This Week: Played off the park

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 premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org where you’ll be able to download the podcast.

On the Premier Skills English website, you can read the transcript and join the Premier Skills English community by completing a language task in the comments section. This will really help you remember the new words and phrases from the stories from the Premier League.

I’m afraid I’m a bit behind again this week as I’m finishing this podcast off on Sunday so I’m pretty much a week behind. Still, I’m sure the language will be useful and I’ll try to catch up with an early podcast next week.

The phrases I am going to talk about today are:

• To signal your intent
• To lob
• To dash hopes
• To face the prospect of
• A blow
• To try your luck
• To the delight of someone
• To intercept

Listen out for this vocabulary in the stories.

After the story there will be a language focus and then there will be a language challenge for you to complete and then at the end of the podcast there will be a new football phrase.

But before that, I want to look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week, here’s one more chance to guess now.

Last week’s football phrase was a ***** ****. This is the team that your team just can’t seem to beat. Some clubs develop something like a phobia and no matter how much they prepare, they just fall apart when they are up against their ***** ****.

Congratulations to Denis2000 from Belarus, Andretorre102 from Brazil, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Alex from Ukraine, Ken from Japan, Hasan from Turkey, Wojciech M from Poland, Elchueco from Argentina, Goku from Japan, Epinard from France, welcome to the premier skills english podcast Epinard, an Eshaan Shabeer from India.

You all managed to work out the phrase I was looking for, which was bogey team. I want to also congratulate Foad Teymouri and Hassan Ahmedpour from Iran for coming up with the suggestions nemesis and arch-nemesis. I love the word nemesis. Your nemesis does normally mean the person or thing that you find very difficult to beat, but it comes from the Greek goddess of vengeance or righteous anger. Your nemesis used to mean your share of fortune, or as we would say today, what you’ve got coming, what you deserve. But it has been used for an opponent that you really struggle to beat for about 100 years. Good guess all the same.

Keep listening till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

Now it’s time for the first story.

Palace played off the Park

Newcastle played Palace off the park at St James’ Park on Saturday. There are no two ways of looking at this one, Newcastle were simply brilliant. They signalled their intent early when Jacob Murphy scored after only four minutes. Now, there was a suggestion from one of the pundits that Murphy hadn’t intended to shoot, but when he saw an opportunity to lob the keeper, he certainly wanted to put the ball in a dangerous position. And there’s nowhere more dangerous than the goal so I think it was a perfectly weighted lob.

Towards the end of the first half, Murphy played another dangerous ball. This time it streaked across the palace goal for Anthony Gordon who connected well, giving the goalkeeper no chance.

About a minute later, Guehi failed to find his feet in time to clear the ball allowing Longstaff to rob him and run at the goal and score Newcastle’s third.

In the second half, Newcastle dashed any hopes of a comeback with a goal that really summed up the home side’s afternoon. After diving to save a Palace shot, Pope lofted the ball to Trippier who played it down the wing with his first touch. Murphy caught up with the ball and seeing Willson charging down the middle played it through the defenders with his first touch. Wilson ran behind the defenders onto Murphy’s pass. He took a touch to make sure and then calmly slid the ball past the keeper and into the net.

In the 69th minute, the crowd welcomed Sandro Tonali onto the pitch. This was probably Tonali’s last football for a while as the young Italian is facing the prospect of a lengthy ban for breaking rules about betting. Now, I don’t know much about the case, but I read that Tonali is in trouble for betting on Milan when he was playing there. Footballers are not allowed to bet on any football. It’s the same for tennis players and I suspect other sports people. Now, I think that this is unfortunate. I can understand why players should not be allowed to bet against the team they are playing for as this could lead them to play badly on purpose to fix the match, but if a player bets for their own team, they will just want to play even harder. I know. It would be very difficult to police what bets were placed and so to save the reputation of the sport, no players are allowed to bet on any football matches. However, I can’t help but feel sorry for the Italian, I mean, he’s only 23 and to lose a year or more of his career seems like a tough punishment. What do you think?

