to degrade performance and sharpness, hence the value of drinking before you feel thirsty.
Interval training: Work alternating efforts and recoveries. In football, short repeated formats are preferred, being closer to what a player experiences in a match than continuous running.
Inverted winger: A winger playing on the opposite side to his strong foot (a left-footer on the right), so he can cut inside and shoot. In exchange he crosses less and depends heavily on his full-back overlapping to keep the width.
Kick-off: The restart from the centre circle, at the start of each half and after every goal. The ball may now be played in any direction, and a goal can be scored directly from it.
Knock and go: Pushing the ball one side of an opponent and running round the other to collect it. It demands pace, where the nutmeg demands precision.
Lay-off: A short one-touch pass to a team-mate arriving, usually played with your back to goal. It's the second half of a one-two or of a three-player combination.
Line-up: The starting eleven and where everyone plays. Announcing it early avoids dressing-room debate, but exposes you more to the reactions of the substitutes: every coach decides this their own way.
Lob: A ball played over an opponent or an advanced goalkeeper. On a shot, it's often called chipping the ball.
Low, mid and high block: How high up the pitch the team waits for the opposition, measured by the distance between its last line and its own goal. Benchmarks observed in the pro game: roughly 22 to 28 metres in a low block, 35 to 45 in a mid block, 50 and beyond in a high block. Defending as a team course
Madjer: A backheel struck by passing the foot behind the standing leg, named after the Algerian Rabah Madjer.
Man-marking: Each defender follows a designated opponent wherever he goes. Simple to explain, but every player depends on his own duel: one player beaten opens up a whole side of the pitch.
MAS (maximal aerobic speed): Maximal aerobic speed: the lowest speed at which a player consumes the maximum amount of oxygen. It mainly serves to individualise running paces within a session.
Maximum heart rate: The highest number of beats per minute a heart reaches during effort. Formulas like "220 minus your age" only give a rough order of magnitude, with wide individual variation.
Microcycle: The training week, from the day after a match to the next one. It's the most useful planning unit in amateur football, more so than the annual plan. Planning the week
Model of play: The way a coach wants his team to play, across the four moments of the game. It should guide the choice of exercises, not the other way round.
Muscle injury: Damage to the fibres of a muscle, from a simple strain to a full tear. The hamstrings are the most affected in football, often during an acceleration or a deceleration.
Narrowing the angle: For the goalkeeper, advancing towards the shooter to reduce the amount of goal he can see. A few metres forward completely changes the target on offer, without changing anything about the dive.
Numerical inferiority: Being outnumbered in the area around the ball, or on the pitch after a red card. The answer is almost always the same: cut down the spaces, accept giving up the ball, and pick a single side to defend.
Numerical superiority: Having more players than the opposition in the area around the ball. You look for it everywhere: three defenders against two forwards to play out, an extra man in midfield to progress.
Nutmeg: Playing the ball between an opponent's legs to collect it behind him.
Off-the-ball run: A run made without the ball to become available. A good run isn't only about receiving: even when it isn't found, it drags a defender away and opens space for a team-mate.
Offside: A player is in an offside position if he is ahead of the second-last opponent and ahead of the ball when a team-mate plays it. The position alone isn't enough: he has to be involved in the play.
Offside from the halfway line: An adaptation used in small-sided youth football: offside only applies from the halfway line onwards, to stop children camping near the goal. The rules of 8-a-side
Offside trap: A coordinated step-up by the defensive line at the moment of the opposition pass, to catch the striker offside. Effective but risky: a single defender stepping up late is enough to undo it.
One-on-one with the keeper: The duel between a striker running through alone and the goalkeeper. The keeper mainly wins it by coming out early to narrow the angle, then staying on his feet as long as possible.
One-two: A pass followed by an immediate return into the passer's run. The simplest way to beat an opponent, and one of the most rewarding things to repeat in training.
Open body shape: A body orientation that lets you see both the player on the ball and the rest of the pitch before receiving. It's the direct extension of scanning. Scanning explained
Opposition: Any training situation where real opponents challenge the player on the ball. A skill practised without opposition transfers far less well to a match than one learned under pressure.
