Most common or acceptable way(s) to say you scored a goal in sports

Question

I’m curious about the common terminology for scoring goals in sports.

If I had just played a soccer game and I had scored three goals, I would communicate this in English by using to score the goal or to score the point:

I scored three goals today.

I scored three points today.

I suppose I might use the verb to make instead:

I made three points today.

I made three goals today.

…but probably not. Although those would almost certainly get the point across, it would sound a little odd/awkward as compared with to score.

What verb/noun combination would be most commonly used to communicate this in German? Das Tor erzielen?

Heute ich habe drei Tore erzielt.

Ich erzielte heute drei Tore.

Or would you be more likely to use das Tor punkten or das Tor schießen or even den Punkt machen or den Punkt schießen or den Punkt erzielen?

I’m curious about which terminology is most likely to be used or which is at least acceptable. If there are multiple terms or combinations of terms in common use, I’m interested to know that too.

Answer 1

Im Fußball werden Tore geschossen. Etwas simpler ausgedrückt ist 'Tore machen', etwas elaborierter 'Tore erzielen'. Dann gibt es noch die spezifischeren Ausdrücke wie ein Tor zu köpfen, den Ball hineinzustochern, den Ball ins Tor dribbeln usw. aber schießen ist die allgemein gebräuchliche Form.

Gepunktet wird im Fußball, wenn es kein KO-Wettbewerb ist, bei dem einfach der Sieger weiterkommt, dadurch, dass man mehr Tore erzielt als der Gegner, oder mindestens so viele wie dieser - dann gibt es einen Punkt. Man kann 3 Tore schießen ohne zu punkten, weil der Gegner 4 geschossen hat.

Punkten kann nur die Mannschaft, in dem sie in der Endabrechnung 1 oder 3 Punkte für ein Remis oder einen Sieg bekommt. Vor ca. 20 Jahren gab es für einen Sieg allerdings nur 2 Punkte.

Answer 2

It depends on the sport, especially how goals (or rather points) are counted, what the physical goals look like and how the ball (or puck or whatever) is moved into it. The most generic translation of goal would be Ziel (can also mean ‘target’ or ‘finish’) and erzielen can be used with both, Punkt and Tor in almost any sport as applicable. Less formally, machen is possible with both, too.

A Tor is a rectangular target limited by posts and crossbars, often with a net attached. They are used in all kinds of hockey, handball, football and polo. If the ball is kicked with a foot or hit with a stick towards the goal, one can use schießen ‘shoot’. In handball or water polo, where the ball is moved with the hands, one would rather use werfen ‘throw’. In basketball, one can werfen a Korb ‘basket’, but since they are good for 1 through 3 points each, which determine the result, it’s more common to say how many Punkte ‘points’ someone erzielt ‘scored’. In American football and rugby, I think, goals play a minor part in scores, so Punkte erzielen or maybe … holen is again more appropriate.

Answer 3

You're not far off.

As far as a higher-level text like in a news report is concerned, the combination of erzielen and Tor would be a safe bet. The examples you gave, corrected for grammar and context, would thus be good ones:

Der FC Hinterhuzelhausen erzielte am Abend drei Tore gegen Dynamo Dreibein.

Another good combination for such a context is erspielen and Punkt.

Im Topspiel SV Möhringen gegen den BV Banane erspielte die Heimmannschaft vierzehn Punkte durch zwei Touchdowns.

As for personal speech, like when recounting your performance in today's match to your friends, you'd use less "noble" combinations like machen and Tore/Punkte or schießen and Tore.

Ich habe heute keine Tore gemacht #sadface :( :( :(

Karlssons Franz hat sich gestern selbst übertroffen und mit seinen vier geschossenen Toren wieder zu seiner alten Form zurückgefunden.

All these are easily understood and often seen and heard. And even those combinations I put in the "personal use" section would not be frowned upon when reading a news paper. Via Google, I found these combinations in the national press, like Focus and Spiegel, too.