Final score: Newcastle United 4 - 0 Crystal Palace

The words and phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• To signal your intent
• To lob
• To dash hopes
• To face the prospect of

To signal your intent

In football English, we use this when a team is playing very confidently and taking chances. It means the team is showing that they really want to score. But it’s a little complicated.

The phrase sounds quite formal which makes it seem like it’s got more authority or like it’s more serious. To signal means to communicate, usually through a gesture, not through words. On train lines, the train driver has to watch the signals, which are the special signs and markers that let the driver know that they can continue or if they have to stop the train. In the USA, the lights on roads that stop traffic or let it go, the red, amber green lights are called traffic signals. In the UK, we call them traffic lights.

Your intent means your intentions or what you want to do. The noun intention means your plans or desires. This is slightly different from intent. If you are intent on doing something, you have a very strong desire, more like a resolve, you are determined to do something if it is your intent.

So we use the phrase to signal your intent in football english when a team plays very aggressively and confidently. It’s really another way of saying that a team is playing confidently, they are intent on scoring lots of goals and you can see that in the way they are playing. Their style of football signals, that is it lets you know, that they are very confident and want to score.

To lob

This next item is much easier to explain. In football English, to lob the ball means to kick the ball over someone’s head in a looping arc. It’s common in tennis as well as football. It’s not a very powerful kick, it requires a delicate and well judged touch. You can say that the striker lobbed the ball over the keeper or you can say that the player lobbed the keeper. The point is that the ball goes over the head of your opponent and drops behind them, hopefully into the goal or into your path if you’re trying to run past them. We use the verb more generally to describe when something is thrown. If someone lobs a ball at you, it just means they threw the ball at you, but in sport it means a special type of throw, hit or kick that makes the ball loop over an opponent.

To dash hopes

This is a strong collocation. Your hopes are what you really want to happen and believe could happen. If something dashes your hopes, it stops you from believing that whatever you were hoping for is possible. So in the story, I said that Wilson’s fourth goal dashed any hopes of a comeback. Not many teams have come back from three-nil down, but some have so it’s possible. The Palace players might have had some hope of a comeback, they might have still believed that it was possible, when they were three down, but when the fourth goal went in, that hope was dashed.

To face the prospect of

A prospect is a possibility of something happening. According to the dictionary I looked at, it’s usually used for positive things. However, you can talk about the prospect of something happening and then, you can use it for anything. You might talk about the prospect of the weather improving or the prospect of a solution to a problem, or in football, the prospect of victory or the prospect of defeat.

The verb to face something means to deal with something, usually a problem. It’s quite common to say things like I can’t face the meeting on monday or visitors to the UK will have to face cold and wet weather.

If you have to face the prospect of something, you have to deal with the possibility of something bad happening. In football, that usually means defeat. If a team is two goals down and there’s not much time left, the prospect of defeat will be very real and this idea might have an impact on the way that the team plays. If they keep on playing, then they are facing the prospect of defeat.

Let’s move on to the next story.

Tottenham go top

When Spurs hosted Fulham on Monday, they overwhelmed the visitors, playing with such energy, hunger and creativity that people are starting to talk about the team’s title prospects. Both Spurs and Arsenal remain unbeaten so far this season and following the result on Monday, Spurs are sitting at the top of the table.

Ange Postecoglou took over at Tottenham back in June and the impact he has had on the club has been amazing. When they lost their record goal-scorer Harry Kane, it was a blow, but Ange took it in his stride and has rebuilt the team around the strengths of the players and created something special.

Fulham are a tricky team and are quite capable of causing problems when they are on form. Unfortunately, for their fans, on Monday, that form was lacking and the Cottagers were overrun.

Tottenham looked confident from the start. When Højbjerg fired a long range screamer towards goal early on, it looked like a well practised move rather than a player trying his luck.

Son Heung-min opened the scoring in the 36th minute after a bungled clearance. Richarlison slotted the ball through to the Spurs captain who was on the edge of the box. He tapped the ball on and before the centre backs had the time to close the gap, he turned and fired, hooking the shot into the top corner.

