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Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 3):
In this football language post we look at the phrase, ‘Power home a header‘ from the England versus Serbia match at the 2024 Euros. Don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary and we also have a page full of football cliches. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
Power home a header
England defeated Serbia in their opening group C match at the 2024 Euros thanks to a header from Jude Bellingham. The BBC described this goal as a ‘flying header‘ which suggests that the player was moving through the air before heading the ball into the net. Bellingham was in the air when he made contact with the ball after a run from outside the penalty area but maybe the description used in the Independent newspaper was a little more accurate. They said the England player powered home the header and this means that the player used so much power in the header making the ball travel so fast that the keeper had no chance.
The word ‘power’ here is used as a verb and it works with the words ‘header’ or ‘shot’ to describe what the player did. They powered the header towards the goal’; ‘she powered the shot home‘. Of course, ‘home‘ here refers to scoring a goal – he powered the ball home means that he scored with a powerful header.
- Example: Bellingham set England on their way with a dynamic run into the area and a flying header after 13 minutes that simply carried too much power for Serbia keeper Predrag Rajkovic (BBC.co.uk, June 16 2024)
- Example: …Saka coursed through in that quicksilver way to clip a cross over, there was Bellingham to power home a header (Independent.co.uk, 16 June 2024)
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