Football Phrase of the Week: Find Joy

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Football Phrase of the Week: Find Joy

In this football phrase of the week we explain the football phrase, ‘find joy‘, used in a match from the Women’s Euro 2025 competition. 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

DB: You are listening to Languagecaster.com’s podcast on football language. My name’s Damon and I am one half of the team. While I am in Tokyo, Damian the other member of the team, is based in London. Apologies to regular listeners for the past few weeks, when we have been unable to post due to some technical issues on our website. Hopefully that is sorted out now.

Anyway, I hope you are well and enjoying the football. On this Football Phrase of the Week, we look back at at a football phrase from the weekend’s action. And we will focus on ‘find joy’, a phrase that was used in a match report on the England vs France match at the women’s Euros being held in Switzerland.

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in French)

DF: Yes you are listening to Languagecaster.com and that message was in French.

Find Joy

DB: OK, let’s take a look at this week’s football phrase, ‘find joy‘. Here is the phrase used in a match report in the Guardian: ‘There was a cagier period after the disallowed goal, the wind seemingly taken out of England’s sails a little, and the French began to settle, finding joy out wide, particularly on the right against a somewhat bullied Jess Carter.’

The French team began to find joy out wide. This means they started to find space, started to be successful in their attacks in the wide areas of the pitch. This phrase is used when a player or a team does well against their opponent. Maybe they start beating the defence, taking the ball past their opponent, or they are able to find time to cross the ball into dangerous areas.

The Wind Was Taken out of Their Sails

DB: The report also said that the wind was taken out of England’s sails. Now, this is a sailing reference. If the wind is taken out of a boat’s sails, it can’t move. If the wind is taken out of a team in football, their motivation drops and their play slows down. They are less creative.

In the match between England and France, England started well but after a goal was disallowed, they began to lose intensity. The VAR decision took the wind out of their sails. This allowed France to get into the game. They started to find joy out wide, and soon after scored twice, finally running out 2-1 winners.

Here are two more examples of ‘to find joy‘:

Examples

1. Against Liverpool, Manchester City found joy early on as they allowed Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne to float in the half-spaces. (Analyticsfc.co.uk, 18 April 2024)
2. Merstham were finding joy down the right with Dockers’ left-wing-back Andrew Dythe often leaving space in behind for Merstham’s lively wingers to exploit. (Kentish football, 8 Octiber 2024 2023)

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Dutch)

DF: That message was in Dutch, and England will face the Dutch team next in their group of death. I wonder if they will find any joy down the wings against their opponents.

Right, on today’s football expression of the week, we looked at the word, ‘find joy‘, which means to find time and space, to find an area of the pitch were your attack is better than the defence. We also looked at ‘take the wind out of a team’s sails‘. This means to do something to demotivate a team, to make them play with less belief and intensity. Do you know of any other similar words or phrases similar to these expressions? And how would you say it in another language that you know? Let us know by dropping us a line at admin@languagecaster.com.

Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll be back soon. Ta-ra!

Football Language Glossary