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Spanish to English translations [PRO] Sports / Fitness / Recreation / Football (soccer)
Spanish term or phrase:llegador
Hello
This is from an interview with Del Bosque, the Spain manager:
Q. "-Es muy significativo que grandes equipos de la historia introdujeran esa variante táctica del nueve mentiros.
El Honved, La Máquina de River con Pedernera, el Barça de de Cruyff, el Madrid que usted entrenó, el Barça de Cruyff con Romario, el Barça actual y España…"
A. "Se trata de tener buenos llegadores desde segunda línea, con técnica para definir, nosotros tenemos jugadores que entienden perfectamente lo que es ese fútbol.
A veces parece que la figura de un nueve de referencia es indispensable, pero hay alternativas."
I understand the concept. It's a player who is good at moving into attacking positions and surprising the opposition, arriving in a goal-scoring position rather than waiting there for a pass like a traditional forward.
Simon, what you use for your translation is of course your business, but I would urge you to change the glossary entry: "good late runners" is not really a football term and immediately suggests horse-racing. If you Google it, there are only a couple of football references and they are written by what appear to be non-native speakers on football forums.
Stevie G. does play in the hole and if you Google any of the others Charles mentions, you'll find they do too. It's a special free midfield/attacking role for special players. Late runners maybe - or goalscoring midfielders? It's not black and white. I still reckon in the hole is your best bet.
The three of you clearly have superior knowledge of the field than me. I just think that "in the hole" is perhaps not specific enough to this particular ability of making surprise forward runs and is certainly associated with a playmaking role (I always thought Rui Costa was exceptional at this). Either way, nice to have a football discussion on a Friday night!
The players I am seeing described as "buenos llegadores" in Spanish blogs are conventionally classified as midfielders: Lampard, Gerrard, Ballack, Schweinsteiger...
Alistair, that's exactly why I don't think it should be restricted to one position. Raul always played more advanced than Guti when they played together, Guti was a classic ball playing centre mid.
It's also important to remember that Del Bosque later refers to Guti and Raúl as examples of this type of player (seen from your other question). They're quite different from the Roy Keane prototype.
the article refers to the "segunda linea" i.e. basically attacking from midfield. That's why I don't think it should be restricted to players playing in the hole / second strikers. Roy Keane was not a classic defensive midfielder, neither was Patrick V., Makelele was the first one to really make that position his own in the modern era.
Keane could certainly put in crunching tackles and often played the central midfield enforcer role, but he did have that habit of late, marauding runs to score vital goals. Whatever he was, I don't think he was a "llegador" as defined by your context. To me, Del Bosque is meditating on the evolution of the "in the hole" player into the false nine.
I'm no expert (there are many other sports I prefer over football), but wasn't Roy Keane known as a defensive midfielder? He was put in the same bracket as Viera, Davids etc. That's not to say he wasn't a decent late-run-maker though (which sounds to me like a down-the-order cricket batsman).
late run makers like Roy Keane and Paul Scholes were attacking midfielders. Modern players like Van der Vaart and sometimes Arshavin for Arsenal play in the hole.
I agree, playing in the hole is for a very specific type of player, the text is referring more to all round intelligent midfielders that can make runs, rather than sitting there directing the play.
It is indeed! Though perhaps not necessarily into the box, just into a good shooting position. It would be nice if we had a term for such players, but I suspect not. Many thanks
Hi again Simon, it's called "making late runs into the box" - how should I post it though?
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Answers
7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
playing in the hole
Explanation: I've seen this term applied quite often to players such as Paul Scholes. I'd change the structure of the sentence a bit and translate it as "The key is to have footballers who are good at playing in the hole, [...]".
Explanation: "Players who play" is not elegant, but that is what they say:
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 11 mins (2011-12-30 18:57:25 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Association football positions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football_positionsThese players typically serve as the offensive pivot of the team, and are sometimes said to be "playing in the hole", although this term can also be used to ...
Goalkeeper (GK) - Defender (DF) - Midfielder (MF) - Forward (FW)
Hole (association football) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hole_(association_football)The player in the hole aims to utilise the gap left between opponent's midfield and defence. Notable players who occupy (or occupied) the hole include Pelé, ...
Van der Vaart does it very well for Spurs, in my opinion, though I am biased:
How Rafael went from trailer park to the Lane - Rafael van der Vaart ... www.rafaelvandervaart.com/How-Rafael-went-from-trailer-park... Hotspur's Rafael van der Vaart falls firmly into the former camp. ... "I thought the style of football at Spurs would suit him - and I think it has suited ... generally playing in the hole behind a lone striker, although he has a remit to play ...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 12 mins (2011-12-30 18:58:45 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
The translation workplace 
