Sports have existed in the past ages and have played an important role in the history of mankind. Every nation, regardless of its resources and extension, realizes the importance of sports and considers it a notable stage in the history of the world.

Along with the development and extension of sports, the language used in sports is believed to be distinctive and interesting. To my viewpoint, it is worth being considered and studied academically. The articles, the commentaries in sports have great contribution to the prosperity of this field. In addition, one of the very factors that attract readers and viewers is the skillful use of metaphor and metonymy in this type of language. They play such an important role that almost all sports articles and commentaries consider them as a vital part in making the readers, audiences and viewers pay much attention to the news and keep it in the mind as long as possible.

1. The legendary former Real Madrid playmaker saw his old club dismantled by Gerald’s Liverpool on Tuesday’s night, when the Reds ran out 4-0 winners at Infield, 5-0 on aggregate….[82]

In the example mentioned above, we can see that “the Reds” is used to stand for Liverpool team. This expression employs the mechanism of metonymy

2. Boro open war New Castle [76]

It can be noted that the metaphorical expression “open war” refers to the match between Boro and New Castle.

3. Hiện tượng Đồng Tháp phơi áo trước Quân Khu 4 [49]

In the above example, “phơi áo” is used as a metaphorical expression to tell us the game loss of Dong Thap team to Quan Khu 4 team.

Here we have the description of types of metaphorical expressions  in English in comparison with those equivalents in Vietnamese. The examples of metaphorical expressions are collected from sport articles, commentaries in English and Vietnamese. Then, they are presented and analyzed through the linguistic theory of “Conceptual Metaphors” by Lakoff and Johnson [23]. Finally, we will find out the similarities  and differences in metaphorical expressions in English and Vietnamese sport language.

Generally speaking, metaphors of war are used here to make the language more interesting and to address viewers and listeners on an emotional level. Through all these metaphors of war, the producers try to make the whole sport action seem more serious and aggressive. A long rally is described as a “baseline battle” in (5), playing and winning against your opponent is  “bombarding” in (6). “Ammunition” in (7) is metaphorically used, suggesting the good players of Manchester United  available for Champions League semi-final  against Arsenal at Old Trafford. “hitman” in (9) and  “marksman” in (10)  are understood  the players of Eto’o and Maradona who are meant to lead their respective teams in scoring goals. Then come the word "explode" in (8) which is used metaphorically. It reinforces the meaning to emphasize Rooney’s return after a long time he doesn’t play due to the punishment and it is sure that he will play with all his strength for the next match.

Beside the description of certain actions on the courts or in the stadiums, metaphors of war are also used to illustrate particular emotions and feelings of certain players. 

11.  Two brothers from Belgium drawn against each other in their very first match. One will go home disappointed and one will progress to face second seed Marat Safin. It is the younger sibling, Oliver, who triumphs this  time [85].
12. Sở dĩ anh phải hy sinh vai trò hộ công ưa thích là vì đội bóng không còn một tiền đạo thực thụ nào sau khi "đẩy" Cassano sang Real, và chấn thương dài hạn của cặp Montella – Nonda [52].

(He had to sacrifice his favorite role as a striker because the team no longer had a real striker after Cassano was "pushed" to Real, and the pair Montella - Nonda had long-term injury)

In the above two examples, we can see that the words “triumph” and “hy sinh” (sacrifice) are metaphorically used to describe the emotions involved the win or loss of the players.

Not only are the metaphors of war used in the description of the players, their emotions, and the actions on court or in the match, the expressions of war are also used to describe the fans or supporters . 

13. Cổ động viên "xuất quân" cùng đội tuyển Việt Nam [57]

(Supporters “battle” with Viet Nam National Football Team)

14. Cas Knight, Managing Director, Chelsea Digital Media, said, "Chelsea is on a roll, both in the Premier League and around the world. Our squad is highly rated; so is our growing legion of supporters"[92].