In this week’s football language post we look at a headline from the Guardian newspaper about Mexican striker Raúl Jiménez who scored the winning goal for Wolves at the weekend. You can see more newspaper headlines here and don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
Newspaper Headlines: Raúl Jiménez winner sparks emotional scenes as Wolves beat Southampton
In this week’s newspaper headline (from the Guardian) we look at the Premier League game between Southampton and Wolves – two sides that needed points to move away from the bottom of the table. Wolves won 1-0 but the main focus was on their Mexican striker Raúl Jiménez who scored the winning goal. This was his first goal since coming back from a horrific head injury suffered against Arsenal nearly ten months ago that nearly ended his career and so there were quite a lot of emotional scenes as players, fans and the media were all really happy to see the player score the winner.
The headline includes the player’s full name (maybe to add an emotional link to the story?) and uses the verb ‘sparks‘ which means to ignite, start or set off something (such as an emotion or a comeback). In football we might hear this verb used when something happens that causes another thing to happen quite quickly. So, for example:
- The goal sparked emotional scenes from the supporters and his team mates (The goal made the fans feel very emotional)
- The early goal in the second half sparked a revival (the goal kickstarted the comeback)
- Racist abuse of England football players sparks political row (FT.com, 12 July 2021)
- How Roberto Mancini sparked renaissance by blending Italian coaching ideas (Sky Sports, 12 July 2021)
More Vocabulary
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