Overlap: A team-mate's run behind the player on the ball, on the touchline side, creating an impossible choice for the defender: follow the run or stay with the ball.
Overtraining: A lasting state of fatigue that sets in when the load exceeds recovery capacity for too long. The signs often come before the drop in performance: disturbed sleep, irritability, repeated injuries.
Panenka: A penalty chipped gently down the middle, betting on the goalkeeper diving. Named after Antonín Panenka, who did it in the Euro 1976 final.
Pass to feet: A pass played directly to a team-mate, standing still or coming short. It has to arrive on the right side: the one that takes it away from the defender.
Passing lane: The imaginary channel between the player on the ball and a team-mate. Defending is often about shutting the inside passing lanes rather than running at the ball.
Penalty: A kick taken from twelve yards, awarded for a foul committed inside the box. Players must stay outside the box until the kick is taken.
Penalty shoot-out: The series of penalties that separates two level teams. The success rate drops sharply compared with a penalty during a match: it's an exercise in handling pressure as much as in technique.
Periodisation: Organising training content over time, from the season plan down to the week. It mainly serves to avoid two traps: doing everything at once, or never repeating anything.
Pinning: Occupying an opponent to stop them going elsewhere. A winger hugging the touchline pins the opposing full-back; a striker threatening in behind pins the defensive line and stops it stepping up.
Pivot and double pivot: The pivot is the midfielder positioned in front of the defence, the reference point of the build-up. Two players in that role form a double pivot, typical of the 4-2-3-1.
Playing out: The way the team gets the ball out of its own third under opposition pressure. It's often the first pattern to install, before you even work on attacking.
Playing time: The number of minutes each player gets. It's often the number one source of tension in a group: having a rule announced in advance protects the coach as much as the players.
Playmaker: The player in charge of directing his team's play, often positioned between the opposition lines. He's also called the number 10, even though the role now exists in many different forms.
Plyometrics: Jumping and bounding work that exploits muscle elasticity. Effective for explosiveness, but demanding on the tendons: build it up gradually.
Positional attack: An attack built against an opponent who is already organised and packed behind the ball. It demands patience, width and players able to receive between the lines — the opposite of a counter-attack.
Positional play: A way of attacking based on organised occupation of the pitch (channels, heights, distances) rather than on the number of passes. Possession is a consequence of good positioning, not the aim. Positional play explained
PPDA: Passes allowed per defensive action. The lower the figure, the more the team presses. Careful: it measures the intensity of the press, not its quality.
Pre-season: The weeks of build-up before the league starts. The main aim: raise the load gradually to reduce injury risk when the first matches come around.
Pressing: Going to win the ball back in a coordinated way rather than waiting. A successful press depends less on running than on timing: together, or not at all. How to press effectively
Pressing angles: Pressing while deliberately shutting one side to push the opponent towards the other, where you're waiting for him. The first presser arrives on a curved run rather than in a straight line.
Pressing trigger: The precise signal that launches the whole team's press: a backward pass, a poor touch, a player facing their own goal, a ball towards the touchline. Without a shared trigger, everyone presses in their own time and the block splits. Coordinated pressing
Proprioception: The perception of your own body position and the control of your footing, often trained through balance work or on unstable surfaces. One of the classic levers for preventing sprains.
Rabona: A strike or pass made by crossing the kicking leg behind the standing one. Spectacular, rarely the most effective choice.
Recovery session: A very light session the day after a match, meant to get the circulation going and loosen the body. Its effect on performance is still debated, but it often has real value for the group and for mental decompression.
Registration: The official registration of a player or coach with the federation, which determines the right to play in competition. It comes with a medical certificate or a health questionnaire depending on the case.
Rest defence: The players deliberately kept behind the ball while the team attacks (often a 2-3 or 3-2 structure). It's what allows the team, on losing the ball, to counter-press or drop back cleanly.
