In this football language post we explain the phrase ‘wayward‘ when describing a pass in football. Don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary and we also have a page full of football cliches. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
Football Language: Wayward pass
Passing is one of the most important aspects of football as teams try to build attacks by moving the ball from one team mate to another. There are lots of words used to describe a good pass – a pinpoint or slide rule pass are passes that are very accurate, while a no-look pass demonstrates the confidence of the player who knows where to put the ball without even looking. Of course, there are lots of expressions describing bad passes – a loose pass, a hospital pass, a sloppy pass and a wayward pass. Wayward means that something is not quite right; it is not regular and so when it is used to describe a pass it means that the pass has not reached its intended target but has been misplaced – the pass was a bad one and probably the opposition now have the ball. When teams started playing again after lockdown there were games that had many wayward passes as players had become rusty – they were not up to speed and their passing was wayward.
Example: ‘Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sums up Liverpool’s night with one horribly wayward pass‘ (Joe.ie)
Example: ‘Mikel apologises for wayward pass‘ (ESPN, 20 Sep 2012)
Related Vocabulary
- Loose pass
- Quiz: Language of passes
- Crossword: The language of passing and tackling
- No-look pass
- Hospital pass
- Rusty