In the second half, Jame Maddison got his first goal in a Spurs shirt at home to the delight of the roaring fans. Fulham were struggling to find a way through and ended up passing back deep into their own half. Spurs quickly filled the gap and when a loose ball was intercepted by Højbjerg, he was able to knock it on for Son who turned and tapped it into the path of Maddison who took a touch before rolling the ball past the keeper and into the net.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 0 Fulham

The words and phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• A blow
• To try your luck
• To the delight of someone
• To intercept

A blow

We normally use the word blow as a verb, meaning to push air out of your mouth quickly, often to cool down hot food or put out a candle. We can also use the word as a noun and then it means a hard hit, usually with a hand or a weapon. A blow to the head can be very dangerous. Or it can describe the impact of a negative event, if something happens and it has a very strong negative impact on someone. So if you lose your job, that might be a real blow. When something really hard happens, you can say that it came as a terrible blow.

To try your luck

This means to attempt to do something even though you are not very confident that you will succeed. When you try your luck it’s a bit like seeing if you are lucky. Sometimes, if you visit a fair in the UK, there are games of chance, where you can win a prize and the people who run the games invite you to try your luck. Am I lucky today? I’ll try my luck and find out.
If a player tries to score from a long way out, they probably won't be very confident about their chances. So you can describe the attempt by saying the player tried their luck from long range.

To the delight of someone

I really like the word delight. It means to give someone great pleasure or happiness. A delight is something that gives you pleasure. There is a type of sweet from Turkey that we call Turkish delight and when I was a child, I loved the idea that a sweet could make you feel so happy. We use the phrase to the delight of someone, to say that someone was delighted by something. So if there is a lot of snow in the UK, then schools are sometimes closed, to the delight of school children.

To intercept

This last verb is common in football English and I have spoken about it before. If something is sent to someone, usually a letter or parcel and then someone gets it and opens it and reads it before it arrives at its destination, then the message or parcel has been intercepted. I think that spy organisations like the CIA in America often try to intercept messages between terrorists. When I looked for examples of intercept for the language challenge, most of the news stories were about intercepted rockets or aircraft. There were lots of stories about intercepted drones that were stopped on the*** way to their destination.

In football English, if a player passes the ball to a teammate and someone on the other team gets to the ball first, they have intercepted the ball.

Today, I’ve spoken about 8 useful words and phrases. The phrases I have spoken about are:

• To signal your intent
• To lob
• To dash hopes
• To face the prospect of
• A blow
• To try your luck
• To the delight of someone
• To intercept

Listen to the stories one more time to hear this language in context.

Palace played off the Park

Newcastle played Palace off the park at St James’ Park on Saturday. There are no two ways of looking at this one, Newcastle were simply brilliant. They signalled their intent early when Jacob Murphy scored after only four minutes. Now, there was a suggestion from one of the pundits that Murphy hadn’t intended to shoot, but when he saw an opportunity to lob the keeper, he certainly wanted to put the ball in a dangerous position. And there’s nowhere more dangerous than the goal so I think it was a perfectly weighted lob.

Towards the end of the first half, Murphy played another dangerous ball. This time it streaked across the palace goal for Anthony Gordon who connected well, giving the goalkeeper no chance.

About a minute later, Guehi failed to find his feet in time to clear the ball allowing Longstaff to rob him and run at the goal and score Newcastle’s third.

In the second half, Newcastle dashed any hopes of a comeback with a goal that really summed up the home side’s afternoon. After diving to save a Palace shot, Pope lofted the ball to Trippier who played it down the wing with his first touch. Murphy caught up with the ball and seeing Willson charging down the middle played it through the defenders with his first touch. Wilson ran behind the defenders onto Murphy’s pass. He took a touch to make sure and then calmly slid the ball past the keeper and into the net.

