Podcast 46 - Excuses

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: Hi everyone. I’m Jack and every week we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: This week, we’re going to talk about the latest news ...

Jack: Rich, sorry for interrupting, but I need to tell you something.

Rich: What is it?

Jack: Well, the thing is, I’m really sorry, you know that CD you leant me?

Rich: Abba’s greatest hits?

Jack: No not that one, the Liverpool album.

Rich: You’ll never walk alone ... Ferry across the Mersey ... The Anfield Rap ...

Jack: Yes ... Well, I’m really sorry, but I lost it. You see, I took it on holiday to Blackpool with me, but when I got back, it wasn’t in my bag. I must have left it in the b&b...

Rich: That was my favourite ...

Jack: I know - I’ll get you another copy.

Rich: OK - that’s alright. Thanks for letting me know. Anyway, where was I ...This week, we’re going to talk about the latest news from the Premier League and Manchester United’s late arrival for their match last weekend. The language focus, in case you haven’t guessed, is on words and phrases we use to apologise and make excuses.

Jack: And later, Rich will make this week’s Premier League prediction and we have another football phrase for you to guess in our football vocabulary game.

Rich: Leicester and Spurs won last weekend but Arsenal could only draw. I think they might be out of the title race now.

Jack: It’s not looking good for Arsenal, but you never know…...stranger things have happened.

Rich: I like your optimism Jack. But there’s no excuse really. This season was a great  chance for Arsenal to win the league.

Jack: I know, I know but we’ve had lots of injuries and a lot of bad luck. We’ll speak more about the race for the title later.

Rich: We had another football phrase for you last week and it was quite easy for you to guess because we spoke about it in last week’s podcast when we spoke about how good Leicester City’s defence has been recently.

Jack: AssemJuve from Palestine, Kwesimanifest from Ghana and Mouayad from Syria all correctly guessed that the phrase we were speaking about was ‘clean sheet’.

Rich: To keep a clean sheet means to not concede a goal during a match. Leicester fans will be very happy because their team kept another clean sheet last weekend. That’s six in the last seven matches!

Jack: They’ve been doing very well. Six clean sheets in seven matches, wow!

Rich: Last week, we asked you about captains. We asked you who you thought was the best ever Premier League captain. There was no competition really. In our vote, 71% of you thought that Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard was the best Premier League captain.

Jack: How many times did you vote, Rich? He was a great captain. AssemJuve from Palestine said that he had great determination and sportsmanship and Aragorn1986 from Montenegro said that he was the best even though he is an Arsenal fan.

Rich: KopHG from South Korea said that Gerrard was the best captain in the world ... but he is a Liverpool fan. We did have some different answers, however, Mugemanyi from Rwanda said Arsenal’s Tony Adams was the best, SalvaGH from Spain chose Chelsea’s John Terry for his strength and aggression and Kwesimanifest from Ghana picked Manchester Utd’s Roy Keane as he won a lot of trophies.

Jack: We’ve got another vote on our Player of the Week article. Just go to the article about Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne on our homepage and choose who you think is going to win this season’s Champions League.

Rich: What’s the latest from the Premier League, Jack?

Jack: The race for the title looks like a two-horse race.

Rich: Two-horse race? We’re talking about football here not horse racing. I think you should explain that expression, Jack.

Jack: Yes, you’re right. We use the expression two-horse race when we want to say that a competition has only two teams that have a chance of winning.

Rich: But Manchester City and Arsenal still have a chance?

Jack: Yes, mathematically they do, but I think, in reality, it’s between Leicester and Tottenham now.

Rich: Yes, you’re probably right. Leicester won again.

Jack: Yes, they won 2-0 away at Sunderland, Jamie Vardy scoring twice. And Spurs had a great 3-0 win against Manchester Utd. That means the gap between the two teams at the top is still 7 points with 5 matches left to play.

Rich: The gap. A gap is a space between two different things like the 7 point gap between Leicester and Spurs. The expression ‘mind the gap’ is a phrase used on London’s underground or tube system which means to be careful when you are getting out of the train because there is a gap between the train and the platform.

Jack: And you are talking about this because…….

Rich: Because at the Leicester match yesterday I saw Leicester fans with flags saying ‘Mind the Gap North London’ which I thought was funny.

Jack: And the gap between Arsenal and Leicester is now 13 points after the Gunner’s 3-3 draw against West Ham. Arsenal were 2-0 ahead, West Ham’s Andy Carroll scored a hat-trick and the Hammers were winning 3-2 before Arsenal equalised.

Rich: The final result wasn’t very good for either team. Arsenal need a miracle to win the league now and West Ham are going to find it difficult to catch Manchester City in the final Champions League place.

Jack: Maybe Manchester Utd should have taken the underground to their match against Spurs on Sunday?

Rich: Ah, yes. They got stuck in traffic and the start of the match was delayed. It started 30 minutes late.

Jack: You don’t see that happen very often but there are lots of traffic jams in London.

Rich: I wonder who told Spurs that the Manchester Utd team were late?

Jack: I imagine the Manchester Utd manager Louis van Gaal picking up the phone and calling the Spurs manager, Mauricio Pochettino and apologising.

