Football Phrase of the Week: (to) Spurn a Chance
This week's football phrase is the verb phrase '(to) Spurn a Chance'. This phrase is often to describe an attempt at goal. 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
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DB: Welcome to LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com's weekly football language podcast. Hello there listener, my name's Damon and I am one half of the LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com. I hope you are well and that you have been enjoying the football this week.

I wonder what Damian, the other half of the team, thinks of Tottenham's 0-0 draw away at Monaco in the Champions League? Our weekly football phrase can be used to describe that match and we'll talk about that later. I am probably a bit happier with results in the Champions League, as my team Liverpool put five past Eintracht Frankfurt and stopped their four-game losing streak. Phew!

But let's get back to the weekly phrase, and on this show we talk about the phrase to spurn a chance.

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DF: Yes you are listening to Languagecaster.com, also known as LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com, and that message was from a Kawasaki fan.
(to) Spurn a Chance
DB: Right, the match between Monaco and Tottenham Hotspurs ended 0-0 but the French side peppered the Spurs goal with 23 attempts. If you pepper the goal you have a lot of shots. Despite this, they couldn't score. One reason was the fine performance by Spurs' goalkeeper, Vicario, but of course the Monaco players also could have done better with their shooting.

One way to say a player has missed an opportunity is to say they spurned a chance.

This is how the Guardian used the phrase in their match report: Monaco aimed 23 shots his way and five of them brought particularly impressive saves, the first half at one stage resembling a personal duel between the Italian and the striker Balogun. They spurned other chances too... 

So, Monaco had lots of opportunities and the goalkeeper saved a lot of shots, but because they couldn't score, the newspaper uses the phrase they 'spurned other chances too'. The implication is that Monaco missed opportunities, they should have done better, and it was a waste to not score.

To spurn something means to reject it, to refuse it, so the phrase in football suggests the player who took the shot should have done better. Of course the player doesn't refuse to score or doesn't reject the chance, but when you use the phrase it means that you think the player should have scored.

http://gty.im/2242645962
(to) Pass Up
Another way to say this is to say they passed up opportunities or chances. Here is Sky Sports using this phrase to describe England's win over Andorra: 'England beat Andorra 2-0 at Villa Park but struggled against the visitors' packed defence and passed up good chances to add to the scoreline'.