Some football lingo to take to the pub

Without trying to put the race issue to debate, there is a dilemma on which meaning 'Suarez' should take. Until now, being 'Suarezed' meant an irreversible and unfair advantage gained by one by unscrupulous means. This followed the way Luis Suarez stopped a last minute goal bound shot by hands in a quarter-final match against Ghana in the FIFA 2010 South Africa World Cup.

Being de-Jonged is synonymous with a proverbial body blow is one's affairs after the infamous Nigel de Jong's FIFA 2010 South African World Cup final wild kick at an opponent's mid torso.

Let's get a little serious though. Football language is a little technical sometimes and even accomplished coaches get tongue-tied once in a while. Here is a few things to know to take your local coach off-guard or to earn yourself a drink from a friend.

Technique is the commonly used technical term is football nowadays, having overtaken the term 'skill'. Soon you will see why. The natural gift of a player is the basis of the term. It covers everything the player does with the ball. It is often defined as the relationship between the two. Some examples here would include ball control, heading, passing, running with the ball and shooting.

In earlier days, this was referred to as skill. To many, it is still the same, only that the other is not preferred. This is not so. Skill will be the performance of technique under pressure. The ability to get out of trouble in tight conditions. This can loosely be dribbling, shooting and the like. One must be careful to leave that obvious but invisible line.

Tactics would be a whole subject that would need a day to dissect. In general terms, it refers to the relationship of one player with others, but as we will soon see, it is split into many aspects that may not necessarily involve team-mates. Mostly, it will be a situation without the ball, but not always as we will get to that.

There is individual tactics, group tactics, departmental tactics and team tactics. Individual tactics will be instructions given to a player concerning where to go and where not to go as well as when. It may be simple tasks with the ball, like playing a free-kick, penalty-kick, goal-kick, corner-kick or even a throw in. It could just be the goalkeeping issue.

As you have already rightly suspected, free-kicks that may involve 2 or more players fall into the group tactics. The same goes for corner-kicks and the like – to say who positions himself where and why. The departmental tactics may involve the penetrative runs of attackers, or the way defenders must behave and so forth. Team tactics will also depend on the general picture involving every one, say in a Cup match played over two legs. Total defensive behaviour may be required, so players may be requested to play zonal marking.

Zonal marking is another term that can earn you money. There is a loose understanding of this phrase. In contrast with man-to-man marking, where each players may be concerned with marking an opponent, zonal marking means 'only marking of players entering certain zones'. You can opt to  withdraw to the centre line every time you lose possession and wait for the opposition to come, or it could be the defending third.

The most common things coaches and media people do, is to mark the field with invisible borders. The common one is the defending, midfield and attacking thirds which cut the length of the pitch. There is more thirds than that. Smart coaches know how to mark longitudinally. Viewed from one's own keeper, there is the right, centre and left channels.

Then, on the same note, there is this expensive piece of information. These channels will depict the game or match strong sides. This depends on the number of players in each one of these channels. Watching any match, this phenomenon changes like Christmas tree lights. The concept as you may be getting it now, is determined by the ball movement.

If the ball moves to the far right corner, like flies to sewer, players get attracted to that part of the field, even those not partaking in the action, due to their interest, they shift towards that channel. The channel with the most number of people becomes the strong channel. Tactically, the prudent thing to do in winning the ball from that situation is to switch play to the weaker channel and counter attack.

Counter attack is normally known as a fast break after gaining possession. In proper football terms, it is only a counter attack if it is executed in 7 seconds or less, or in less than 5 passes. I was still interested in channels and the ball.

If you are defending, the natural instinct is to stay between the ball and the goal. For the defending player, he is referred to as being goal-side of the ball. The attacker becomes ball-side of the goal.  Sorry to mess up your mind. That is why you are not a coach.

Anyway, take an attacking player, at the right flank. Naturally, he has a goal-post nearer to him, normally referred to as the near post. To be a little sophisticated, it is permissible if you said that it is the first post, or primary post. The far post, by deduction, becomes the second or secondary post.

While with the same visual still in your head, the attacker's intention is always to deliver the cross in an area at the far post. This area should be not overlap much past the post and should be far away from the goalkeeper's command. You have landed in the 'prime target area'. At this area, many goals have been scored due to the traffic having been concentrating on the stronger channel ignoring the prime target area. Clever attackers will always  lurk on the blind side to surprisingly pop in with a goal.

This presents to you the 'prime scoring area' but as you may realise, it is purely statistical. One way of seeing a tactically aware wing defender, they ensure they can always see the ball and see the man so that as the ball is in flight to the prime target area, they follow the movement with quick little steps. And so does the goalkeeper.