Eggcorn: own goal >> home goal

[Victor]

Just to add to the fray--the Spanish equivalent, at least, in Latin
America, appears to be "auto-gol". This expression was made popular in
1994 when a Columbian back who put one in his own goal against the US in
the World Cup was later shot by random assassins in his home town. The
comment that US newspapers alleged the assassin made was "Thanks for the
auto-goal!" I would imagine the comment was in Spanish and I have heard
the expression in Spanish-language TV broadcasts.

One apparently idiomatic expression that's been puzzling me lately I
picked up off Premiership broadcasts. "Left the game late" appears to be
purely English football expression that has been used particularly often
in reference to Liverpool. If you try a search, virtually every hit will
be for fans leaving a game late--I have not found one through Google
that means the same thing as the expression in the match commentary. As
far as I can tell, it means that the team surrenders the lead late in
the game (it's not simply losing the game, as the reference has appeared
in a number of tie games as well). It might also mean giving up the
better position, in general, i.e., also including losing a game on a
late goal instead of getting a draw. I don't pay enough attention to the
commentary most of the time to have squared the meaning, although I hear
enough to have noticed this particular expression.

    VS-)

Damien Hall wrote:
> On Feb 13 2009, Mark Mandel wrote:
>
>
>> I always found "own goal" obscure, not having grown up with sports in
>> which the term is used. (NB, Damien's UK "football" is Americans'
>> "soccer".) And I can't think of any other uses of the pronominal
>> adjective (what DO you call it?) "own" without a possessive, whether in
>> "DET[non-pronom] own N" or any other construction. AFAICT, "own goal" is
>> an idiosyncratic construction.
>>
>
> Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other such constructions
> either. Of course it's easy to see where it came from: a phrase was needed
> for the phenomenon of scoring against one's team, and 'home goal', though
> it would be logical in the way Mark describes below, is blocked by the fact
> that it already has another meaning in the sport: a goal scored at one's
> team's home ground, as opposed to an 'away goal', scored when playing away
> from home. The choice of 'own goal' for the phenomenon presumably then
> comes from a shortening and generalisation of sentences like "S/he's scored
> in his/her own goal", making an NP out of it for ease of communication?
>
> Mark:
>
>> OTOH, "home" meaning 'the goal that the player's team is trying to defend'
>> is a pretty easy step for me, drawing on the core concept of "home". So I
>> would find "home goal" not just on a par with "own goal", but preferable.
>>
>
> (BTW, another reason why it is useful to have a phrase for goals scored at
> one's home ground as opposed to goals not scored there is that the
> distinction between location of goal scored can be used to break a tie in
> league tables run according to football's / soccer's world governing body's
> rules. If, at the end of a season, two teams are equal on points (three for
> a win, one for a draw, none for losing), on goal-difference (the difference
> between goals scored and goals conceded), and on overall goals scored, then
> I believe the number of home goals scored breaks the tie. Clearly, having
> to use home goals to break a tie is very rare, since there are three ways
> to break it before you get there, but it has happened!)
>
>
>

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