Regardless if someone watches German football games occasionally or religiously, seeing them in the original language is more fun because a lot of the atmosphere and cultural peculiarities are also transferred. So, take the list below along the next time you see a German Bundesliga game and watch out for those technical soccer terms.
Basic German Soccer Terms
The basic football terms in German will help understand the action on the field when watching a game in German. Make sure to learn the corresponding definite article (der, die, das) along with the noun so that the combination is memorized automatically from the start.
- das Abseits – offside
- auswechseln – substituting
- die Ecke/der Eckstoß – corner/corner kick
- der Einwurf – throw-in
- der Elfmeter – penalty kick (literally: eleven metres)
- das Foul – foul
- der Freistoß – free kick
- die gelbe Karte – yellow card
- der Kopfstoß - header
- die Mannschaft - team
- der Platzverweis – sending-off
- die rote Karte – red card
- die Schwalbe – dive (colloquial; literally: the swallow, diving like a swallow in the air)
- der Strafraum – penalty box
- das Tor – goal, also shouted (Tor! Tor!) when a player has scored a goal
The Soccer Team – die Fußballmannschaft
All terms that describe player positions like Stürmer, Angreifer, etc. have a masculine definite article der attached because they refer to male players. This changes to die for female players, plus the noun gets an -in suffix, for example Stürmerin, Angreiferin, etc.
- die Abwehr – defense
- der Angreifer – attacking player
- der Angriff – attack
- die Elf – eleven, often what a soccer team is called
- der Linienrichter – linesman
- links außen – left wing
- der Mittelfeldspieler – midfielder
- rechts außen – right wing
- die Reserve – reserve player
- der Schiedsrichter – referee
- der Spieler – player
- der Stürmer – striker, center forward
- der Trainer – coach
- der Torschütze – goal scorer
- der Torwart – goal keeper
- der Verteidiger – defender
Other Important Football Terms in German
When learning the article for composite nouns (Heimspiel, for example), look at the root of the noun which will determine the article (-spiel). The article for words with the same root is therefore the same. For example Heimspiel, Hinspiel and Rückspiel are all neuter because their root, -spiel, is neuter.
- das Auswärtsspiel – away game
- Bundesliga – German Football League/German Soccer League
- der Fußball – football
- die Fußballschuhe – soccer shoes, cleats
- die erste Halbzeit – first half
- die Halbzeit – half time
- das Heimspiel – home game
- das Hinspiel – first leg
- das Rückspiel – second leg
- schießen – shoot, often shouted by spectators: “Schieß doch!” – Shoot already!
- der Spielstand – score
- die Verlängerung – overtime
- verletzt – injured
- der Zuschauer/die Zuschauer – spectator, spectators
- zweite Halbzeit – second half
There is much more to German soccer, of course, and there are many more specialized terms and teams, but these essential German soccer terms will give anyone learning the language a good grounding. As former German national coach Sepp Herberger said: “Der Ball ist rund!“ (the ball is round), indicating that not much else is a constant in the game.
Readers of this article might also be interested in German Bundesliga teams and abbreviations or learning about the Bundesliga's new relegation system, or how about the 30 most popular German sayings?
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