The Upper Hand

Sports commentators all over the world are calling Luis Fabiano’s second goal yesterday a beauty – or a “golaço”, in good Brazilian Portuguese.

Yet the cameras never lie: Luis Fabiano handled the ball as he beautifully worked his way through his opponents in the goal area and drove a shot to the back of the net. The Brazilian striker was not ready to admit to his handling the ball either when a smiling and apparently lenient French referee, Stephane Lannoy, approached him about it.

Luis Fabiano’s handling of the ball seemed a little ironic considering the circumstances of the game: picking a French referee to officiate a match involving the French-speaking Ivory Coast clearly gave the Ivoirian players the upper hand in terms of communication.

The upper hand means an advantage or superiority. This is to say that Ivory Coast’s players had a linguistic advantage as they were able to communicate with the referee in their native language. In talking to the referee in French, the Ivoirian players may very well have convinced him that Brazil’s attacker, Kaká, hit his opponent and deserved a red card. Well, let’s hope that the Ivoirian players learn to get less physical and be more skilful instead!

There have been many suggestions as to the origin of the phrase ‘the upper hand’, but there is no certainty as to where it really originated. We normally talk about 'having the upper hand’ or ‘gaining the upper hand’.

Here are more examples:

• 
  
  Our company has the upper hand because of our long experience in this business.
• 
  
  Right now I would give the upper hand to Brazil due to their long tradition of World Cup success. As they say in Brazil, “a team’s shirt has weight” (a camisa “pesa”).

We also use the expression ‘the upper hand’ figuratively:

• 
  
  The infection was gaining the upper hand [=was becoming worse] and the patient’s condition was deteriorating.

That’s it!