Rondo: A keep-ball game in a circle, with one or two players in the middle trying to intercept. Set up properly, it trains body orientation, scanning and counter-pressing, not just passing. The rondo
Rotation: Two players swapping positions during a move (a winger cutting inside while the full-back takes the flank). It creates doubt for the defender, provided someone occupies the space that has been vacated.
RPE: A score from 0 to 10 given by the player for how hard a session felt. Multiplied by the duration, it gives a usable training load with no equipment at all. Reading load with RPE
RSA (repeated sprint ability): The ability to string together sprints with little recovery without losing too much speed. One of the most decisive qualities in football.
Second ball: The ball dropping after an aerial duel, a block or a clearance. Teams that play long without organising the recovery of these balls often lose a large share of their attacks.
Shifting across: The sideways slide of the block when the ball switches flanks. Everyone moves together: the player on the far side tucks into the middle instead of staying glued to their channel.
Shirt-number roles (6, 8, 9, 10): A vocabulary inherited from shirt numbers: the 6 is the deep midfielder in front of the defence, the 8 the box-to-box midfielder, the 10 the creative player between the lines, the 9 the centre-forward.
Short intervals: A running format alternating short efforts and short pauses (15 seconds on, 15 seconds off, for example). Widely used in football because it allows a big volume at high intensity.
Sleep: The number one recovery lever, ahead of every cold or massage method. Seven to nine hours a night, at regular times, often does more for a player than any post-match protocol. Recovering after a match
Slowing it down: Deliberately taking the pace out of the game: in defence to give the block time to reset, in attack to wait for team-mates to push up. Knowing when not to rush is part of the game.
Small-sided game: A match on a reduced space with few players. By adjusting the space, the numbers, the touches and the rules, you steer the physical or tactical emphasis without ever leaving the game itself. Which dimensions for which format
Speed: In football it comes in several forms: reaction speed, acceleration over five to ten metres, running speed over thirty metres, and speed with a change of direction. It's the short acceleration that comes up most often in a match.
Sprain: The stretching or tearing of a ligament, most often at the ankle. The risk of it happening again is high, which makes balance and proprioception work useful long after the pain has gone.
Squad: All the players in the group. Its size drives a lot of decisions: with sixteen players you rotate, with twenty-five you mainly manage minutes and frustration.
Squeaky-bum time: The closing minutes of a tight match, where a lot of results are decided. It's also the moment when mistakes in load management are often paid for.
Station: A working situation set up on part of the pitch, often alongside others. Useful for getting lots of repetitions, provided the waiting time stays short.
Substitution: Replacing one player with another, within the limit set by the competition rules. In youth and amateur football, substitutions are often rolling, meaning a player who has come off can go back on.
Supercompensation: The principle that the body, after an effort and enough recovery, comes back slightly stronger than before. Progress is built during recovery, not during the session.
Switch of play: Quickly moving the ball to the other side after drawing the opposition in. Since their block shifts towards the ball, the far side is often free.
Tackle: A ground intervention to take the ball off an opponent. It's the last defensive resort: even a successful tackle means the standing duel was lost.
Tactical periodisation: A method where the whole week is organised around the model of play: every session works on a principle of play, and the physical emphasis comes from the form of the game proposed. Tactical periodisation explained
Taking a player on: Beating an opponent with the ball at your feet. Success depends as much on the moment chosen and the speed of execution as on the skill itself.
Talent identification: Spotting players for a higher level or an academy. It remains very imperfect with young players, largely because of differences in maturity.
Tapering: A period of reduced training load before an important fixture, so players arrive fresh without losing the qualities they've built. You cut the volume more than the intensity.
Team sheet: The official document listing players, substitutes and staff, nowadays often digital. A registration or identity error can mean losing the match off the pitch.
Team talk: The pre-match or half-time address. It works best short and built around three messages: what we keep, what we fix, what we go after. Nailing your team talk
Tendinopathy: Pain in a tendon (knee, Achilles), often linked to repeated load increased too quickly. It calls for an adaptation of training rather than complete rest.
The bench: The area reserved for substitutes and staff. "Warming the bench" means staying a substitute all match — a situation that quickly wears down a player's motivation.
