Summer Tournaments: Come out on top

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: It’s down to four in France.

Rich: The Women’s World Cup winners will be crowned in France this week. We’re down to the last four. England, the USA, the Netherlands and Sweden are the teams involved as we see who will come out on top.

Jack: It’s the semis in Brazil.

Rich: The Copa America is also at the semi-final stage. The dark horses of the tournament, Peru, take on Chile in one semi-final and probably the most anticipated match of the summer, Argentina take on Brazil in the other semi.

Jack: It’s knockout time in Egypt.

Rich: The group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations are over and now the teams will really get down to business in the knockout stages. Liverpool’s Sadio Mane has been in great form for Senegal and Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha has ignored the recent rumours of a possible transfer to bag his first-ever tournament goal for Ivory Coast.

Jack: The football in Egypt is hotting up but I like to watch matches at the business end of tournaments.

Rich: Me too. That’s a great phrase ‘the business end of tournaments’ Can you explain it?

Jack: Yes, it means the part of the tournament when things matter most; when things get decided. Not much gets decided in the group stages but in the semis and of course the final that’s when things really matter. We often hear it about the Premier League too. It’s the business end of the season - the last few matches.

Rich: Did you notice that we used ‘it’s’ in all of the headlines and when you said it’s the business end of the tournament.

Jack: It’s down to four in France, It’s the semis in Brazil and It’s knockout time in Egypt.

Rich: You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this in an English book. But we use this phrase a lot to talk about things happening now.

Jack: Yes - ‘it’s’ is a really common way to introduce a fact or to say that something is happening. What’s the time?

Rich: It’s four o’clock.

Jack: Why are you putting on your shoes?

Rich: It’s time to leave.

Jack: What’s it like in Spain?

Rich: It’s really hot.

Jack: So, it’s the business end of the tournament at the Women’s World Cup and the Copa America right now - at the moment.

Rich: Exactly.

Vocabulary alert!

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

Jack: Our six words and phrases this week are: to come out on top, a dark horse, to take on, anticipated, to get down to business and to bag.

Rich: Let’s start with the phrase to come out on top. It basically means to win a competition or argument. It’s often used in football in adverts. For example:

Jack: This weekend sees Manchester United take on Chelsea in the Premier League. Watch it live and exclusive on TVsports to see who comes out on top.

Rich: Good work - I see a future career for you in TV advertising.

Jack: Thanks. The next phrase is a dark horse. We use this term to describe a person or team in a competition that wasn’t expected to do well but is surprising everybody.

Rich: We described Peru as the dark horses in the Copa America as nobody expected them to reach the semi-finals.

Jack: The next phrase is a phrasal verb. It’s to take on. I think it’s really common in football English so really useful. It basically means play or challenge.

Rich: This week Brazil take on Argentina and Peru take on Chile. Brazil have to take on the challenge of playing Argentina.

Jack: The next word is anticipated and it’s an adjective. We said Brazil against Argentina is one of the most anticipated matches of the summer.

Rich: In football, it’s usually used to describe something that lots of people have been looking forward to for a long time.

Jack: The next phrase is another one that uses the word business; to get down to business. The phrase means to start being serious or to start doing the most important things.

Rich: The Africa Cup of Nations really starts getting down to business in the knockout stages of the tournament.

Jack: The final phrase is to bag. That’s right the word bag can be a verb. It’s an informal word to mean collect.

Rich: In football, you can say a player bagged a hat-trick or a team bagged three points. In the headlines, we said Wilfried Zaha bagged his first-ever tournament goal for Ivory Coast.

Jack: 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.

Rich: The words and phrases are: to come out on top, a dark horse, to take on, anticipated, to get down to business and to bag.

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. Liverpool’s Sadio Mane had a great game for Senegal against Kenya but we’re going to go with Megan Rapinoe. The American winger got both goals for the USA as they beat France to progress to the World Cup semi-finals.

Rich: The next award is for Team of the Week. We could go with Sweden who surprised Germany at the World Cup but we’re going to go with Peru at the Copa America. It’s good to see a couple of dark horses going well in these tournaments.

Jack: And finally our goal of the week. It goes to Germany’s Lina Magull who scored what I think is the goal of the World Cup so far. It was great control and an acrobatic finish but wasn’t enough for Germany who were knocked out by Sweden.

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 as does the Copa America in Brazil and the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

Jack: Two of this summer’s biggest tournaments are coming to an end this weekend; the Women’s World Cup and the Copa America. We’re recording this before the semi-finals so let’s say who we think will win.

Rich: OK, the Women’s World Cup: England will win it. They’ll beat the USA in the semi-final and then beat the Netherlands in the Final.

Jack: Not for me. The USA are the best team in the tournament and they will beat Sweden in the final.

Rich: OK, the Copa America: Brazil will beat Chile in the Final.

Jack: I don’t think so I think Chile will beat Argentina. Again. But not on penalties this time.

Rich: If you want to make your predictions or talk about this week’s football, we have lots of football and football vocabulary questions on the Premier Skills English website for you to answer.

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

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.