In the 69th minute, the crowd welcomed Sandro Tonali onto the pitch. This was probably Tonali’s last football for a while as the young Italian is facing the prospect of a lengthy ban for breaking rules about betting. Now, I don’t know much about the case, but I read that Tonali is in trouble for betting on Milan when he was playing there. Footballers are not allowed to bet on any football. It’s the same for tennis players and I suspect other sports people. Now, I think that this is unfortunate. I can understand why players should not be allowed to bet against the team they are playing for as this could lead them to play badly on purpose to fix the match, but if a player bets for their own team, they will just want to play even harder. I know. It would be very difficult to police what bets were placed and so to save the reputation of the sport, no players are allowed to bet on any football matches. However, I can’t help but feel sorry for the Italian, I mean, he’s only 23 and to lose a year or more of his career seems like a tough punishment. What do you think?

Final score: Newcastle United 4 - 0 Crystal Palace

Tottenham go top

When Spurs hosted Fulham on Monday, they overwhelmed the visitors, playing with such energy, hunger and creativity that people are starting to talk about the team’s title prospects. Both Spurs and Arsenal remain unbeaten so far this season and following the result on Monday, Spurs are sitting at the top of the table.

Ange Postecoglou took over at Tottenham back in June and the impact he has had on the club has been amazing. When they lost their record goal-scorer Harry Kane, it was a blow, but Ange took it in his stride and has rebuilt the team around the strengths of the players and created something special.

Fulham are a tricky team and are quite capable of causing problems when they are on form. Unfortunately, for their fans, on Monday, that form was lacking and the Cottagers were overrun.

Tottenham looked confident from the start. When Højbjerg fired a long range screamer towards goal early on, it looked like a well practised move rather than a player trying his luck.

Son Heung-min opened the scoring in the 36th minute after a bungled clearance. Richarlison slotted the ball through to the Spurs captain who was on the edge of the box. He tapped the ball on and before the centre backs had the time to close the gap, he turned and fired, hooking the shot into the top corner.

In the second half, Jame Maddison got his first goal in a Spurs shirt at home to the delight of the roaring fans. Fulham were struggling to find a way through and ended up passing back deep into their own half. Spurs quickly filled the gap and when a loose ball was intercepted by Højbjerg, he was able to knock it on for Son who turned and tapped it into the path of Maddison who took a touch before rolling the ball past the keeper and into the net.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 0 Fulham

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again. I have found examples of the words and phrases in stories online and edited them slightly. I have removed today’s vocabulary so I want you to fill in the gaps with the correct form of the language from the podcast.

Number 1. Sam Neill seems to have _______ any ______ we had about his ‘Jurassic Park’ character appearing in ‘Jurassic World 2′ by claiming Dr. Alan Grant “may have died”.

Number 2. Joe Powell ____________ from distance for Burton, with the Blackpool keeper just about tipping the ball over the bar.

Number 3.Crystal Palace have been dealt a major ______ amid fears Eberechi Eze is set to miss six weeks with a hamstring injury.

Number 4. Mercedes has _____________________ to remain in Formula 1 by announcing an expanded five-year partnership with INEOS.

Number 5. Almost a month's worth of rain could fall in less than 24 hours in southern parts of the UK. People planning on travelling ________________ of delays or sudden cancellations to trains and buses.

Number 6. A baby beaver was born this summer in Enfield, a large town in north London, _________________ eager UK ecologists.

Number 7. A rare invasive species of locust was ____________ by U.S. Customs agents during a cargo inspection at the Port of Detroit.

Number 8. Jenna Dear collected the ball in the opposition half on the right wing. She ________ the keeper at the near post to score Sunderland’s opening goal from range.

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

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week's football phrase.

This week’s football phrase is ******-*****. It's an easy one. This week I want to know what you call the defenders who play in front of the goal in the middle of the pitch.

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

Before I finish, I am going to go through the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1. The new employee felt like she had something to prove at her job to demonstrate her competence to her boss and colleagues.

Number 2. The teacher was supposed to give his students homework, but he decided to let them off as they had all worked so hard in class.

Number 3. She couldn't enjoy the party because the deadline for her project was weighing on her mind.

Number 4. The young couple was ecstatic about their upcoming wedding.

Number 5. He was forced to retire from professional sports due to a knee injury.

Number 6. In a last-ditch attempt to revive the failing project, the manager called an emergency meeting to brainstorm ideas.

And that’s all I have time for today. 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.