footballportugal

An on-going (under constant construction) collection of useful (and, be careful, sometimes dangerous) Portuguese expressions that you may be able to use when you come to Portugal to see some bola.

Pronunciations are very approximate. Underlined syllables indicate where the emphasis lies in the word.

o árbitro - /oo ah bee troo/ the referee; (see also filho da puta)
a bola - football, the game and the round thing, so jogar à bola is 'to play     football'
um candongueiro - /can don gay roo/ a ticket tout (see also filho da puta)
um canto - /can too/ a corner
um central - /sen tra(r)l/ central defender
uma cerveja - /sir vey zjah/ - a beer
uma chicotada psicológica - 'psychological whipping' - sacking a coach after a bad run of results in an effort to 'refresh' the team psychologically
o estádio - /oo ish ta(r) dyoo/ - the stadium
(uma) falta! - /fahl te(r)/ (a) foul!
faz favor - /fazj favoor/ excuse me (... could you tell me the way to ...)
filho da pu ta - /feel you dah pooter/ 'son of a whore' (equal in strength to 'fucking bastard'); watch Portuguese players' lips after a bad decision, etc., to spot
it; use it very sparingly and only when there's a back exit to the bar ...
fora de jogo - /for e(r) de(r) zjoh goo/ offside
um frango - a terrible mistake by a goalkeeper, literally 'a chicken'; the verb is cometer, so Schmeichel cometeu um frango ('Schmeichel committed a chicken') ... the ball went through his legs, etc, etc. ...
um golo - /go loo/ er ... goal.
um golaço - /go lah soo/ a great goal
uma goleada - /go lee a(r) de(r)/ - a thrashing (3-0 or more)
um guardaredes - /gwah de(r) hey dish/ - a goalkeeper
um lateral - a full-back
um médio - /may dee oh/ midfielder
obrigado - /o bree gah doo/ thanks (/dah/ if you're a woman)
ponta de lança - classic centre forward, à la Mário Jardel
um preservativo /pre(r) zer vah tee voo/ a condom
se faz favor - /si(r) fash favoor/ please
um sócio - /so (r)-see-oo/ a fee-paying member of a club. Boavista have 16,000 sócios, Benfica over 100,000.
o treinador - /tray nah door/ the coach
um trinco - / treen koo/ defensive midfielder, sits in front of the back four, as in: "FC Porto are playing with five trincos today!"
um - /oom/ - a, one (a masculine thing)
uma - /oo mah/ - a, one (a feminine thing)
/zj/ - the sound of the 's' in 'pleasure'