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On this week’s football-language podcast we take a look at some of the big games in the Premier League including Chelsea’s match against Manchester City. We also look back at some of the big football news from the week, including stories from the Champions League, while we also explain some new English for football phrases and answer some of your posts. For those who wish to practise their English, there is a transcript below to help with reading and listening (Damian = DF, Damon = DB).
Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2017 Chelsea v Man City
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Transcript of the show
DB: You are listening to Languagecaster’s football-language podcast. Hello everybody. My name’s Damon. I’m based in Tokyo and this is the show for everyone who loves the game of football and wants to improve their English. It’s beautiful weather in Tokyo, the leaves are turning and the skies are blue, perfect weather for a game of football. Damian, how are you and what’s the weather like in London?
DF: I’m good Damon thanks. The weather here is grey and cloudy and I think there is a storm coming!
DB: Oh dear.
DF: I was happy though after the football yesterday – a very easy or comprehensive victory for Spurs – 4-0 away at newly-promoted Huddersfield Town which capped off a great week for my team Tottenham – a derby victory, a Champions League away win and then yesterday’s great win.
DB: Well, congratulations to your team. I hope my team, Liverpool do as well tonight. OK, what’s on the show today?
Line Up
DF: Well Damon, we start off with some news from the week in football, some good stories, some bad, and some ugly. We have a quiz question followed by two English for football phrases: a perfect hat-trick and a crisp pass, and we’ll finish up with a quick look at some of the games played this weekend in the Premier League in our predictions section – the stand out game this weekend was of course Chelsea versus Manchester City.
DB: Great stuff.
You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Mongolian)
DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that was in Mongolian. Now, next up we have our review of the football week – Damian, what was good this week?
Good
DF: Well, I’m going to talk about Tottenham striker Harry Kane, who can’t seem to stop scoring at the moment. Kane notched up 13 goals in all competitions in September alone, including a perfect hat-trick against APOEL in the Champions League and followed that with two in the first half against Huddersfield in the Premier League yesterday. He has now scored more goals in 2017 than… oh no…Ronaldo or Messi, 27, and has also scored against all Premier League teams he has faced in his career, except for Cardiff City. And talking of Cardiff City, Kane may get a chance to score against them next season. It was good news for the Welsh outfit as a good run of form recently means they are now top of the Championship.
DB: Yes, Kane is certainly having a great start to the season and well done to Cardiff, too. Damian, you mentioned the phrase ‘notched up 13 goals‘, does this mean to score 13 goals?
DF: Yes, the Collins Online Dictionary suggests that the verb ‘to notch‘ means to achieve some success, so ‘to notch a goal‘ means to successfully score a goal. Hopefully Kane keeps notching up goals for Spurs! What about bad from the week in football Damon?
Bad
DB: OK, well for bad, how about a split in the PSG dressing room? Rumours are flying about a division amongst the Paris team after Neymar appeared to suggest he should take a penalty against Lyon. Now Cavani has been the regular penalty taker with 14 goals in his last 16 attempts – that’s pretty good. The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that a group of players have sided with Cavani, including Di MarÃa, Pastore, Matuidi, Moura, Draxler, Ben Arfa and Thiago Silva. Now, this is against a background of worry for many players as it seems likely PSG will have to sell players to cover the costs of Neymar. So, results are good on the pitch, another victory this weekend 6-2 against Bordeaux, but feelings are bad in the dressing room. It will be interesting to see how this develops. How about ugly Damian?
Ugly
DF: Well I am not sure that the PSG fans, coaching staff or owners will be too upset if the Parisian side keep up their amazing on-field performances – they absolutely destroyed Bayern Munich this week in the Champions League. Now, talking of dressing room troubles and Bayern, for ugly this week I am going to talk about the sacking of Carlo Ancelotti by Bayern Munich after that defeat in Paris though there were rumours of dressing room unrest – maybe Ancelotti had lost the dressing room? Of course,A Carlo Ancelotti will be back in a big job soon but the way this manager was treated by the club and its senior players leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Quiz question
DB: Indeed. OK, next is our quiz question and it is connected with footballing language. Now, when a player scores three goals, it is called a hat-trick. We want to know what is it called when a player scores two goals? What is the special word used when a player has two goals in one game. Aand the answer at the end of the show!
