This Week: Welcome back

This Week: Welcome Back

Laura: Hello my name’s Laura and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English. 

Jack: Hi there. I’m Jack. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Rich: My name’s Rich. If you want to listen and read at the same time we have a transcript of this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Laura: This week we focus on the return of fans to top-level football, a record for Chelsea women and a big win for Crystal Palace.

Jack: We’re going to look at three headlines from this weekend’s action and after each, we’ll look at a couple of useful phrases. 

Rich: We want you to use and practise these words and phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Laura: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Jack: You can find all of our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: football ground, to cap something, to break your duck, to tuck away, to take full advantage and rout.

Laura: Later on we’ll also have a language challenge for you to have a go at so you need to be ready for that.

Headline 1

Jack: Fans back at Premier League grounds.

Laura: Some Premier League grounds welcomed back fans for the first time in nearly nine months last weekend. Fan capacity was capped at two thousand spectators as fans were present at Tottenham’s win over Arsenal, Chelsea’s win against Leeds, West Ham’s defeat to Manchester United and Liverpool’s 4-0 win against Wolves. It was the first game Liverpool fans had been able to see their side play as Premier League champions.

Rich: Yes, it was very good to see some fans back at matches and it may have inspired the teams - Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool all won in front of their fans.

Jack: Apart from West Ham - they lost to Manchester United but United are in good form at the moment.

Laura: Let’s hope that fans are allowed back at all grounds soon.

Rich: Let’s look at a bit of vocabulary from the headline. We spoke about Premier League grounds. Most people use the word ground as a synonym for stadium. We can talk about the football ground or the football stadium.

Jack: But, some people will use the words slightly differently. To be more specific a football stadium is where the fans sit to watch the action on the pitch whereas a football ground includes the stadium, the pitch, the offices, the car park and anything that is on the ground that the football club owns.

Laura: The other word I want us to look at is capped. We said that fan capacity was capped at two thousand spectators.

Rich: To cap something means to limit something to a certain amount or specific number. We often use it to talk about money. Spending on certain sectors like health or education might be capped at certain amounts.

Jack: At the moment, some football fans are being allowed into grounds in some areas of England but numbers are being limited - they are being capped.

Laura: At the weekend fan numbers were capped at two thousand. At the grounds where fans were allowed, there was a maximum limit of two thousand fans.

Rich: I hope we aren’t speaking about caps and limits for too long. Let’s move on to our next headline.

Headline 2

Laura: Kerr hat-trick breaks Super League record.

Rich: Chelsea’s Sam Kerr hit a hat-trick in their 3-2 win against West Ham. It was Chelsea’s 12th successive home win - a record for the women’s Super League. There were wins for the top two: Arsenal and Manchester United and Alex Morgan broke her duck in English football when she tucked away a penalty to help Tottenham get their first win of the season: 3-1 against Brighton.

Jack: Only three points separate the top three in the table - it should be a very exciting title race this season.

Laura: Let’s have a look at a couple of phrases from that headline because Rich used a couple of unusual phrases that you might not have heard before. The most unusual one was to break your duck.

Jack: Yes, Rich said Alex Morgan broke her duck in English football. What are you talking about here, Rich?

Rich: To break your duck is an idiom and it means to score in sports for the first time. Alex Morgan scored for the first time in English football - she broke her duck.

Laura: Do you know anything more about this phrase, Rich? It is very strange.

Rich: It actually comes from the sport of cricket. A duck in cricket is when you’re out for zero - without scoring any runs - any points.

Jack: Ah, yes. It’s the worst and quite embarrassing to be out for a duck in cricket. On Australian television, they sometimes show a little cartoon of a crying duck on the screen as the player leaves the pitch after getting out for a duck.

Rich: The phrase was originally a duck’s egg because an egg looks similar to a zero but it’s been shortened to just duck over the years. To break your duck has come to mean not scoring zero or doing something for the first time.

Laura: To break your duck - I like it. The other phrase you used in the headline I want to look at is to tuck away. You said that Alex Morgan tucked away the penalty. 

Jack: This phrasal verb is not very common outside of football and generally means to put something in a safe place and I suppose in football English it means the same. The back of the net is the safest place to put the ball.

Rich: However, it really means to score or finish a chance with confidence. Alex Morgan tucked away the penalty. 

Laura: OK, let’s move on to our final headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Palace hammer Baggies.

Jack: The biggest win of the weekend came at West Brom where Crystal Palace thrashed the home team by five goals to one. Palace took full advantage of a red card for West Brom to score four second-half goals. Wilfried Zaha got two of those and Christian Benteke completed the rout with two more. It’s the first time Palace have scored five times in a Premier League match away from home.

Laura: An exciting win for Palace. I reckon that Wilfried Zaha is the most important player for one club in the Premier League. He missed the last two matches and Palace lost, he comes back into the team and Palace win 5-1.

Rich: I think you might be right. If anyone thinks they know a player that is more important to their team than Wilfried Zaha, let us know in the comments section.

Jack: Let’s look at some vocabulary from the headline. I said that Palace took full advantage of the red card for West Brom.

Laura: To take advantage of something means to make use of an opportunity. 

Rich: And to take full advantage of something is used to emphasise that someone used the opportunity to the maximum - to the fullest extent possible.

Jack: Palace took full advantage when West Brom were reduced to ten men by scoring four goals.

Laura: The other word I want to look at is rout  r - o - u -t. Jack said that Christian Benteke completed the rout with his late goals.

Rich: A rout is used to describe a match or a battle where one side is heavily defeated. Matches that finish four, five or six nil are often described as routs.

Jack: Palace beat West Brom 5-1 - that was a rout.

Laura: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are: football ground, to cap something, to break your duck, to tuck away, to take full advantage and rout.

Rich: Don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of this vocabulary.

Prediction

Jack: It’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction. Rich didn’t do too badly last week, unfortunately. He went for a three-one win for Tottenham against Arsenal and they won two-nil.

Laura: Sorry about that Jack. The two North London teams are having very contrasting season so far.

Jack: Tell me about it!

Rich: It’s your turn with our prediction this week, Jack.

Jack: Yes, matchweek twelve’s big match is of course the Manchester Derby. United are at home but will they be able to take advantage? I’m not so sure. United have a difficult match away in Germany this week while City can rest players in their Champions League tie. Both teams will be up for this match and it’s a shame that no fans are allowed in Manchester yet. I think City are going to come out on top in this one. Finals score: Manchester United 2-1 Manchester City.

Laura: I’m going for United. Marcus Rashford with a double.

Rich: We want all of you to make your predictions for this match and all the Matchweek 12 fixtures on the Premier Skills English website.

Language Challenge

Jack: To finish up the show we’ve got a quick language challenge connected to this week’s vocabulary.

Laura: Earlier we looked at the idiom to break your duck and we’re going to give you three more idioms with animals. We want you to write the missing animals in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: This new trainer is really tough. There were twenty of us in September and only eight now. We’re dropping like _______.

Jack: I bet that West Brom player will be in the _______ house with the manager for that red card.

Laura: He’s just a one-trick _______. Once defenders know what he’s going to do it’s easy to defend against.

Rich: We want you to write the answers on the Premier Skills English website where we have some more questions and activities connected to this week’s show.

Jack: Or write your answer on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us. Just write the answers in the review section and say hi.

Laura: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope that all of you stay fit and healthy.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.