Tips for Watching World Cup Futbol on Univision

A quick guide to Spanish idioms for Brazil 2014

I prefer watching the World Cup broadcasts on Univision, the Spanish language network, for the level of excitement the announcers bring to the call. Univision has a number of announcers and analyst calling the games, all with a distinct flavor. (For a full list, see the Univision talent guide.)

For those that didn’t attend to Señorita Fulana’s Spanish lesssons and left without the rudimentary Spanish skills, here’s a short guide to common, and not so common idioms, used by the announcers. These add a lot of caliente to the call.

revienta la pelota: literal translation: bursts (pops) the ball
Use: when a defending player kicks a ball in the air as hard as possible to clear it away from danger, usually without caring where it lands as long as it is far away from the goal mouth.

se… la… co… mió: literal: he ate it
He blew it. The announcer’s disappointment of a clear scoring opportunity having been wasted.

¡golazo, ¡golazo! ¡azo azo!
After the usual drawn out goooool scream, the announcer punctuates the scream with ¡golazo! when the goal is from an extraordinary shot or play.

filtra la pelota: literal: filters the ball
This is probably clear to longtime fútbol fans; it means a pass that splits the defense to be collected by a teammate on the other side of the offside line.

esconde la pelota: literal: hides the ball
When a player expertly dribbles through opposing players who can’t seem to find the ball.

acarició la pelota: literal: he caressed the ball
A player’s gentle touch on the ball gives it the right spin; also used during fancy dribbling.

ticos, los cafeteros, albiceleste, seleçao, la roja, el tri, la celeste, j/y/anquis: South American teams are usually referred by their more poetic nicknames. These nicknames are for the teams that made it to the octavos de final (round of 16), extra credit if you can match the teams correctly.

Also, many Latin player have odd nicknames. Just a few:
la pulga (the flea): Leo Messi, Argentina
chicharito (little pea, father was pea; green eyes): Javier Hernandez, Mexico
hulk (after Lou Ferrigno): Givanildo Vieira de Souza, Brazil

le tocaron el apellido: literal: touched his surname
when a player is hit in the groin area, the super slow-motion replay revealing why the player folded over in pain, the announcer will say in a matter-of-fact tone, le tocaron el apellido.

no rueda mas: literal: (the ball) doesn’t roll anymore
said at the time when the ref’s long whistles end of the half or the game.

One announcer really gets carried away uttering lines like:
la precisión es el secreto entre el pie y la pelota during a set play (precision is the secret between the foot and the ball. ¡ay yay yay¡) or as in the Mexico-Holland game, las niñas de mis ojos se enamoran con Ochoa (the girls of my eyes are falling in love with Ochoa) after a spectacular save by the Mexican portero (goalie).

So that you have your own quip ready should the excitement from the broadcast get your Spanish revved up: when a buddy steps in front of the TV during a key moment, blocking your view, yell out what we used to yell out in our house: la carne de burro no es transparente literal: the meat of a burro is not transparent; move out of the way! Make Señorita Fulana proud: yell it out with the same vigor as the Univision announcers.

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