Follow us
DF: Right, we’d just like to remind people to get in touch with us and spread the word if you like our show and our site. It is always great to hear from our listeners and you can, of course, email us directly at admin@languagecaster.com and you can follow us on all the usual places, so that’s twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
DB: Brilliant!
You are listening to languagecaster.om (in Polish)
DB: OK, next is some English for football!
Football Language: A Crisp pass
DB: I’m going to start with a nice phrase to describe a kind of pass – a crisp pass. A crisp pass or crisp passing describes passes that are quick and accurate. The player strikes the ball firmly and cleanly and it goes directly to his or her team-mate. Using this phrase to describe passing moves infers that the passing team are skilled and playing well. Here is an example from The Guardian newspaper: The passing was crisp and first time in and around the Atlético area until the goal was at their mercy.A (The Guardian). Damian, anything else?
Football Language: Perfect hat-trick
DF: OK, now let me talk about the phrase a perfect hat-trick. We all know that a hat-trick in football means that a player has scored three goals but we also use the phrase ‘perfect hat-trick‘ when a player scores three goals: one with his/her left foot, another with the right foot and one with the head. Here’s an example, again from the Guardian: ‘[Kane] departed with the match ball, having sunk Apoel… in the Champions League with the perfect hata€‘trick a€“ left foot, right foot, header, in that order…’ (Guardian.co.uk, 27th September 2017).
DB: Brilliant! Have you ever scored a perfect hat-trick Damian?
DF: Ha! Never. I’m not sure that I’ve even scored a hat-trick in the back garden nevermind a perfect one! Right, next up predictions.
DB: OK, let’s take a look at the leader board. Johnny Magicboots is still in front of Alexrr, or Alex ‘double r’ – I’m not sure how to say that – those two have 46 and 42 points respectively. They’re followed by you Damian on 37 and then me on 32! Remember we have a prize for the leader at Christmas and the overall winner at the end of the season!
Damian, let’s take a look at the first game, which took place yesterday: Chelsea v Manchester City.
Predictions: Chelsea vs Manchester City
DF: Yes, Damon, with two top tacticians in chargeA – that’s Conte and Pep of course – and a host of wonderful players I thought it would finish in a draw – 1-1. And you?
DB: I went for a draw 1-1 too, so we were close but no points for either of us. Johnny Magicboots picks up 1 point as he went for a Man City 3-2 win and Alexrr thought as I did, 1-1 so no points.
DF: Yes, City were very impressive indeed and though they started well last year before fading this time round they look very, very strong.
Manchester United vs Crystal Palace
DB: The next game, which took place yesterday as well, was Man United v Crystal Palace and I reckoned this would be an easy 3-0 win for United. It was in fact a 4-0 drubbing of the south London side, who have now failed to score for the seventh game in a row. Damian?
DF: That really is a terrible start to the season for the Eagles – that’s Crystal Palace’s nickname. I went for a 3-1 win for United so at least I got a point there too. Tough times for Crystal Palace fans at the moment and their next game after the international break is against Chelsea.
Newcastle United vs Liverpool
DB: Ouch! Now the last game for us this weekend is Newcastle taking on Liverpool, which kicks off in a few hour or so. Newcastle are managed by Rafa BenÃtez, the manager who brought the last European Cup to Liverpool, so the Liverpool fans have a lot of respect for the Spaniard. Now, these matches traditionally have a lot of goals in them too, so I’m going for a 3-1 win for the Reds. How about you Damian?
DF: Actually, I think your team will win 4-1 – I fancy lots of goals on the counter attack and Newcastle heads to drop, yes, 4-1 to me. I’ve noticed that our leader Jonny Magicboots has also gone for a 3-1 away victory. Remember, if you want to join the competition just come along to our site at www.languagecaster.com and sign up to our predictions competition – 3 points for the perfect score and one for the right result.
Quiz question answer
DB: OK, and before we go, the answer to the quiz question, what is the special word used to talk about a player scoring twice: it’s a brace; to score a brace means to score twice.
DF: Yes, Harry Kane scored another brace yesterday against Huddersfield in the Premier League – that’s two braces in a week for the Spurs striker after another two goals – a brace – the week before against West Ham.
Good bye
DB: Alright everybody, that’s it for this week. Enjoy all of the football and catch you next week. Ta-ra!
DF: See you next week when we will be looking at the last set of World Cup qualifiers – some huge games taking place next week including Ireland against Wales. Bye bye.
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here
If you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
