40915
I'm having trouble understanding this sentence from a soccer manga I like to
read. There is not much context to the sentence, and further, the character
often uses slang.

The whole sentence is this:

> まああんなのは棚からなんとやらだ.

It is said by a player who is about to kick a ball. People in the stands are
cheering him because he's really good at kicking from far away, and he's
somewhat irritated that they put pressure on him.

Someone suggested to me that it might be related to "棚から牡丹餅" but it doesn't
seem to me to make sense.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-15T01:36:23.163
40907
2016-11-15T05:41:17.247
2016-11-15T03:38:16.143
11104
14496
question
slang idioms jargon
I have trouble understanding this: 棚からなんとやらだ
まああんなのは棚からなんとやらだ in this context means "Well, it's just that I was lucky" or
"Well, that was only a godsend (goal)." The player is not confident of his own
kicking skill although he have made a great kick before this.

As you have correctly guessed, 棚からなんとやら refers to a well-known idiom
[棚からぼたもち](http://kazuno.in.coocan.jp/99kotowaza/99ta/Tana%20kara%20botamochi.htm).
See [this answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/40603/5010) by
@goldbrick for the explanation of なんとやら here. It's kind of like saying "when
in Rome" without saying the last half.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-15T05:34:04.233
40915
2016-11-15T05:41:17.247
2017-04-13T12:43:44.260
-1
5010
40907
answer