This Week: Caught Napping

This Week: Caught Napping

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 Manchester Derby, the battle at the top of the Women’s Super League and a superb performance from Harry Kane.

Jack: We’re going to look at three headlines from the weekend’s action and look at some words and phrases connected to those headlines. 

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 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: neighbours, to be caught napping, late on, on target, a tap-in and a fabulous first-time curler.

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: United beat City to win the Manchester Derby.

Laura: Manchester United ended Manchester City’s record winning run as they beat their neighbours by two goals to nil at the Eithad. The goals arrived at the beginning of each half. Anthony Martial won a penalty after only thirty seconds and Bruno Fernandes scored the spot-kick. City were caught napping again at the start of the second half when Luke Shaw beat Ederson from the edge of the penalty area.

Rich: It’s always good to win a derby match and even better when you end your rivals’ long winning run.

Jack: Yes, it was a good performance and does that victory open up the title race again?

Laura: Maybe it does but City still have a very big lead at the top.

Rich: OK, let’s look at some language from our first headline. You probably know what a derby match is. It’s a match between teams from the same city or region.

Jack: We were talking about the Manchester Derby. When we talk about derby matches we often use two words - local and neighbours.

Laura: I said that United beat their neighbours by two goals to nil.

Rich: A neighbour is someone who lives next to you or near you so we often talk about football clubs from the same city as neighbours.

Jack: The other word you often hear which is connected to this is local. If something is local it is connected to the place you are talking about or where you live.

Laura: I can talk about my local school, local shops or local community - all the things that are near where I live.

Rich: When we talk about a derby match we often hear the term local rivals. Manchester City and Manchester United are local rivals - both teams are from the same area.

Jack: Let’s look at an idiom that Laura used in the headline. She said that City were caught napping at the start of the second half.

Laura: To be caught napping means to be surprised by an opponent often when you are not prepared. You are still half-asleep. You are napping - a nap is a short sleep.

Rich: It’s often used when a team score at the beginning of a half or the beginning of a match.

Jack: So City were actually caught napping twice. Once in the first half and once in the second. Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2 

Laura: Changing places at the top.

Rich: Manchester City went back to the top of the Women’s Super League on Sunday afternoon when Keira Walsh scored the only goal of the game late on against Everton. However, Chelsea reclaimed top spot a few hours later when the Blues beat West Ham 2-0. Sam Kerr and Beth England were on target in that one.

Jack: The battle for the Women’s Super League looks like it's going to down to the wire.

Laura: That’s a nice phrase: to go down to the wire. It’s another idiom and it is used to describe something that won't be decided until the last possible moment.

Rich: Chelsea play Manchester City at the end of April - that’ll be the crunch match. I’m sure.

Jack: Let’s look at some more language. Rich said that City scored late on against Everton. This is an informal way of saying at a late stage in a match.

Laura: We often hear things like: the team scored a fourth late on or had a player sent off late on. It usually refers to the last ten minutes of a game.

Rich: In the Chelsea match, I said that Sam Kerr and Beth England were both on target.

Jack: On target refers to shots at goal. During a match, a team might have six shots on target and four shots off target for example.

Laura: However, we can also use the phrase to describe goals that have been scored. Sam Kerr and Beth England were both on target in the match against West Ham - they both scored.

Rich: Let’s move on to our final headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Spurs Kane Palace.

Jack: Harry Kane was the star of the show as Tottenham beat Palace 4-1 to move up to sixth - just two points off a Champions League spot. Harry Kane set up two goals for Gareth Bale - a tap-in and a close-range header. Kane then scored a double himself. The first was a fabulous first-time curler into the top corner and the second a header. 

Laura: Spurs were very impressive. I have a little fact for you from this game. Son Heung-min set up Harry Kane’s second goal and that’s the fourteenth time the pair have set up each other this season - a Premier League record.

Rich: And Gareth Bale seems to be coming into form, too. OK, let’s look at some language. We described Bale’s first goal as a tap-in. This is the easiest kind of goal you can score.

Jack: Tap-ins are from very close to the goal and usually a cross has taken the goalkeeper out of the game so there is an empty goal, too. You just have to shoot softly - tap - the ball into the net - usually with the side of your foot.

Laura: The second phrase I want to look at describes a very different type of goal. Jack described Harry Kane’s first goal as a fabulous first-time curler.

Rich: Here we use three words to describe a goal. The first gives our opinion - it was a good goal so we want an adjective that means very good. We used fabulous because it begins with the same letter as the next word - first-time but we could have said fantastic, brilliant, marvellous, superb and so on.

Jack: The next word first-time describes the type of shot: a first-time shot. It means that Kane hit the ball first-time. He didn’t stop the ball to control it. He shot as soon as the ball arrived at his feet.

Laura: And then the noun was curler - this describes a long-range shot that looks like it may be going wide but curves or curls in the air back towards the goal.

Rich: Harry Kane scored with a fabulous first-time curler.

Jack: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and lots of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at were: neighbours, to be caught napping, late on, on target, a tap-in and a fabulous first-time curler.

Laura: Listen to the headlines again to hear these words and phrases in context and don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of this vocabulary.

Headlines - Repeat
Prediction

Jack: In our prediction last week Rich thought Manchester City would beat Manchester United 2-0 but United won 2-0.

Rich: Yes, it was a bit of a surprise although United are on a long unbeaten run away from home.

Laura: It wasn’t that much of a surprise I said that United were going to win.

Jack: That’s why you’re going to do the prediction this week. In fact, we’re all going to make a prediction and our listeners have to decide who they agree with.

Laura: This week we’re going to talk about another local derby. The North London Derby between near neighbours Arsenal and Spurs. Tottenham have won their last three matches while Arsenal’s form is a little more up and down although they have been better recently, too. I think it’ll be close like all derby matches and it’ll finish all-square. Final score: Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham

Rich: A draw. The safe result but I think Tottenham will win again. Spurs 2-1 Arsenal.

Jack: You’ve got to back your team, haven’t you? Two-nil to the Gunners.

Laura: What do you think the score will be? Do you agree with me, Rich or Jack?

Rich: We want all of you to make your predictions for this match and all the Premier League fixtures which you can find 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.

Rich: Earlier we spoke about the idiom to be caught napping. We’re going to give you three more sentences which include idioms with the word catch. Do you know the missing words?

Laura: The robbers were caught _________ when they bumped into a police officer as they ran out of the bank.

Rich: The keeper was caught ____ when the cross blew right over his head and into the net.

Jack: The keeper’s been awful today. He couldn’t ______ a cold!

Laura: 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.

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

Laura: Bye for now and enjoy your football.