Summer Tournaments: Kick-off

Introduction  

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English.

Rich: Hi there. I’m Rich. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Jack: We want you to use and practise these phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: If you listen to us on Spotify or 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: Let’s start with our headlines!

Headlines

Jack: World Cup kicks off in France!

Rich: The Women’s World Cup has kicked off in France with a big win for the hosts. Brazil also got their campaign off to a good start with a 3-0 win against Jamaica. Cristiane scored a hat-trick and became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in World Cup history in either the women’s or men’s game.

Jack: Portugal win inaugural Nations League.

Rich: Portugal won the first-ever Nations League tournament with a 1-0 win over the Netherlands in the final. Portugal got to the final by beating Switzerland in the semis while the Netherlands beat England.

Jack: Hazard leaves for new challenges.

Rich: Eden Hazard has left Chelsea for Real Madrid but will go down as one of Chelsea’s best ever players. The Belgian won the Premier League twice with the Blues, scored 110 goals and won Chelsea’s Player of the Year a record four times.

Jack: Hazard’s been a great player for Chelsea, hasn’t he?

Rich: He’s scored some brilliant goals. I tell you who will be happy that he’s gone.

Jack: Who?

Rich: Premier League defences!

Vocabulary alert!

Jack: In our vocabulary alert, we look at some football English that we used in the headlines.

Rich: Our six words and phrases this week are: to kick off, the hosts, a campaign, inaugural, semis and to go down as.

Jack: Let’s start with an easy one. To kick off. It means to start a football match. You kick off at the beginning of the match, at the start of the second half and after a goal has been scored.

Rich: It can also be used to mean start something more generally. It’s informal. When we say the Women’s World Cup has kicked off we’re saying that it has started. 

Jack: You might also hear it when you see people getting angry or violent. This can happen on the football pitch.

Rich: You might say: He made a really dangerous tackle and the other team were not happy. It all kicked off.

Jack: This would mean that lots of players got angry with each other. It usually involves a bit of pushing and shouting but can become more violent.

Rich: The next phrase is the hosts. The hosts are the team or the country where the match or tournament is taking place or happening.  

Jack: The Women’s World Cup is taking place in France, so France are the hosts.

Rich: When we said the hosts had a big win we are talking about the French team.

Jack: The next word is a campaign. In the headlines, we said Brazil also got their campaign off to a good start.

Rich: A campaign is a series of activities that are planned with the aim of achieving a specific aim.

Jack: In the case of football, these activities are a series of matches and the aim is to win the tournament.

Rich: It’s common to also hear the phrase connected to politics. Politicians campaign to get elected.

Jack: The next phrase is inaugural and is not very common. It means the first of something and is a formal word usually used in an official way.

Rich: Portugal won the inaugural Nations League. It was the first time it had ever been played.

Jack: Again you often hear this word connected to politics. An inaugural speech is the first given by a new president in the USA for example.

Rich: The next word is semis and it’s much more informal and easier to explain. Portugal beat Switzerland in the semis.

Jack: It’s an informal way of saying semi-finals. 

Rich: Our final phrase is to go down as. We said that Eden Hazard will go down as one of Chelsea's best ever players.

Jack: The phrase means to be remembered and recognised by lots of people.

Rich: OK, so there are our six words and phrases. Listen to this part of the podcast again if you are not sure how to use them.

Jack: The words and phrases are: to kick off, the hosts, a campaign, inaugural, semis and to go down as.

Football Awards

Rich: Right, every week, we give out three Matchweek awards. 

Jack: The awards are Player of the Week, Team of the Week and Goal of the Week.

Rich:  In the comments section, you need to tell us if you agree with our choices.

Jack: Let’s start with Player of the Week. The easy option would be to choose Portugal’s, Cristiano Ronaldo. He got a hat-trick in the Nations League semis and captained his nation to the trophy. 

Rich: But we’re not going to choose Cristiano, we’re going to choose Cristiane. At 34 years and 25 days, she became the oldest ever player to score a World Cup hat-trick when she scored three times for Brazil against Jamaica.

Jack: And whose record did she beat? That’s right, Cristiano Ronaldo's for his hat-trick against Spain in the World Cup last year.

Rich: The next award is for Team of the Week. At the World Cup the hosts, France looked good in their 4-0 win against South Korea as did Norway, Brazil and Spain.

Jack: But there’s only one team that has won anything this week and that’s Portugal who as hosts won the inaugural Nations League.

Rich:  And finally, our Goal of the Week. Goncalo Guedes winner in the final for Portugal was pretty good but there have been some great goals at the World Cup so far.

Jack: Cristiane’s free-kick for Brazil was good and England’s Ellen White scored a great goal in their win against Scotland.

Rich: But our Goal of the Week goes to Italy and Juventus forward Barbara Bonansea. It wasn’t the prettiest goal but it was a 95th-minute winner to shock one of the favourites, Australia, in Italy’s first match at the tournament for 20 years.

Matchweek Prediction 

Jack: Every week, Rich predicts the result of one big match. The Premier League season is over, but there is still plenty of football.

Rich: The Women’s World Cup continues, there are international friendlies and this Saturday the Copa America kicks off in Brazil.

Jack: It’s a massive tournament and Brazil are the hosts this time and surely they will win it. The Brazilians haven’t won it since 2007 so my prediction is they will win it again. What’s your prediction, Rich?

Rich: There are 12 teams in the tournament including. Ten from South America plus special invitations for Qatar and Japan. Three groups of four teams with 8 teams qualifying for the quarter-finals. The favourites have to be Brazil and Argentina with Chile, Uruguay and Colombia all having a good chance. Brazil are the hosts and are Jack’s pick but I just think it’s time that Lionel Messi won a tournament with Argentina. So, I think the Copa America will be won by Argentina this time.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for. I hope you have enjoyed this football round-up.  Let us know your predictions and join the discussion at the bottom of the page on the Premier Skills English website. 

Rich: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, don’t forget to leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.