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Learn English Through Football Podcast: Club Rivalries
In this week’s football-language podcast we look at some language connected to club rivalries. We also look ahead to this weekend’s football with one of the biggest club rivalry in English football: Liverpool vs Manchester United. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions about the phrase or our podcast then you can contact us here.
Embed from Getty ImagesHello
DF: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast.
DF: Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s football language podcast for learners of English who love the beautiful game football. My name is Damian and I am here in London where the weather is a little bit wet today but still good weather for football. What is the weather like where you are? And I wonder what the weather is like in Tokyo where the other member of the Learn English Through Football team Damon is based? Damon, how are things?’
DB: Hi there Damian. All good here in Tokyo. And thanks for the video you sent me last week of your five-a-side game and your fantastic goal! Did you put some swazz on it? As for the weather, it’s a beautiful day today, but the forecast is for rain tomorrow.
Now listener, before Damian starts with our main section, just a quick heads-up — our new website address is now learnenglishthroughfootball.com. You can still reach us at the old address, languagecaster.com. If you’re enjoying our content, we’d really appreciate it if you could share it with your friends and give us ‘a like’ or ‘rating’ on your favourite podcast platform!
Now, I’ll be back later with another message and my predictions for the Liverpool vs Manchester United match, scheduled for Sunday.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Greek)
DF: Thanks Damon. No, I didn’t put any swazz on the ball – remember that means to make the ball curve into the net. And that message we just heard was in Greek and, as always, we will have some more stingers or messages throughout the show in different languages. How many will you be able to recognise? And we’ll let you know the languages at the end of the show. And please send us a message in your own language – just tell us that, ‘You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast’. Or, you can tell us in English your name, where you are from, and the team you support, plus ‘you are listening to the Learn English Through football podcast’.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Hindi)
By the way, here in London there are some Diwali celebration going on and this is the Hindu festival of lights; so you might hear some fireworks going off in the background!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Swedish)
Football Language: Sacked managers
DF: I can give you a clue about that last stinger – this language represents the national team that sacked their manager after another defeat in their 2026 World Cup qualifier against Kosovo last week.
Another manager in the news this weekend, who was sacked (or fired), was the Nottingham Forest manger Ange Postecoglou. The former Tottenham manager was let go after only 39 days in charge and parted company with the club 20 minutes after his side’s defeat against Chelsea at the weekend. We wonder who the new manager will be – the managerial merry-go-round has started up again. We have lots of posts and podcasts on the language around football managers and sackings here at the Learn English Through Football Podcast – come along and check them out!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Hull City fan)
Football Language: Club Rivalries
DF: Right, we are going to look at some language around the phrase, ‘club rivalries‘. First of all, let’s take a look at the word ‘rival‘. Its main meaning is that one person (or group) is competing against another person or group. But there is sometimes also a sense that there is no love lost between the two groups or sides; they don’t really get on very well; they don’t like each other. Another form of this word (another noun) is rivalry and we use this to describe the feeling or the situation between two rivals. So, for example, the rivalry between the two sides has grown over the years.
So, we can hear the terms, ‘arch rival‘ which means that the two teams really do not like each other and that they have been battling against each other for a very long time – maybe it’s a deep rivalry. We might also hear the phrase, ‘local rival‘ which refers to the fact that the teams are geographically very close to each other; a good example of this would be Tottenham and Arsenal in the Premier League. This is also known as the North London derby – derbies of course, refer mostly to these types of games between local rivals. Interestingly, some clubs from the same city are not always big rivals. So, for example I am not sure that Tottenham versus Fulham is such a big rivalry as Spurs are from North London and Fulham are in the west. I think their big rivalry would be with Chelsea and Brentford. We can call this a city rivalry; they are city rivals.
Sometimes we might hear the phrase, ‘historical rivalry‘ which shows us that the two teams have been playing against each other for a long time and also really don’t like each other! Of course there are some huge local derbies around the world, such as the Superclasico between Boca Juniors and River Plate in Argentina or Liverpool versus Everton in the Merseyside derby or the Old Firm derby in Glasgow between Celtic and Rangers. But let’s take a look at some big club rivalries that are not local or city derbies but games between big clubs that do not like each other:
- Of course we have el clasico from Spain which sees the two biggest teams Barcelona and Real Madrid face off. This is not a local derby as they are from two different cities but they are huge rivals as they dominate football in Spain and historically there has been some…bad feeling between them!
- Le Classique sees PSG from Paris against Marseille from the south of France – these two teams really do not like each other at all! And interestingly, Marseille are top and PSG are second this season so the rivalry continues.
- Liverpool versus Manchester United is the big game between the two most successful sides in English football – they both have won the English title on 20 occasions. There is no love lost between these two sides and this game is going to be the one we focus on in this week’s predictions.
Predictions: Liverpool vs Manchester United
DB: As a Liverpool fan, I’m really nervous heading into this weekend’s clash with Manchester United at Anfield. I hate losing to our big rivals from down the East Lancs Road. We’ve hit a rough patch of form lately, losing three on the bounce, and with Alisson out and key players like Mac Allister and Konaté not at their best, our defence looks vulnerable. It’s good to have Gravenberch back in training, but everyone is going to have to play well to get a win.
Even though United haven’t won at Anfield since 2016, they’ll be pretty confident after beating Sunderland and seeing our recent dip in form. Salah has a great record against them, but hasn’t really got going this season despite two goals for Egypt on international duty. And Isak is yet to click with his teammates. United’s attack, especially with Šeško and Mbeumo, could cause problems on the break. I think we’ll dominate possession, but expect United to sit deep and hope to hit us on the counter. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends in a hard-fought 1-1 draw.
How about you Damian, as a neutral?
DF: Well, I wasn’t sure about this one but I thought that Liverpool would win. But Manchester United ended up winning the game 2-1 which was the first time that their manager Amorim has won back-to-back games which suggests that maybe the Red Devils are starting to turn their season around. For Liverpool this was their fourth defeat in a row which is cause for some concern, or worry, indeed.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Italian)
DF: How about practising your predictions language with us? What do you think will happen in any games that you are watching over the weekend? Let us know by coming along to our site and leaving a comment either below this post or on our forum; it’s a really nice way to practise some of your writing. And if you want, you can leave a predictions voice note as well!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Spanish)
Contact
DF: And of course, don’t forget, we have a huge glossary of football terms, with hundreds of expressions, phrases, and clichés about the beautiful game of football. And if you want to send in any new words that you have heard, again drop us a line.
We also have explanations and examples of some of the football language we have used in today’s show and you can find all of that by coming along to this post on Learn English Through Football.com.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Vietnamese)
Goodbye
DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football podcast and that message was in Vietnamese. Did you guess the other languages you heard on today’s podcast? First, we had Greek (Hindi) and Swedish. After that we had Italian, Spanish, while we also heard from a Hull City fan – they’re a team from the second tier in English football – The Championship. Well done if you got any of those correct and remember you can add a message by sending us a recording for the Learn English Through Football podcast.
Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast
DF: Right, let us know if you hear or see any of the phrases or words that we have talked about on this week’s show, including, rivals or rivalries. Who are your club’s biggest rivals? What big club rivalries are there where you watch football? Try and use some of today’s phrases in a sentence if you can and then send it on to us here at Learn English through Football – we’d love to hear from you.
Enjoy all the football this week – there’s more Champions League games coming up and we’ll be back early again this week with another weekly football expression.
Bye bye!
DB: Thanks for listening everyone. Tara.
Related Links
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
https://languagecaster.com/football-language-glossary/
