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Hard: To play someone off the park

Hard: To play someone off the park

Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

This episode is hard so we’re looking at more difficult football phrases and idioms.

Summary

Learn more football vocabulary with Premier Skills English. Each lesson in our Premier Vocabulary section looks at one football word or phrase. This lesson looks at the phrase to play someone off the park

You can find more lessons on the side of this page.

Transcript

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to Premier Skills English - Premier Vocabulary.

Jack: Hi there! I’m Jack. We’re here to help you with your football English. 

Rich: Remember you can find transcripts for all of our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. 

Rich: We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

Jack: This episode is hard so we’re looking at more difficult football phrases and idioms. These phrases can be used to talk about football but are often useful when talking about other topics.


Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is: to play someone off the park.

Jack: To play someone off the park is an idiom which means to be much, much better than someone else and to beat them easily.

Rich: The park in this idiom refers to the football pitch or the place where you are playing football.

Jack: Informal games of football or kickarounds happen in parks all over the UK at the weekend.

Rich: And some football stadiums are also called parks. Everton play at Goodison Park, Newcastle at St. James’ Park and Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Jack: When we say that a team played another off the park we are saying that one team was so good that the other team should leave the park or the pitch because they are not good enough to compete.

Rich: Usually when big teams play small teams in cup competitions or in world cup qualifiers the bigger team or nation plays the smaller one off the park.

Jack: In 2002, Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in a World Cup Qualifier. Australia played them off the park.

Rich: You might also say it was a walk in the park for Australia.

Jack: That’s a bonus phrase for you - a walk in the park. It is used to describe something that was very easy and we can use it in and out of football.

Rich: But it’s not only big teams against small teams. Germany played Brazil off the park when they won 7-1 in 2014 at the World Cup in Brazil.

Jack: We can also use the phrase to get played off the park if we want to look at the phrase from a different point of view.

Rich: Brazil got played off the park in that game against Germany.

Jack: But we don’t only use this idiom when there are one-sided scorelines.

Rich: It often happens that one team defends for the whole game - they park the bus - and the other team has all the possession and loads of chances and what happens?

Jack: The team that’s been defending get one chance, score and win 1-0. You can play someone off the park and still lose or get played off the park and still win.

Rich: It’s a funny old game sometimes.


Jack: There is the final whistle!

Rich: We’ll be back soon with more Premier Vocabulary from Premier Skills English.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football. 

Comment

Discuss

When did your team play someone off the park?

When did your team get played off the park?

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Comments

Michaelsun
12/03/2022
CN
738
points

Our team always pay opponents off the park.


Michaelsun
12/03/2022 08:40
China
Manchester United
738

Our team always pay opponents off the park.

Gabriel Amaral's picture
Gabriel Amaral
25/05/2021
BR
1512
points

In 2004 unbeatten season, I remember Arsenal playing a lot of teams off the park. Thierry Henry was stunishing!
My team got played off the park at that example you guys mencioned...Brazil 1-7 Germany. So sad to remember.


Gabriel Amaral's picture
Gabriel Amaral
25/05/2021 19:48
Brazil
Arsenal
1512

In 2004 unbeatten season, I remember Arsenal playing a lot of teams off the park. Thierry Henry was stunishing!
My team got played off the park at that example you guys mencioned...Brazil 1-7 Germany. So sad to remember.

hsn's picture
hsn
23/11/2020
TR
5525
points

A team, even got played off the park, should never leave the pitch by the reason of being not good enough to compete. This is a competition and priority is fair-play and friendship.


hsn's picture
hsn
23/11/2020 17:43
Turkey
Tottenham Hotspur
5525

A team, even got played off the park, should never leave the pitch by the reason of being not good enough to compete. This is a competition and priority is fair-play and friendship.

Robert Tavares's picture
Robert Tavares
11/10/2020
BR
399
points

Hy there.
I can't remember when Leeds United played someone off the park in the Premier League because that is the first season in the last 16 years.
But I can remember when my team in Brazil (Cruzeiro E. C) won a derby to 6-1 in 2011. It was awesome. I really enjoyed that. (Lol).
See ya!


Robert Tavares's picture
Robert Tavares
11/10/2020 15:53
Brazil
Leeds United
399

Hy there.
I can't remember when Leeds United played someone off the park in the Premier League because that is the first season in the last 16 years.
But I can remember when my team in Brazil (Cruzeiro E. C) won a derby to 6-1 in 2011. It was awesome. I really enjoyed that. (Lol).
See ya!

mobeckham's picture
mobeckham
09/10/2020
TR
6510
points

Hello Premier Skills Team ,

Sorry for bothering but suddenly I found my points with negative and from the top flight to the bottom of the leaderboard.

