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This week’s football-language podcast looks ahead to the big game between Liverpool and leaders Manchester City, we also explain some new football language and we have another football quiz. If you have questions or comments, email us at:: admin@languagecaster.com (Damon= DB; DamianA DF).
Football Language Podcast: 2018 Liverpool vs Manchester City
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Transcript of the show
DF: You are listening to Languagecaster’s football-language podcast. Hello everybody and welcome to the podcast for all football fans and for those interested in improving their English. My name is Damian and I am back in London where the weather is grey and cold but at least it’s dry – perfect weather for football. After the excitement of the FA Cup 3rd round last week, the Premier League returns this weekend and we feature some of the big games in our predictions including Liverpool at home to Manchester City and that game takes place on Sunday. Talking of Liverpool, Damon who is of course based in Tokyo and is a big Reds fan, won’t be with us this week but I am sure he will be watching that Liverpool-City game.
You’re listening to languagecaster.com (in Lao)
Line up
DF: Yes, you are listening to the football-language podcast; languagecaster.com. Now, I’ve already mentioned that we will be looking ahead to some of the big games in our predictions section but we will also be looking back at some of the good, the bad and the ugly from the week in football, including a ‘difference of opinions’ between the Chelsea and Manchester United managers! There will also be a quiz question and of course we’ll explain some football language as well, including the phrase ‘natural goalscorer‘.
Good
DF: OK, let’s start with some good news from the week in football. It was a good week for Barcelona as they finally signed Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool for an amazing A£142 million, they also thrashed Celta in the Copa del Rey to qualify for the quarter-finals and then they saw Real Madrid lose their second home game in a row which leaves Los Blancos 16 points behind them. A good week for Barca.
Bad
DF: Now, bad. VAR – Video Assistant Referee – has been in the news all week as it made its competitive debut on Monday in the FA Cup match between Brighton and Crystal Palace. There was little controversy in that game but the fact that it was not used in other matches raised some concerns. But in one of yesterday’s Premier League games there were calls for VAR to be introduced in the Premier League as Watford scored a very controversial last-minute equaliser against Southampton when their player clearly used his hand to score. So VAR is controversial even when not actually being used.
Ugly
DF: Now ugly. There’s been a war of words between two of the biggest coaches in English football: Chelsea manager Antonio Conte and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho. The United manager seemed to start it when he used the word ‘clown’ which Conte felt may have been directed towards to him. There followed an ugly exchange of words between the two including mentions of ‘fake’ and ‘match-fixing’ with some pundits asking for the Premier League to step in to prevent it getting any uglier. Very ugly indeed.
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You are listening to languagecaster.com (In Dutch)
DF: Now, remember that we would love to hear your comments or suggestions about the podcast or our website, and you can do this by getting in touch with us via admin@languagecaster.com, we have a twitter page and a Facebook page! We also have an Instagram page with lots of football-related photos of Damon and myself. And of course, if you come along to the site, languagecaster.com, and click on the podcast post, you can read the transcript for the show.
Quiz Question
DF: Right, next it’s our weekly quiz. Premier League leaders Manchester City travel to Anfield to play Liverpool this weekend so we want to know how many times have City won at Anfield in the Premier League; that’s since 1992. How many times have the Blues beaten the Reds at Liverpool’s home ground in the past 25 years? We’ll have the answer at the end of the show.
Right, next up we’ve got some English for football phrases.
Football Language: Natural Goalscorer
DF: I’m going to start with the phrase ‘natural goalscorer‘ which has been used to describe Harry Kane this week. The adjective a€˜natural’ is often used to describe a player who has an ability to play well or score goals without too much difficulty. These kinds of players have a natural instinct to be in the right place at the right time to score a goal and tend to make scoring look easy, indeed you might hear the cliche a€“ scoring goals for fun – when talking about a natural goalscorer. Now, a recent example from the UK media saw former Rangers striker Ally McCoist claim that ‘Lukaku (is) not a natural goalscorera€˜ and that was in the Metro.co.uk (December 6th 2017). Now, we asked some of our listeners and followers about what they thought was a natural goalscorer and Nige reckons it’s a person born with an imprint of goal and its position at any time; the player is sometimes greedy but always fixed on that blueprint or the target. Isn’t that great? And he recommends Robert Lewandowski as a natural goalscorer. We had Ben on facebook – he recommended Micky Quinn who used to play back in the 1980s and 90s for Coventry, while Adrian also mentioned an alternative to this phrase as in a fox in the box which is someone who has that killer instinct in front of goal.
Football Language: Dismissal
DF: Now, another football expression that has appeared this weekend is ‘dismissal‘ after Leicester defender Ben Chillwell’s red card at Chelsea. The verb to dismiss means to fire someone and in football it can be used when a manager is fired but also when a player is sent off. So, when a player is sent off we can say that he or she has been dismissed that they have to leave the game, while the noun form of this verb is dismissal. A player can be dismissed for many offences including violent conduct or serious foul play, while a dismissal can also occur when a player receives two yellow cards. Another example is taken from the BBC website:A a€˜Man Utd boss avoids further punishment after dismissala€˜ (BBC.co.uk 25th September, 2017).
Next up we have our predictions.
Predictions
Liverpool vs Manchester City
DF: Now next up we have our predictions xompetiton and we start with Liverpool against Manchester City. This is the big game of the weekend as Manchester City travel to Liverpool where they do not have a great record. This should be a great, open game but I wonder will the Coutinho sale to Barcelona affect the Reds in any way? Maybe a draw – 2-2?
Bournemouth vs Arsenal
DF: Now Bournemouth versus Arsenal. As a Spurs fan I hope Bournemouth can beat the Gunners but I have a feeling this will end in a draw: 1-1 for me.
Manchester United vs Stoke City
DF: And finally on Monday Manchester United host Stoke City. Stoke have dismissed their manager Mark Hughes so this should be an easy home win for the Reds. 3-0 to United.
Quiz Answer
DF: It’s time for the answer to the quiz question; we asked how many times Manchester City have won at Anfield in the Premier League era. And the answer is only once – City beat the Reds 2-1 in 2003. Well done if you got that right and of course we’ll have another question next week.
Good bye
DF: That’s it for the show this week. See you next week when we’ll be talking about more football language from the Premier League. Bye.
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here
If you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
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