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Learn English Through Football Podcast:
Going to the match: In this football language podcast we have a short report of Damian’s trip to a Premier League match. He went to see Fulham v Leicester. 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 then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Going to the Match
DF: You’re listening to Languagecaster.com’s football language podcast. Welcome to the show for all those who love the beautiful game and who want to improve their English. I hope you are all doing well. My name’s Damian and I am in a rather hot and humid London; it seems that this week summer has returned to the UK! What’s the weather like where you are?
I wonder what the weather is like in Tokyo? Hello Damon, how are you doing? And more importantly, how are you feeling about Liverpool’s start to the new season?
DB: Hi Damian. I’m well. As for the weather, the south of Japan has been battered by a typhoon this past week, and in Tokyo it has been humid and very very wet most of the time. The start to the season for Liverpool has been much better than the weather! Six points from six and both comfortable wins. But as the coach says, those wins were against teams not expected to be top six, so the big challenge comes this weekend when we go away to our big regional rivals Manchester United. How are you doing? And what about your team Tottenham?
DF: I’m good – quite happy with four points from the first two games for Spurs and that three of our new young players have started to get minutes or to get game time. But as I said in last week’s podcast I am still a little upset at dropping two points at Leicester! Talking of Leicester I went to see some football at the weekend – not my beloved Tottenham but instead I went to west London to see Fulham take on Leicester City down by the River Thames and I’ll be talking a little more about that later on in the show.
On the Show
DB: Well, on the show today, we are focused on the match day, or going to the match. This means watching a live football game and this week Damian went to a Premier League match. So, he’ll talk a little bit about his match day experience. After that, we’ve got some football language from the games our two teams played last week: Tottenham v Everton and Liverpool v Brentford. Following that is predictions, and we will look at last week’s results and look ahead to some big games to come this weekend. This week’s guest predictor is Phoebe, who lives in Denmark – thanks Phoebe!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Danish)
DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster. Thanks for that message – listener, can you guess what language it was? Right, time to kick off and here’s Damian talking about his trip to the match, where he saw Fulham take on Leicester.
The Match: Fulham 2-1 Leicester City
DF: Well, I went to my first match of the season last weekend when I went along with some friends to see Fulham take on Leicester City in the Premier League. The game took place at Craven Cottage which is Fulham’s home ground in the west of London and yes, there is a cottage in one corner of the ground. Fulham have played here (on and off) since 1896 and it is a really nice ground to watch football – one of the stands backs on to the River Thames so after the game we had a drink by the river – great stuff indeed!
There were over 25,000 at the stadium to see the home side easily defeat Leicester 2-1 – it really should have been a lot more but the Leicester keeper made some fine saves to keep his team in the game. Fulham scored first in the 18th minute when their new signing Emile Smith-Rowe scored his first goal of the season but Leicester equalised – against the run of play – just before half-time.
There was some controversy over the goal as the assistant referee disallowed the header from Belgian international defender Wes Faes for a possible offside. The travelling Leicester fans were singing some very uncomplimentary songs about VAR while they awaited the decision but these complaints soon turned to cheers when the goal was given – the goal stood.
In the second half Fulham dominated the game and eventually scored the winner through their Nigerian player Alex Iwobi. This was a deserved win for Fulham who bounced back after their 1-0 defeat at Manchester United in week one, while Leicester already look like a team that will struggle this season.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Japanese).
DB: Yes, that was another message and can you guess what language it was? You can find out the answers by reading the transcript to the show when you come along to our site at languagecaster.com or by reading it on your phone.
OK, let’s look at the matches Tottenham and Liverpool played last week. We’ll focus on a few key football phrases from the games. First up is Damian.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Polish).
Tottenham 4-0 Everton: Heavy Touch
DF: Right, last week I looked at the expression ‘dropped two points‘ after Tottenham let a lead slip against Leicester and this week I am going to explain the phrase ‘heavy touch‘ from the Tottenham-Everton match. Now we have talked about the word ‘heavy’ before here at Languagecaster and how it is used in football, so for example, ‘heavy tackle’ and ‘heavy defeat’) but today I want to talk about the phrase ‘heavy touch‘.
So, Tottenham bounced back from a disappointing draw away at Leicester with a 4-0 thrashing of Everton in their first home game of the season. The second goal of the game was scored by their captain Son Heung-min after a bad mistake by Everton’s keeper Jordan Pickford. The England Number One received a back pass from his defence but his heavy touch allowed Son to take the ball off him – he dispossessed him – and then he slotted home.
