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Learn English Through Football Podcast: Hijack a Move
In this week’s football-language podcast we look at two phrases from the past week: one to do with a shock cup win and the other connected to the transfer window: cup upset and hijack a move. 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.
Hello
DF: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast.
DF: Hello everyone I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the football. My name is Damian and though I am usually based in London, this week I have been travelling around Spain and Portugal and it has been really interesting to see and hear lots of football language from those two countries!
I am currently in Porto in the north of Portugal and Porto, of course, are a huge club here – they have a big football history and they have won the European Cup/Champions League on two occasions. This weekend they played against current champions Sporting last night and the locals who I was watching the game with were delighted as Porto won 2-1 away in Lisbon to go top of the table.
Now, Damon, the other member of the Learn English through football team, is usually in Japan but he’s also travelling so we won’t be hearing from him in today’s show but we will be talking about his favourite team Liverpool later on in our predictions section. We will also look back at some football language from the week, including some phrases to describe the shock defeat of Manchester United in the Carabao Cup by a team from the fourth division or tier, while we also explain a phrase that has been used quite a lot in the transfer window: hijack a move.
Stinger: Al-Hilal (Sudan) football fan)
Now, before we move on to talk about the football language, we’d like to let you know that we are continuing to make some changes to our site. We are now known as learnengishthroughfootball.com as we have changed our domain name. This means we are no longer using languagecaster.com. But don’t worry you can still find us even if you still click on the old name and you will still hear and see languagecaster on many parts of our site and on our podcast. Now we did this change because we felt it better reflected what we are doing; so helping learners of English to improve their listening and vocabulary through football!.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Irish)
DF: Yes, that message was in Irish and we will have some more stingers or messages throughout the show in different languages. Try and guess what languages they are and we will let you know what they are at the end of the show.
And of course it would be great if you could send us a message in your own language – just tell us, ‘You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast’ in any language that you know.
Right, here’s another stinger for you and I will give you a clue, this language is spoken in Europe and I was visiting there earlier on in the week!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Catalan)
Football Language: Cup Upset
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So, this week saw one of the biggest shocks in English cup football when League Two side Grimsby Town (from the fourth tier) knocked out Manchester United on penalties in the Carabao Cup. This was a huge surprise or upset as no one thought that the Premier League team would lose to Grimsby. This kind of a defeat, when a top-level side are knocked out or dumped out of the cup, is known as a cup upset and sometimes this is even shortened to ‘cupset‘. This cup upset added more pressure onto Manchester United who have not started the season well. What other cup upsets do you know? Are there any famous ones in your country? Or maybe your team was involved in a cup upset – drop us a line and let us know!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Portuguese from Brazil)
Football Language: Hijack a Move
Now, the second phrase we are going to look at is connected to transfers. OK, so the transfer window is about to close here in Europe (or slam shut as many football writers might say!). But there is still a lot of football language about transfers appearing in the press, including the phrase, ‘hijack a move‘. Now, to hijack means to steal or to take something that doesn’t belong to you; (hijack a plane is a common expression, for example) and in football we use it to describe when one team ‘steals’ or takes a player from another club when they were about to be transferred.
So, for example, this summer it looked as if Tottenham were going to sign Crystal Palace player Eberechi Eze but at the last moment Arsenal won the race to sign him – they ‘hijacked the move‘; they signed the player when it looked like he would go to Tottenham. The deal for Eze was hijacked by Arsenal though Tottenham did their own hijacking when they signed Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig after it looked as if the Dutch player would move to Chelsea.
The Collins dictionary has an explanation of hijack here.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Korean)
Predictions: Liverpool v Arsenal
DF: OK, now it’s time for predictions. Now last week we looked at the Newcastle v Liverpool match in which Liverpool won 3-2 with a last-minute winner from 16-year old debutant Rio Ngumoha (and we looked at the phrase ‘dream debut‘ in our weekly football expression earlier on this week). I had thought the game would end 2-2 so I was almost right but that last-minute winner ruined it for me!
How about this weekend’s games? Well, the big game in England this weekend sees the top two from last year face off at Anfield on Sunday; that’s Liverpool versus Arsenal. Both of these teams have won their opening two games so are in good form though Arsenal do have some big injuries. I think this will end in a draw – maybe 1-1 – yes, I reckon it will be a 1-1 draw. What do you think the score might be?
Predictions Phrases
So, did you hear some of the phrases we used for predicting?
-
I reckon it will be a 1-1 draw
- I think this will end in a draw
‘I reckon’ is another way of saying I think or I guess – it is not 100% certain. So think about this phrase when you’re making your own predictions. And how about practising your predictions language with us? What do you think will happen in this game or other games that you are watching? Let us know by coming along to our site and leaving a comment below the post or on our forum; it’s a really good way to practise some of your writing. You can also practise some speaking – maybe you can leave a voice note as well! And we’ll be happy to give you some feedback on this.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Spanish)
Contact
DB: Right, remember you can contact us if you have any questions about the language of football or if you have some feedback on our podcast. Check out our website – remember, it’s now Learn English through football – and explore our Football Language Forum, where you can ask and answer questions about all kinds of football language – we’ve got some new material there now too. There is also our huge glossary of football terms, with hundreds of expressions, phrases, and clichés all about the beautiful game of football.
Now, there are also more explanations and examples of some of the football language we have used in today’s show and it’s here on our post on Learn English through football.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French)
Goodbye
DF: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster (or as we now know, the Learn English Through Football Podcast) and that message, or stinger, was in French. How about the other ones? Did you guess the languages? We started off with Irish and then we heard Catalan – yes, I was in Barcelona earlier on this week, Portuguese from Brazil, Korean, Spanish and French. Well done if you recognised any of those and of course if you’d like to send on another stinger or message in your own language we’d love to hear from you. Remember: ‘You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast’ in any language that you know.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from an Arsenal fan)
DF: Right, let us know if you hear or see any of the phrases that we have talked about on this week’s show including, ‘cup upset‘ and ‘hijack a move‘ and some of the language we used for predictions, including ‘I reckon it will be a 1-1 draw‘. How would you say these phrases in another language that you know?
Enjoy all the football this weekend and we’ll be back early next week with another weekly football expression from the weekend’s football. See you all again soon. Bye bye!
More Examples
- Arsenal have agreed to a deal worth up to £67.5 million ($91m) for Crystal Palace midfielder Eberechi Eze after hijacking Tottenham’s pursuit of the England international (ESPN.com, August 22 2025).
- Cremonese attempt to hijack Rangers move for Marseille defender Derek Cornelius (Yahoo.com, August 31 2025)
- Spurs looking to hijack Man Utd move for Bryan Mbeumo (Sky Sports.com June 7 2025)
Related Links
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
https://languagecaster.com/football-language-glossary/