Could you check if there's an error in the system ?

Thanks in advance

Mobeckham


mobeckham's picture
mobeckham
09/10/2020 21:50
Turkey
Manchester United
6510

Hello Premier Skills Team ,

Sorry for bothering but suddenly I found my points with negative and from the top flight to the bottom of the leaderboard.

Could you check if there's an error in the system ?

Thanks in advance

Mobeckham

Rich's picture
Rich
11/10/2020
ES
594
points

Hi MoBeckham!. 

Yes, there seems to be an error with one or two of the quizzes - it's a bit strange and we need to look into it. You've got your points back now and are back on top of the leaderboard :) Alex from Ukraine may be disappointed :)


Rich's picture
Rich
11/10/2020 18:05
Spain
Liverpool
594

Hi MoBeckham!. 

Yes, there seems to be an error with one or two of the quizzes - it's a bit strange and we need to look into it. You've got your points back now and are back on top of the leaderboard :) Alex from Ukraine may be disappointed :)

mobeckham's picture
mobeckham
13/10/2020
TR
6510
points

Your effort is highly appreciated , Rich :)
I started to tell some of my students who are into English and football about this brilliant website obviously.
Don't worry about Alex , he will definitely bounce back soon as he got the name of the best manager of all time who never gave up throughout his career :)


mobeckham's picture
mobeckham
13/10/2020 07:07
Turkey
Manchester United
6510

Your effort is highly appreciated , Rich :)
I started to tell some of my students who are into English and football about this brilliant website obviously.
Don't worry about Alex , he will definitely bounce back soon as he got the name of the best manager of all time who never gave up throughout his career :)

Rich's picture
Rich
13/10/2020
ES
594
points

That's brilliant, Mo! Thanks! I hope your students like the website :)


Rich's picture
Rich
13/10/2020 08:30
Spain
Liverpool
594

That's brilliant, Mo! Thanks! I hope your students like the website :)

Alex_from_Ukraine's picture
Alex_from_Ukraine
27/10/2020
UA
6278
points

I'll be back. (c) :-)


Alex_from_Ukraine's picture
Alex_from_Ukraine
27/10/2020 06:21
Ukraine
Liverpool
6278

I'll be back. (c) :-)

mobeckham's picture
mobeckham
09/10/2020
TR
6510
points

We played Arsenal off the park in 2011 and beat them 8-2 in a spectacular game that it was a walk in the park for United.

We got played off the park last week when we were beaten by Spurs 1-6 in a shocking game and poor performance. I felt flabbergasted after the game and we could analyse the game till the cows come home because of the number of errors made by our fragile defence.

This episode was demonstrated perfectly.
Thanks a lot for your efforts Rich and Jack :)


mobeckham's picture
mobeckham
09/10/2020 20:43
Turkey
Manchester United
6510

We played Arsenal off the park in 2011 and beat them 8-2 in a spectacular game that it was a walk in the park for United.

We got played off the park last week when we were beaten by Spurs 1-6 in a shocking game and poor performance. I felt flabbergasted after the game and we could analyse the game till the cows come home because of the number of errors made by our fragile defence.

This episode was demonstrated perfectly.
Thanks a lot for your efforts Rich and Jack :)

Leaderboard

Top Scorers
RankNameScore
1mobeckham6510
2Alex_from_Ukraine6278
3hsn5525
4wsanta5086
5kwesimanifest4768
6Liubomyr4408
7elghoul3988
8assemjuve3705
9aragorn19863557
10Gergő Nagy3396
Country ranking
RankNameScore
1Colombia71478
2Ukraine33300
3Spain28277
4Serbia27289
5Brazil23896
6Albania20578
7Vietnam19941
8Turkey19810
9Macedonia19074
10Bosnia and Herzegovina16333
Club ranking
RankNameScore
1Manchester United141846
2Liverpool110282
3Chelsea88561
4Arsenal85717
5Manchester City56951
6Tottenham Hotspur19169
7Newcastle United10457
8West Ham United7454
9AFC Bournemouth4458
10Crystal Palace4240

Level

5
Average: 5 (1 vote)

Goals

Learn more football vocabulary.