“Meter la pata” please correct.

Question

Can anyone out there in Spanishdict’s land tell me if the usage of the italized phrase is correct in the following sentence?

 ” Futbolista metió la pata 5 veces”

El nuevo” futbolista metió la pata 5 veces”. Solo logro tocar el balón pocas veces, a pesar de eso se le considera uno de los mejores jugadores de hoy en día.

Warning, is a trick question, see if you can find why the italized sentence in the title is misleading.

Hint, it does not have anything to do with 
 grammatical or spelling errors.

Answer 1

Do you mean because "metio la pata" means basically to "he stepped in it/put his foot in his mouth" and they are trying to use the same phrase to say that he only managed to touch the ball 5 times during the game. (double entendre?)

Answer 2

We use "metió la pata" when someone makes a mistake. --- "Metió la cuchareta."

"Ya metistes la pata. Te equivocastes."

In your sentence it means that the futbolista made five mistakes. Unless of course, fútbol players use this differently. That, I don't know.

Literally it might mean:

“El futbolista asistió solamente en cinco jugadas.” --- "The futbol palyer had only five assists."

Answer 3

He missed on five chances of scoring he should have scored but he didn't? Metió la pata= he screwed his chances.

Answer 4

metió la pata

I'd bet that even in Maryland, "meter la pata" means to "make a mistake" Perhaps, "dió una patada al balón".

• you are right - 00769608 Nov 8, 2009

Answer 5

I think this means, "He" (el futbolista) did 5 goals. Therefore in this case he didn't screw his chances.

Whe you said "Futbolista metió la pata 5 veces" your saying "He kicked the ball 5 times and did 5 goals"...

Answer 6

The futball player in the paragraph was the goal-keeper. His team had such good defense that he only had to kick the ball five times. And, I was just making a joke when I wrote "metio la pata solo cinco veces".

PS You guys are smarter than I thought.

• Uhhh... Excelent trick question...Gooooolllll from Gus. - Carlos-F Nov 8, 2009