Football Phrase of the Week: Reckless Challenge

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Football Phrase of the Week: Reckless Challenge

In this football phrase of the week we look back at the FA Cup fifth round game between Crystal Palace and Millwall and the phrase, ‘reckless challenge‘. You can read the transcript for this post below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

Reckless Challenge

DF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Languagecaster team and I hope you are all doing well. Welcome to this week’s football phrase which is when we look back at some of the language from the weekend’s football. So, in this week’s football phrase we explain the phrase, ‘reckless challenge‘ and this is from the FA Cup fifth round game between Crystal Palace and Millwall.

The Millwall goalkeeper, Liam Roberts, was sent off after a really bad tackle on Crystal Palace striker Mateta after only eight minutes. The referee initially only gave a yellow card; as he saw it as a careless tackle. But after checking with VAR he changed his mind and sent the goalkeeper off as he felt it was reckless. This word reckless means that there is little care involved and that something has happened without any thought or protection for another person, or in this case, another player. And this is what the Millwall keeper did when he kicked the Crystal Palace forward in the head – he didn’t appear to think about the possible danger for the opposition player. The injured player received 25 stitches in hospital but was thankfully able to go home afterwards – he was discharged from the hospital.

The Crystal Palace chairman, Steve Parrish, was really angry after the game and felt that this was one of the worst challenges (or tackles) that he had ever seen. However, the opposing manager felt that his goalkeeper had simply mistimed his challenge – though it is hard to agree with that as his keeper almost kung-fu kicked the Palace forward. Other phrases that we might hear include, ‘X-rated tackle‘ or ‘horror tackle’ and these describe these types of dangerous challenges because they are simply so bad.

Here is what the laws of the game say about such a tackle.

Example: Reckless is when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned (FA.com – Laws of the game)

And here’s another example, this is from the BBC:

• Example: Mateta ‘doing well’ after 25 stitches in ear following ‘reckless challenge‘ (BBC.co.uk)

And here’s another example, this time from the Manchester United vs Ipswich game:

• Example: Robbie Savage laments Patrick Dorgu’s ‘terrible tackle’ as Man Utd star receives ‘reckless’ red against Ipswich
• Definition (IFAB): Any action (usually a tackle or challenge) by a player which disregards (ignores) the danger to, or consequences for, the opponent

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Can you think of any more examples like this? And how would you say this expression, ‘a reckless challenge‘ or a ‘reckless tackle‘ in another language that you know? Let us know by dropping us a line at admin@languagecaster.com.

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Yes, that message was in Irish. Enjoy all the football and we’ll see you again later on in the week in our regular weekly podcast show when we’ll be looking ahead to the weekend’s fixtures and explaining more football language.  Bye bye.

Related Terms

Football Language Glossary