This week’s football phrase is to carve open which in football means to open up a defence.
- Find out more about this phrase by reading the transcript below.
- You can also find many more examples of soccer vocabulary by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.
- This post also features in our podcast show, along with a main report and our weekly predictions.
(to) Carve open
This weeka€™s football expression is the verbal phrase a€˜to carve opena€™. We use this phrase in football to describe when an attacker easily breaks through a defence – they open up the defence. The verb to carve means to cut through something like meat for example, so when a player carves open a defence it means that the defence were unable to stop him or her, that the player easily went through the defence. To carve open.
- Example: In the 2015 Copa del Rey final Lionel Messi carved open the Bilbao defence with an amazing run.
- Example: The defence was carved open by a wonderful pass from Xavi.