The danger zone: The area in front of and inside the opposition box, where most goals are decided. Many match analyses start by simply counting how often a team gets in there.
The five channels: Dividing the pitch into five vertical strips: two wings, two half-spaces and the centre. It serves as a reference to stop two players ending up in the same strip at the same height. Positional play explained
The four moments of the game: A simple way of dividing up a match: with the ball, without the ball, the attacking transition and the defensive transition. Most models of play are written around these four entries.
The free man: The player nobody is marking in the area around the ball. He is the one who lets you break the next opposition line — hence the principle of always trying to have one more player near the ball.
The sticks: Everyday slang for the goal. "Going in the sticks" means playing in goal.
Third-man run: A combination where the player on the ball passes to a link man, who immediately sets it into the path of a third player running into space. The defence follows the ball and often forgets that third player.
Through ball: A ball played into the space behind the defence for a team-mate running on. Its success rests above all on being timed with the run.
Throw-in: A restart taken with both hands and both feet on the ground, when the ball crosses the touchline. You cannot score directly from it, nor be offside from it.
Tiki-taka: A term coined by the Spanish media to describe the short-passing game of Barcelona and Spain around 2010. It describes what you see, not what organises it — hence the frequent confusion with positional play.
Top corner: The upper angle of the goal, where the post meets the crossbar.
Training block: A block of several weeks devoted to the same dominant theme. It allows enough repetition to install a behaviour, rather than changing subject every session.
Training load: The amount of work imposed on a player, combining duration and intensity. Tracking it is above all a way to spot increases that are too sharp from one week to the next. Measuring load with RPE
Training session: The basic unit of training, usually organised in blocks: warm-up, main body, game, cool-down. A session chasing one clear objective beats a session skimming four.
Transfer window: The official transfer period. In amateur football the equivalent is the registration transfer window, framed by set dates and a limited number of club changes.
Triangle: A three-player arrangement that gives the ball carrier at least two options from different angles. A team that plays in triangles generally loses fewer balls under pressure.
Vameval test: A field test with progressively increasing speed, used to estimate a player's maximal aerobic speed. Other protocols exist (Luc Léger, 30-15) depending on what you want to measure.
VAR: Video assistance for the referee, limited to four situations: goals, penalties, straight red cards and mistaken identity. It does not exist in amateur football.
VO2max: The maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during effort. The reference indicator in a laboratory, less practical than maximal aerobic speed out on the pitch.
Volley and half-volley: A strike before the ball touches the ground (volley) or just after it bounces (half-volley). The half-volley is the most powerful, but the hardest to keep on target.
Wall: The line of players placed in front of a free kick to cover part of the goal. Opponents must stand at the regulation distance, and an attacker is no longer allowed to stand in the wall.
Weaker foot: A player's less capable foot. Working on it early widens his passing and shooting options considerably, but it takes regular repetition rather than a one-off session.
Wellness questionnaire: A few questions asked regularly of players (sleep, fatigue, stress, soreness) to track how they are. Combined with RPE, it's the most accessible monitoring in the amateur game: it costs nothing and helps flag players in the red.
Width: Occupying the pitch from one touchline to the other. Keeping a player at each extreme forces the opposition defence to stretch, which opens space in the middle.
Wing-back: The wide player in back-three systems (3-5-2, 3-4-3): a winger when the team has the ball, a full-back when it loses it. One of the most physically demanding roles on the pitch.
Winger: An attacking player who operates close to the touchline. Depending on their profile, they either stay wide to stretch the defence and get in behind, or cut inside to shoot and leave the flank to their full-back.
Winter break: The mid-season break. It's prepared like a small pre-season: a little rest, then a gradual build-up of load before the league restarts.
Yellow and red card: Yellow is a caution, red is a sending-off. Two yellows in the same match make a red, and the team finishes with ten men.
Youth coach: The French term for the coach of youth age groups, chosen to underline that the job goes beyond performance: developing players and setting a framework.
Zonal marking: Each player is responsible for a space and picks up whoever enters it, then hands him over to a team-mate when he leaves. It's the basis of defending as a block.