The World Cup captures the attention of passionate supporters all around the world, as well as casual fans who get swept up in the excitement every four years.

Hardcore fans follow as many games as closely as they can, assessing not just the wins, draws and losses, but also more technical aspects such as possession percentages, expected goals, duels won, corners and more.

But for those tuning into the world game for the first time in four years, the language can be rather confusing. So what does it all mean?

Read more: ‘Soccer’ is a fine term for the beautiful game – don’t let any ‘football’ snob or president tell you otherwise this World Cup

The language of the world game

Soccer’s language is unique and provides fans, coaches and players with a collective understanding of what is happening on the pitch.

It may be a casual description of a player’s tactic or technique, or team strategy.

For example, “park the bus” is often attributed to legendary Portuguese coach José Mourinho describing how an opponent “left a bus in front of the goal” so his team could not score. This striking imagery actually means the opposition formed a defensive line in front of the goals so there was........

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