"That old 'distract the goalie' trick"

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:29 PM -0400 6/23/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>I think, you missed the point of the commercial, although, I have to
>admit, it may take several takes to get it. The original shot is of one
>group trying to distract the goalie with a T&A panel. *In response*, the
>other side of the stadium puts up its own set of cards. The message, I
>guess, could be that beer trumps sex, which is consistent with *other*
>Bud Light commercials of recent vintage. On the other hand, since the
>goalie is never involved in the play (the kicker misses the goal
>completely), one could argue that we don't actually know if one trumps
>the other. In any case, I suspect the premise of "distract the goalie"
>at least partially holds.
>
>Of more interest, from the language perspective, seems to be the
>follow-up comment, "Wide right!" The phrase has nothing to do with
>soccer and I have never heard it used either while playing or watching
>the game. I am sure the English fans will back me up on this. If
>anything, there are often comments about how far the shot missed the
>goal post, but practically *never* anything about the direction in which
>the shot is missed, unless it's essential to describing the play (e.g.,
>using outside of a right foot to miss to the right of the post, etc.).
>There is simply a different culture--the phrase clearly comes from
>American football jargon,

and may incorporate a historical nod; Super Bowl XXVIII after the
1990 season was won by the New York Giants over the Buffalo Bills in
a semi-major upset when the field goal attempt by the Bills' Scott
Norwood on the last play of the game went wide right.  If you google
"wide right", the first hit will be the Wikipedia entry for that
missed field goal.  (Well, it wasn't a soccer play, but it was in
effect a free kick.)

(Other hits are for various earlier "wide right" missed by Florida
State kickers against the U. of Miami back when those teams were
perennially in the top 5 in college football.)

>not from soccer and is aimed at American
>audience, most of whom, presumably, could not care less about the
>underlying plot.
>
...along with the others who could care less about it.

LH

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