This Week: The East Midlands Derby

Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to the weekly round-up called This Week on Premier Skills English.

In This Week, we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

If you are listening to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish where you’ll be able to download the podcast.

Today, I’m going to talk about another derby match, the East Midlands derby. Normally, in this week, I talk about three stories, but I got too excited and wrote too much so I’m publishing this week’s podcast in three parts. Yesterday, I spoke about the Manchester derby and tomorrow there will be another derby match episode.

The words from the story that I am going to talk about today are: depleted, golden opportunities, to take advantage of something, blind spot, nimbly and to duck.

Forest come out on top in the East Midlands Derby

A depleted Leicester City travelled to the City Ground in Nottingham on Saturday. City had nine players out through injury and had struggled suffering four successive league defeats since the World Cup. And their fortunes didn’t get any better against Forest. In the first half, Harvey Barnes had a couple of golden opportunities that he failed to take advantage of and the frustration was plain to see.

In the second half, after 56 minutes Forest won the ball in their own area and played through to Sam Surridge who spotted Brennan Johnson making a run. Johnson was in the defender’s blind spot which meant that Surridge could play the through ball leaving Johnson one-on-one with the keeper. Leicester Keeper Danny Ward came running out to shut down Johnson’s approach, but the Welsh forward nimbly sidestepped the keeper and had the area to himself to coolly roll the ball home and open the scoring.

Johnson scored his second, again on the counter attack. This time, Forest had three players running towards Leicester’s goal giving Gibbs-White the choice of attackers. Johnson had again ducked out of sight of the defence leaving plenty of space to run into. Gibbs-White’s ball was good and Johnson drove the ball into the net from the right hand side.

Final score: Nottingham Forest 2 - Leicester City 0

The first word from this story that I want to look at is depleted. This means reduced or smaller or less than before. I described Leicester City as depleted because 9 players are injured at the moment so the team is depleted in number and also in strength because they are lacking key players like James Maddison.

The phrase golden opportunities describes easy opportunities or easy chances to do something or get something that is very valuable. When I searched for the phrase online, there are lots of examples in sports journalism that describe easy opportunities to score or win points, usually missed opportunities. The other examples are all trying to persuade people to invest money in something by persuading them that they have a good chance to make lots of money.

To take advantage of something means to use the good in a situation. So if you are staying in a nice hotel, you might take advantage of the facilities. Or perhaps you will be really busy and not get the chance to take advantage of the facilities. I said that Barnes didn’t take advantage of the scoring opportunities he had, so he didn’t score when he had the chance.

In the second half, I said that Johnson was in the defender’s blind-spot. Most commonly, your blind spot is the area you can’t see in your mirrors when you are driving. So in the UK, we drive on the left. If someone is on my right hand side, there is a place where they are too far forward for me to see in my mirror, but not far enough forward that I can see out of my window. This is my blind spot. This is why you have to turn your head to look before you change lanes on the motorway. We also use the phrase to describe a subject that you have problems understanding. If you are good at all subjects at school apart from one, that subject could be said to be your blind spot. Twice in the East Midlands derby, Johnson managed to find space without the defender who should have been marking him noticing. He somehow got into the defender’s blind spot on the pitch and took advantage of the situation to find space and then score.

I said that Johnson nimbly sidestepped Danny Ward when he was attacking the Leicester goal. To sidestep means to avoid someone by stepping sideways. You can literally step to the side to avoid something and you can also sidestep a difficult question or topic if you manage to avoid the topic or find a way not to answer the question. In the story, I was using the literal meaning as Johnson stepped sideways when Danny Ward tried to tackle him. I said he nimbly sidestepped the keeper. Nimbly is an adverb, formed from the adjective nimble which means quick and exact or precise. It’s usually used to describe the fast footwork of a dancer or athlete. I read an article about Messi a while back that said for every touch of the ball that a normal player would make, Messi would make 8 touches. He is extremely nimble on his feet. Johnson was very quick and precise when he avoided the keeper when he nimbly sidestepped Danny Ward.

The last word I want to talk about from this story is to duck. I think you know that there is a type of bird called a duck, but that’s not the meaning here. The verb to duck means to lower your head and shoulders, usually to avoid getting hit. My friend is so tall that he has to duck when he walks through doorways. Whenever you see someone get out of a helicopter in a film, they always duck and run to get away from the rotor blades. You can also duck to hide. If you see someone you don’t want to talk to, you might duck behind a wall so that they don’t see you. I said that Johnson had ducked out of sight so the defender had lost track of him when the ball was played so he had lots of space to run into.

OK, that’s six words from this story. The words from the story were: depleted, golden opportunities, to take advantage of something, blind spot, nimbly and to duck.

Listen to the story one more time to hear these words in context.

Forest come out on top in the East Midlands Derby

A depleted Leicester City travelled to the City Ground in Nottingham on Saturday. City had nine players out through injury and had struggled suffering four successive league defeats since the World Cup. And their fortunes didn’t get any better against Forest. In the first half, Harvey Barnes had a couple of golden opportunities that he failed to take advantage of and the frustration was plain to see.

In the second half, after 56 minutes Forest won the ball in their own area and played through to Sam Surridge who spotted Brennan Johnson making a run. Johnson was in the defender’s blind spot which meant that Surridge could play the through ball leaving Johnson one-on-one with the keeper. Leicester Keeper Danny Ward came running out to shut down Johnson’s approach, but the Welsh forward nimbly sidestepped the keeper and had the area to himself to coolly roll the ball home and open the scoring.

Johnson scored his second, again on the counter attack. This time, Forest had three players running towards Leicester’s goal giving Gibbs-White the choice of attackers. Johnson had again ducked out of sight of the defence leaving plenty of space to run into. Gibbs-White’s ball was good and Johnson drove the ball into the net from the right hand side.

Final score: Nottingham Forest 2 - Leicester City 0

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again.

Your challenge this week is to complete the gaps in the following sentences with the correct form of the words from the podcast.

Number 1. The acrobat leapt _________ from the beam and landed perfectly.

Number 2. When he saw them coming, he _________into his office.

Number 3. Lots of people have left the office. It’s going to be hard working with a _________team this year.

Number 4. This interview is a _________ for you—please don't cancel it.

Number 5. That security camera has a _________ and that's where the thief broke in.

Number 6. It’s a lovely day. We should _________ the good weather and go for a ride.

Leave your answers to the language challenge in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Task

Today, I want you to think about the phrase to take advantage of something. Have you ever been really lucky and been able to take advantage of an opportunity to do something that you would never normally get the chance to do? Have you ever failed to take advantage of a situation and lived to regret it?

Share your ideas in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for today’s football phrase. I will let you know the answers to all three of this week’s football phrases next week.

Today’s football phrase is ***-**-***. This phrase means that you are in competition with only one person. We also use this phrase in education to talk about activities that a teacher does with one learner. When I was teaching in Italy, I had a couple of ***-**-*** classes with university students. In football, it’s used when two players are competing with each other directly.

If you know the answer, be sure to leave it in a comment on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

And that’s all I have time for today. Look out for another derby podcast tomorrow! Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope all of you stay fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.