Although it’s obvious once you are told, few UK football fans would instantly recognise a ‘chicken wing battle’ as that unseemly scrabble for the ball that involves a good deal of ‘Chicken Tonight’ elbow work. It’s significantly less clear why the top corner of the goal has to be called 'the upper 90'. It’s clearly something to do with geometry but British football commentators have been making themselves understood for over 80 years without needing to invoke the ghost of Pythagoras.

Rather than instructing the commentators to employ rather more comprehensible language the powers that be on the Fox TV football strand David Beckham's Soccer USA have elected to publish a glossary of the more outlandish terms and hope that viewers will keep it to hand during televised matches.

The show’s presenter Tim Lovejoy (who is a Chelsea fan no matter how often he tries to convince us he follows the Kansas Wizards) is promoting the glossary regularly on the UK version of the show. "While researching the programme, we came across loads of random terminology we had never heard anywhere before in football. Instantly we knew we'd found commentary gold, the problem was we had no idea what most of the commentators were saying."

Our ten favourite phrases in stateside commentator-ese are:

Bulldogging: Demonstrating unusual determination to win the ball

Final signal: The full time whistle

In the wheelhouse: Within striking distance of goal.

Match ups: Man to man marking.

Midfield stripe: The halfway line.

On frame: On target.

On the doorstep: In the penalty box

Real estate: Room (or lack of it) in the penalty area

Slow roller: A feeble shot.

Some wheels: A quick turn of pace.

It will be interesting to see how many of these curious expressions make the transition into the standard British canon of football clichés. If that were ever to happen there's no doubt that Lovejoy would be over the moon.