A Tea But No E

I love football but I think the greatest trick that Pele ever pulled off was when he said football was "the beautiful game" and we all believed him.

However this description of Carlos Tevez saving the day for West Ham makes Argentinian football sound rather beautiful...

"pechito ... amague... pared ... gambeta ... sombrerito ... chanfle ...GOAL!"

From a beautiful bit of sportswriting on the Guardian sports blog by Marcela Mora y Araujo. She provides this useful reference for the rest of us:

Argentinian football for dummies:

Pechito = to trap the ball with the chest;
amague = dummy;
gambeta = dribbling with a certain 'je ne sais quoi';
pared = one-two;
sombrerito = to kick the ball over the opponent and retrieve on the other side;
chanfle = to strike with the side of the foot

posted by JJ @ 3:45 PM
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