History

The NCAA women’s soccer tournament kicks off on Tuesday in North Carolina. Personally, every time the College Cup rolls around, I think about one of my biggest regrets from my college days: deciding it was too expensive to buy a ticket to attend the 2005 College Cup, which was walking distance from my dorm room at Texas A&M.

No young player in the game's history has matched the outrageous clip of production that Erling Haaland has conjured over the last three years.

Why are two goals called a brace? Does a CAP mean career appearances? When does the hat do a trick and is it a kick flip?

These are all questions that non-soccer regulars may have asked themselves at one point. The Beautiful Game has some unique terminology that not everyone knows the root of. This article will act as your cheat sheet on why these terms are used and where they came from.

In case you have some sort of three-question quiz coming up, you can come back to this article for the answers.

First on the list is the brace.

Burnley strikers, some of the most obsitinent players in the Premier League, are known for scoring headers, deflections, scruffy goals from corner kicks and, more recently, chesting home an errant pass from an Arsenal midfielder.

All ugly goals, all in and around the six-yard area, but nonetheless, goals that count. You don't expect miracles from the Burnley strikeforce, but you know what you are going to get.