what does "friendly reverse" mean

Hi, susu, welcome to the forums. Thanks for joining us. I can't believe one of our football fans hasn't answered your question. I tried to find it on the web and failed miserably. There are hundreds of examples just like the one you posted, but no definition. It seems to be a loss for the team the article is talking about. At first I thought it was a loss for the home team, but I haven't be

Hi,
The term 'reversal' can mean 'a complete and opposite change'.
In sports terminology, if you beat me and then I beat you, the latter game could be called "a reversal" because it reverses the result of the first game.

I haven't heard the term 'reverse' used in this way. But sports writers often write quite odd English.

I think that if the quote above is given a little more of its original context, the meaning of 'friendly reverse' here may become a little clearer:

Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder sustained a serious left knee injury during a pre-season defeat away to Arsenal, the Spanish club said Sunday.
Sneijder, a halftime substitute, had only been on the field for 16 minutes of the 1-

Blimey, 'olms, I'm embarrassed! But from whence the "reverse"? I read a couple dozen articles full of scores and never found "reverse" used alone as a synonym for "defeat." Only coupled with "friendly."

Many thanks, - W. (I pictured Emirates Stadium as being in the middle east.)

Hi,
If you type "friendly reverse" football in the google, there are lots of the similar articles.
For example, like this one : The disappointment of yet another premature FIFA World Cup exit took some time to fade, with Aragones' charges falling to back-to-back EURO 2008 qualifying defeats by Northern Ireland and Sweden, 3-2 and 2-0 respectively, as we

or maybe some team is led by another.
some team wins some team.
that was all i can guess.

susu6514or maybe some team is led by another.
some team wins some team.
that was all i can guess.

That was my objection to Clive's solution. Many of the "friendly reverses" posted a final score of 1-0 (or 0-1). If the losing team was originally winning, how could their final score be nil?

Edit. Perhaps I misread your post. Re your other s

Hi guys,
Here's another thought.
If a person expects to succeed but doesn't, or a team expects to win but doesn't, that can also be termed 'a reversal'.

Clive

That could be it, Clive. It applies in some of the reports I read.

The peculiar thing is, they use the expression so casually, I get the feeling it's common. Yet I spent about two hours stubbornly trying to find a definition in one of the many sports glossaries, etc.

- A.