Bortalaget är nära att göra mål efter hörnan.

Bortalaget means the away team. In Swedish, the definite article is often attached to the end of the noun, so:

• ett lag = a team
• laget = the team

Here, borta- means away in the sports sense, so bortalaget is a compound noun meaning the away team.

You would only use det bortalaget in special cases, for example if you wanted extra emphasis, contrast, or if an adjective were involved. In a normal sentence, bortalaget by itself is the natural form.

Swedish is a V2 language, which means the finite verb usually comes in the second position in main clauses.

So in:

• Bortalaget är nära att göra mål efter hörnan.

the first element is Bortalaget, and the finite verb är comes second.

This is very normal Swedish word order. Compare:

• Bortalaget är nära att göra mål. = The away team is close to scoring.
• Efter hörnan är bortalaget nära att göra mål. = After the corner, the away team is close to scoring.

In both cases, the verb är stays in second position.

Nära att means close to or on the verge of doing something.

So:

• är nära att göra mål = is close to scoring

This is a very common pattern in Swedish:

• vara nära att + infinitive

Examples:

• Hon är nära att vinna. = She is close to winning.
• Jag var nära att missa tåget. = I almost missed the train.

In this sentence, it expresses that the away team nearly scores.

After nära in this structure, Swedish normally uses att + infinitive:

• nära att göra mål
• nära att vinna
• nära att falla

So att is required here because the sentence uses the pattern vara nära att + verb.

This is different from English, where we often say close to scoring with an -ing form. Swedish does not use the same structure here.

Yes, göra mål is a very common and natural way to say score a goal or simply score in sports.

Literally:

• göra = do / make
• mål = goal

So göra mål literally looks like make goal, but idiomatically it means score.

Examples:

• Han gjorde mål i första halvlek. = He scored in the first half.
• De gjorde tre mål. = They scored three goals.

In your sentence, göra mål does not necessarily emphasize one specific goal in English grammar terms; it just means scoring in the match situation.

In Swedish, many fixed sports expressions do not use an article where English might.

So:

• göra mål = score a goal / score
• not göra ett mål in this standard idiomatic sense

You can say göra ett mål in some contexts if you are focusing on one goal as a countable event, but göra mål is the usual expression for to score.

So here, no article sounds most natural.

Efter hörnan means after the corner or more naturally in football English, after the corner kick.

• efter = after
• hörnan = the corner

In sports Swedish, hörna often means corner kick. So even though the noun literally means corner, the football meaning is understood from context.

The sentence describes something happening after a corner situation.

Hörnan is the definite form, meaning the corner.

• en hörna = a corner
• hörnan = the corner

The ending -n marks definiteness for many common gender nouns.

Here, the speaker is referring to a specific corner that has just happened in the match, so the definite form is natural:

• efter hörnan = after the corner

It can absolutely mean a corner kick in football.

In general Swedish:

• hörna can mean corner in a physical sense, like the corner of a room.

But in sports context:

• hörna very commonly means corner kick

So in this sentence, because of bortalaget, göra mål, and the match context, hörnan is understood as the corner kick.

Yes, definitely. Bortalaget can be translated as:

• the away team
• the away side

Both are natural in sports English.

And är nära att göra mål can be rendered as:

• is close to scoring
• is about to score
• almost scores (depending on style and context)

So several English translations are possible even though the Swedish structure stays the same.

It sounds very natural in sports commentary or sports reporting. It is basically neutral spoken/written Swedish in a football context.

Words like:

• bortalaget
• göra mål
• hörnan

are all very common in sports language, especially football.

So this is not unusually formal or literary. It sounds like something a commentator or match report might say.

You would move efter hörnan to the front:

• Efter hörnan är bortalaget nära att göra mål.

Notice that Swedish still keeps the finite verb är in second position. That is the V2 rule again.

So:

• Bortalaget är nära att göra mål efter hörnan.
• Efter hörnan är bortalaget nära att göra mål.

Both are correct, but the second one puts more emphasis on the time/event frame after the corner.