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Football (Soccer) vocabulary · Match Actions & Skills

Goal

Meaning in football (soccer), with examples

/ɡoʊl/nounCore term

In football (soccer), goal means: A point scored when the whole ball crosses the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar; also the frame with a net that teams try to put the ball into.

In Turkish: gol, kale

How it is used

Players score goals and teams concede them; a goalkeeper plays in goal. A goal can be disallowed or ruled out, and match reports list who scored and in which minute. Both the point and the frame are simply goal in English.

Example sentences

  1. Their striker scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.

  2. We conceded two goals from corners, which is unacceptable.

  3. Who's in goal for us today?

Common collocations

  • score a goal
  • concede a goal
  • winning goal
  • disallowed goal
  • in goal
  • scoreTo get a goal by putting the ball into the opponents' net. As a noun, the score is the number of goals each team has at a given moment.
  • own goalA goal that a player accidentally scores into their own team's net, so it counts for the opponents.
  • goalkeeperThe player who defends the goal and is the only one allowed to handle the ball, but only inside their own penalty area.
  • assistThe final pass or touch that sets up a teammate to score a goal.
  • equaliserA goal that makes the score level, for example the goal that changes 1-0 to 1-1.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Match Actions & Skills

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