[print_link]During the Euro 2012 tournament the languagecaster team will explain a football headline that has appeared in the English-speaking press. Today’s headline is England’s familiar spot of bother. You can also find many more examples of football cliches here and our huge football glossary here.
Euro 2012 Headline of the Day: England’s familiar spot of bother
Today’s headline is ‘England’s familiar spot of bother‘ and comes from The Guardian newspaper which discusses the fact that England were defeated on penalties by Italy in the quarter-final of the European Championships. The noun ‘spot’ is sometimes used in football to talk about penalties: the penalty spot; a spot-kick; to score from the spot and here it is used with the phrase ‘a spot of bother‘ which means that someone is in trouble. England do not have a good record in penalty shootouts having only won one in 7 previous occasions hence the writer has used the word ‘familiar‘ meaning something that happens regularly. So, we could re-write the headline ‘England’s familiar spot of bother’ as ‘Once more England lose on penalties’.
