Said privately of a team (5)
I believe the answer is:
aside
'said privately of' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'a team' is the wordplay.
'team' becomes 'side' (both can mean a sports team).
'a'+'side'='ASIDE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aside that I've seen before include "secretly" , "remark, incidentally" , "Words spoken apart in an undertone" , "private" , "Line spoken to theatre audience" .)