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Jun 4, 2006 

A Talismanic Striker On A Beautiful Pitch Wearing An Expensive Kit

One of the great pleasures in sports writing is the occasional use of soccer-specific terms. The field is not just a playing surface, but a pitch.

A team is a side, as in Brazil could field two or three strong sides. A uniform is a kit or a strip and a stadium is commonly called a grounds.

Then there's my favorite, calling the team's top playmaker a talisman. The notion that the team's best player somehow possesses supernatural powers that allows him great vision and creativeness to magical put the ball in the net makes for some poetic prose.

Aside from the terms, soccer writing is unabashed in providing corny, yet creative sports reporting. The game's ancestral background in England probably is the main function of this type of literature that finds it easy to describe the ferocious kicking of a ball into the net from a set piece as "elegant", "brilliant" or "a bit of genius".

C'mon, can you imagine a baseball writer in this country calling Roger Clemens the talisman for the Astros hopeful rise in the standings? The image most would conjure is that of the shaiman in the movie, Major League , who calls out for "Jobu" to help him with his power stroke.