Meaning & use
sitter in soccer
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Meaning
phrasecountableinformalsport
In soccer, an easy chance to score that a player should almost certainly convert.
Grammar: Countable: say 'a sitter' or 'two sitters'; it is usually followed by 'for' plus the player or team.
Patterns
- a sitter for someone
- miss a sitter
- spurn a sitter
The striker had a sitter in soccer terms, but he somehow put it over the bar.
She was through on goal with only the keeper to beat, a real sitter in soccer, and still missed.
Commentators called it a sitter in soccer because the ball was rolling slowly toward an empty net.
Word forms
| plural | sitters in soccer |
|---|
Common combinations
- miss a sitter
- He missed a sitter from six yards out.
- a sitter for the striker
- It was a sitter for the striker, but he hesitated.
- spurn a sitter
- The team spurned a sitter early in the second half.
- an absolute sitter
- That was an absolute sitter in soccer and he knew it.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tap-in
- A tap-in is a very close-range goal, often easy, but it specifically means the ball is tapped in; a sitter can be from farther out.
- easy chance
- This is a plain, neutral phrase for any simple opportunity; 'sitter in soccer' is more informal and suggests the miss is embarrassing.
- gimme
- In American sports talk, a gimme is an easy point or shot; it is not used in soccer commentary as often as 'sitter'.
Commonly confused: sitter in soccer or sitter?
sitter in soccer vs sitter
On its own, 'sitter' often means a babysitter or a person who poses for an artist. The soccer meaning needs the phrase 'in soccer' or a clear football context.
Practice
The forward was one-on-one with the goalkeeper and missed. What do fans call that chance?
Choose one answer.
'A sitter in soccer' is an easy scoring chance that should be taken. A free kick is a restart, an own goal is scored against your own team, and a hat-trick is three goals by one player, so none of those fits the missed easy chance.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sitter in soccer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.