Medium: Pull back

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 medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There are lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.

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 pull back. 

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. 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 medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There will be lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is pull back.

Jack: Pull back is a phrasal verb and has a few meanings that can be used to speak about things happening on or off the football pitch.

Rich: Let’s start with how you might hear it used away from the football pitch.

Jack: It can be used to mean retreat - to go backwards.

Rich: An army might pull back if they are worried the enemy is too strong or is going to attack.

Jack: Or both sides may pull back if there have been successful peace talks.

Rich: Pull back also means to decide not to do something as it may be problematic.

Jack: It’s often used in business. A company might pull back from a business deal if they find out that a potential partner is in financial difficulties.

Rich: Or a sports team might pull back from a sponsorship deal with a specific business if the team feels it’s not suitable for their brand.

Jack: OK, those are a couple of ways we may see pull back used in a general sense but there are quite a few ways we use it on the pitch.

Rich: During a match, a team might be losing 3-0 and they pull a goal back.

Jack: The score becomes 3-1. They have pulled a goal back or pulled back a goal.

Rich: We often use a player’s name to describe who scored. We can say Bruno Fernandes pulled a goal back for United in the second half.

Jack: Another way pulled back is used on the football pitch is when a defender pulls an attacker back. This can result in a red card if it’s a clear goalscoring opportunity.

Rich: Mohamed Salah is clean through and one on one with the goalkeeper. No David Luiz has pulled him back. That’s got to be a red card.

Jack: A defender pulls an attacker back towards them to stop the attacker from getting away. Defenders often pull players back by pulling their shirts.

Rich: Yes, this happens all over the pitch and you see a lot of yellow cards for this.

Jack: One final meaning of pull back is when an attacker reaches the byline and pulls the ball back for a teammate. Have a listen to this.

Rich: What a run! Silva’s gone past one! He’s gone past another! He pulls it back for Aguero. What a great goal.

Jack: So, to pull the ball back is a type of pass on the pitch. This pass always takes place when a player is attacking and usually running with the ball.

Rich: When the player reaches the byline, the player needs to pass or cross the ball. One option is to pull the ball back - this means to pass the ball back towards a teammate instead of crossing the ball sideways towards the goal.

Jack: A pull back can be very difficult to defend against because the defenders are running towards their own goal and if the ball is pulled back they have to turn around very quickly.

Rich: There is the final whistle!

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

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football. 

Comment

Discuss

Should pulling a player back be an automatic yellow or red card?

Is it important for a winger to get to the byline to pull the ball back?