Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:52 — 5.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Blubrry | Podchaser | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | More
Learn English Through Football Podcast: Underway
In this week’s football-language podcast we look at some language to describe the start of the season, including the phrase, ‘get underway‘. 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 and welcome to the show for fans of football who want to improve their English. My name is Damian and I am based in London where the weather has got a lot cooler this week – thankfully!. How is the weather where you are? And I wonder how the weather is in Tokyo, Japan where of course the other member of the Learn English Through Football team, Damon, is based?
Now, before we move on to talk about some football language we’d like to let you know that we have been making some changes to our site. We are now known as learnengishthroughfootball.com as we have changed our domain name which means we are no longer using languagecaster.com. We thought it might be a good idea to have a name that better reflects what we do: learning English through football! 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 some parts of our site and on our podcast, including this stinger!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Dulwich Hamlet fan)
DF: Right, you just heard from a Dulwich Hamlet fan – they are a non-league team here in London [and we will be hearing from more football fans throughout the show; many of them in different languages. Try and see if you can recognise what some of these languages are. Don’t worry if you don’t know them, we’ll give you the answers 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 their football season kicks off, or starts, this weekend.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in German)
Football Language: Kick off & Underway
Right, the football season in many European countries has already started. So, for example, England and Spain started last week, while Scotland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Turkey all started before that and more leagues are starting this weekend. So, in this week’s football-language podcast we will look at two phrases that are commonly used to describe the start of the season: ‘kick off‘ and ‘get underway‘.
Kick off
DF: OK, let’s start with a common football phrase, ‘kick off‘ which means to start something like a match or a tournament or a season. So, for example, the game kicked off at 3:00 on Saturday; the game started at 3:00. We also use this phrase to describe the action of starting the game; a player stands near the ball in the centre of the pitch (or in the centre circle) and kicks the ball to start the game – this is the kick off (so, Spurs kicked off the first half, for example).
But we can also use this phrase to describe the start of a season; so the Premier League season kicked off on August 16th; the new season started then. My favourite team Tottenham kicked off their season with a game against Burnley; this was their first game of the season. Here are a few more examples with kick off the season:
- Leeds kicked their season off with a home win against Everton.
- Liverpool kicked off their season by beating Bournemouth 4-2 on Friday night.
Can you see the difference in the position of the noun ‘the season’? In the first example it comes between kick and off (kicked their season off), while in the second example it appears after the word ‘off’ (kicked off their season). Sometimes a phrasal verb, that’s a verb and another particle or word, does this with a direct object (We have posted a link from the BBC with more examples and explanations here on our site).
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French)
Underway
Another word that we use to describe the start of the season is ‘underway‘ which is often used with the verb ‘to get’ – ‘to get underway‘. So, we can say that La Liga got underway last weekend – the Spanish league started their new season last weekend; it got underway. Similar to kick off, we can also use it to describe the start of the game (so, ‘the game is underway’ means that the game has just started or kicked off). Or we could also use it to describe something that happened in the game itself. So, for example, the player got his Tottenham career underway with two assists which means that the new player, Mohammed Kudus in this example, had two assists in his first game for the club.
Now, when will your favourite team’s season get underway or when did their season alerady get underway?
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Japanese)
Predictions
DF: OK, now it’s time for predictions and this week we are going to look at the Premier League game between Newcastle United and champions Liverpool. Listen out for some of the phrases that we use when predicting football matches
DF: Now, this game will take place on Monday night here in England and it promises to be a really interesting one. It’s the first home match for Newcastle, the game will be played under floodlights – always good for atmosphere; it’s also a game against the holders and there is also some transfer controversy between the two clubs. Newcastle star striker Alexander Isak is trying to force a move to Liverpool by refusing to train with his club Newcastle and this has left a lot of bad feeling.
Now, how about the game? Well, I think that Liverpool are favourites going into this game but with the transfer story (or transfer saga which is what we use when the story goes on for such a long time), I think Newcastle will raise their game and make it difficult for the Reds. I think it might be a 2-2 draw. Yes, it will end in a 2-2 draw.
Predictions Phrases
So, did you hear some of the phrases for predicting that we used?
- I think it might be a 2-2 draw.
- …yes, it will end in a 2-2 draw.
The first one doesn’t sound as confident as the second one – ‘will’ is a little more confident than ‘might’. So think about this when you’re making your own predictions. How about practising your predictions language with us? What do you think will happen in this game? 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 by leaving 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 Italian)
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 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.
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. There is even a quiz to help you review some of the language.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Vietnamese)
Goodbye
DF: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster (or as we are now known, the Learn English Through Football Podcast) and that message, or stinger, was in Vietnamese. How about the other ones? Did you guess the languages? We started off with German and then we heard French, Japanese and Italian. Well done if you recognised any of those and of course if you’d like to send on another stinger 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 a West Ham fan)
DF: Yes, that was from a West Ham fan and unfortunately they got their season underway with a defeat at newly-promoted Sunderland last weekend. Not the best start to the season at all! The Bundesliga in Germany and Serie A in Italy both kick off or get underway this weekend. I wonder which teams will win the title in those countries this season? Do you support any team from those leagues?
Right, let us know if you hear or see any of the phrases that we have talked about on this week’s show including, ‘get underway‘ and ‘kick off the season‘ and maybe some language for predictions; so, ‘it will end in a 2-2 draw’; ‘it might end in a 2-2 draw’.
Enjoy all the football this weekend and we’ll be back on Monday with another weekly football expression from the weekend’s matches. See you all again soon. Bye bye!
More Examples
- Aston Villa’s season got underway over the weekend, with a goalless draw in the Premier League against Newcastle United. (avfc.com, August 2025)
- The Sky Blues Under-21s get their season underway this week, as they take on Queens Park Rangers. (www.ccfc.co.uk, August 2025)
- The countdown to kick-off has begun with Sunderland’s Premier League season kicking off against West Ham United on Saturday (www.safc.com, August 2025)
- The 2024-25 Premier League campaign will get under way during the weekend of 17-18 August. (bbc.co.uk, August 2025)
Quiz
Related Links
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
https://languagecaster.com/football-language-glossary/