Rich: Yes, Can you imagine it? Hello? Is that Mauricio? I’m really sorry but we’re going to be a bit late for the match. Our coach is stuck in traffic. We’ll try to be as quick as we can.

Jack: And what about Pochettino’s reply? Maybe he was a bit angry and said something like: ‘Oh come on Louis! What’s going on? We can’t wait. There are thousands of fans waiting for us to beat you!’

Rich: Maybe, but I imagine he would have been much more polite. Something like: ’Don’t worry about it, Louis. It’s not a problem. When you arrive, let me know and we’ll start the match.’

Jack: Yes, I think the conversation was probably more like the second one.. And most likely took place between two club officials and not the managers.

Rich: When we are late for something we often apologise and also sometimes make an excuse or give an explanation.

Jack: In the imaginary conversation above, Louis van Gaal said: ‘I’m really sorry’. This is a common expression to apologise but there are others.

Rich: We could change really to ‘very’, ‘terribly’ or ‘so’ and say ‘I’m so sorry I’m late’ or ‘I’m terribly sorry I’m late.’

Jack: And sometimes we don’t use ‘sorry’ and can say something like ‘I’d like to apologise for being so late.’ This is quite formal and I think it’s usually better to say that you’re sorry.

Rich: Sometimes we need to say why we are sorry, too. The prepositions ‘for’ and ‘about’ can be useful here.

Jack: We might say: ‘Sorry for making a mess’ or ‘Sorry about the mess, I’ll clean up later.’ And if we do something that we are sorry about, we often just say ‘Sorry about that’.

Rich: And it’s very common to give a reason or excuse for the problem. So Louis van Gaal probably blamed the traffic when he apologised for being late.

Jack: Blame is quite a tricky word. It means to say that something or someone is responsible for a problem.

Rich: Another important thing is how we react to apologies. When we accept apologies, we often say phrases like, ‘don’t worry about it’, ‘it’s not a problem’ or ‘that’s OK’. If we are still unhappy we might add something to show this, like, ‘that’s OK, but next time can you…’

Jack: Let’s look at an example situation. I’ll be the teacher and you can be the student Rich.

Rich: Rightyo

Jack: Rich have you got last week’s homework?

Rich: I’m really sorry but I don’t have it with me.

Jack: But this is the second time.

Rich: Yeah, I know, but remember last week my dog ate my homework and I couldn’t do anything about that.

Jack: And the week before?

Rich: Ah yes, sorry about that but it wasn’t really my fault. It was such a windy day and the homework just blew away. I looked for it everywhere!

Jack: And this week?

Rich: Well, I did it. I must have left it at home. Sorry about that!

Jack: Well, don’t worry about it. If you can bring it next class, that’ll be OK but please don’t forget it or let your dog near it.

Rich: So, I had a few apologies and lots of excuses in that conversation and in this week’s questions, we’d like you to tell us when you apologise and we’d like you to share some examples of silly or crazy excuses.

Jack: OK - time for this week’s questions. Question 1: Why are football matches delayed sometimes? Do you think delays affect the players?

Rich: Question 2: Are you often late for things? Do you apologise when you are late? How do you feel when you are waiting for someone who is late?

Jack: Question 3: Rich’s excuses for not doing his homework were very bad. What are some of the worst excuses you can imagine? What excuses could you think of if you were in the same situation and didn’t have your homework?

Rich: And remember, if you want us to correct your comments just write ‘correct me’ at the beginning of your message.

Rich: Right, do you have a new football phrase for our listeners to guess, Jack?

Jack: This week’s football phrase is ******* ******. It can be a noun or a verb. This phrase is a style of play that is used when a team moves forward very quickly after they have been defending. The phrase can be used to describe one action in a football match, for example: Leicester City now have a great chance of a ******* ****** or it can also describe the style of a team. Leicester City have been brilliant on the ******* ****** this season.

Rich: Lots of teams have had problems with Leicester’s style of play this season.

Jack: Now it’s time for your prediction. I saw that your prediction was wrong last week. You went for a draw between Spurs and Man Utd but Spurs won 3-0! Some of our listeners made the right prediction, though. Aragorn1986 from Montenegro, Elghoul from Algeria, AssemJuve from Palestine, SalvaGH from Spain, HassanRaja447 from Pakistan and Mugemanyi from Rwanda all predicted a Tottenham victory. Have you got a prediction for us, Rich?

Rich: In normal seasons, Chelsea against Manchester City would be the biggest match this weekend but this isn’t a normal season and this week’s big match is Leicester City against West Ham. These two teams have been the biggest surprises of the season; West Ham with Dimitri Payet have played brilliantly and still have a small chance of a Champions League place and we all know about Leicester at the top of the table. Leicester need only 3 more wins to guarantee the Premier League title. I think it will be very, very difficult but I think Leicester will get one of those wins this weekend. Final score: Leicester City 2-1 West Ham Utd.

Jack: Right, anyway that’s it for today - we’ve run out of time! Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to our questions, your predictions and anything you want to say about the website or football English in the comments below.

Rich: Don’t forget if you sign in, you can score points to see if you can get your club, your country and your name to the top of our leaderboard.

Jack:  Bye for now and enjoy your football!