So, a heavy touch means that a player does not control the ball well and the ball moves away from them and this is what happened to Pickford – his heavy touch allowed the Spurs captain to steal the ball away and score.
Any football phrases caught your eye Damon from the Liverpool game at the weekend?
Liverpool 2-0 Brentford: Draw a Team On
DB: Well Damian, I think the phrases ‘draw a team on to you‘ and ‘sucker punch‘ could be used to describe how Liverpool played in their 2-0 win at home to Brentford. Unlike last season’s Liverpool, Slot’s version does not press so aggressively and is happy to draw teams on to them, which means allow the other team to advance up the pitch. They drew Brentford on to them several times, and then were able to break and play into the space behind the high Brentford defence. They created a lot of scoring chances this way.
When they did score, it was a bit of a sucker punch. This means the opponent thinks they are safe and are not switched on, that means ready. At a Brentford corner, the Brentford players were all in Liverpool’s half near the Liverpool box. But when the ball fell to a Liverpool player, Liverpool countered quickly and scored. It was a good example of a sucker punch.
Weekly Predictions Competition: Manchester United v Liverpool and Celtic v Rangers
DF: Okay let’s take a look at the predictions competition. After two weeks Damon is in the lead after a good week last week in which he scored six points thanks to a perfect prediction in the Aston Villa versus Arsenal game (0-2 to Arsenal). This means that he is now on nine points which is one ahead of me and two ahead of the guests.
On this week’s predictions we have some huge games across Europe, including the Old Firm game between Celtic and Rangers, big matches in the Netherlands and Portugal and of course Manchester United against Liverpool. First up is the top-of-the-table clash in Germany on Friday between Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig. I think Leverkusen will continue their unbeaten run to win 2-0.
I’m going to go for a couple of 1-1 draws in the next two games: Sporting against Porto in the Portuguese Primeira and Manchester United versus Liverpool. The Red Devils will be hoping to bounce back after their defeat against Brighton last weekend and so I think they will up their performance. I think Celtic will have too much for Rangers in the first Glasgow derby of the season, while I fancy Feyenoord to have too much for Ajax in the big game in the Netherlands. Damon, what do you think?
DB: Well, let me share what our guest predictor, Phoebe, thinks. I beliive it is her birthday this week, so happy birthday Phoebe! She thinks the Bayer vs Leipzig game will be an exciting 2-2 draw. Unlike you again, she thinks the big game in Portugal, Sporting v Porto will be a 3-2 thriller with a home win. She does agree with you though when it comes to Man United v Liverpool. She has also gone 1-1 for the Sunday game. As for the Glasgow derby, she reckons it’ll turn out to be a 0-0 draw. And finally she has a 1-0 away victory for Ajax against Feyenoord.
Let me give my prediction for the game you both thought would be 1-1, Man United v Liverpool. Come on! It’s going to be a 2-0 away win and nine points from three game for Liverpool!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French)
Your Predictions
So, who are you going for in this week’s predictions? Do you think that Liverpool will have too much for Manchester United? Remember, you can play along at any time – judst add a comment at the end of this post or on our forum.
You have to be a registered user and logged in to play in this pool.
Glossary
DB: Remember, that here at Languagecaster’s site you can find out more about some of the words and phrases that we have already discussed today. We also have hundreds more football-language expressions. Just come along to our football-language glossary and take a look.
Contact
DB: And if you have any questions or comments about any of the language from today or indeed any other football language then drop us an email at admin@languagecaster.com. And don’t forget we also have a football-language forum where you can ask and answer any questions you have on the language of football and post your predictions there too. Oh, don’t forget, youtube as well, where you can find lots of our podcasts.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Catalan).
Goodbye
DB: Cheers for that message, which was in Catalan. We also heard some stingers in Danish, Japanese, Polish, and French Thanks everyone for listening today. Don’t forget there’s a transcript for this podcast with lots of vocabulary support just come along and take a look.
DF: OK, let us know if you hear any of the phrases from today’s show including ‘to have too much for‘ when making predictions or ‘heavy touch‘ when a player has poor control of the ball. And of course in any language would be great. Enjoy all the football this weekend. And we’ll be back next week with some more football language. Bye bye!
DB: Tara! Enjoy all the football.