Women's Football Weekend: Record attendances

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: Before we get into this week’s show, we’d like to ask for your help and your opinions.

Jack: We want you to tell us what you like and don’t like about our podcasts and we want to talk to you about any changes you would like us to make.

Rich: We would like to get in touch with you. If you are over eighteen and happy to speak to us, please write to us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org. We’ve already had some replies on Apple Podcasts but please email us or send a message on the website as we need your contact details.

Jack: Let’s get back to this week’s episode. 

Rich: The English Football Association designated last weekend Women’s Football Weekend so we’re going to take a look at all the action from the Women’s Super League.

Jack: Let’s start with the headlines from Matchweek six.

Headlines

Jack: Derby joy for Arsenal and Everton.

Rich: There was a record attendance for the Women’s Super League at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Arsenal beat Spurs 2-0 in front of nearly 40,000 fans. Kim Little and Vivianne Miedema got the second-half goals to keep Arsenal a point behind the leaders. At Anfield, around 25,000 saw Everton win the Merseyside Derby. Lucy Graham got the only goal of the game as the Blues move up to fourth while the Reds stay bottom of the pile.

Jack: Chelsea stay top after beating United.

Rich: A hard-fought 1-0 win against Manchester United gave Chelsea the points that kept them at the top of the table. A second-half spot-kick from Maren Mjelde was enough to seal the points. United thought they had found a last-minute equaliser but Ella Toone’s volley was superbly pushed onto the underside of the crossbar and the ball stayed out.

Jack: City chasing hard in second.

Rich: Manchester City thrashed West Ham 5-0 to stay one point behind Chelsea. City were 4-0 up by half-time and coasted to victory. It was an eventful match for Georgia Stanway on her 100th appearance for the club. She scored twice in the first-half but was sent off in the after two bookings for late challenges.

Jack: Some great matches and some great attendances for Women’s Football Weekend.

Rich: Lots of attendance records broken and lots of goals, too. We’ll talk about three of them in a bit.

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: a record attendance, to be bottom of the pile, a spot-kick, the underside of the crossbar, an appearance and a booking.

Jack: Let’s start with the phrases we used to talk about the two derby matches. We said there was a record attendance at the North London Derby between Spurs and Arsenal.

Rich: The attendance at a football match is the number of fans that go to the match or who attend the match or who are in attendance.

Jack: And the match attracted a record attendance for the Women’s Super League. This means that more fans went to this game than any other in the history of the Women’s Super League.

Rich: The next phrase is to be bottom of the pile. We said Liverpool are bottom of the pile. A pile is lots of things that are put on top of each other. 

Jack: We were talking about the Women’s Super League table as a pile. There are eleven teams and Liverpool are in eleventh place so they are bottom of the pile. They are in last place.

Rich: Let’s speak about the phrases we used when talking about Chelsea’s win against Manchester United. We said Chelsea scored a second-half spot-kick.

Jack: That’s an easy one. A spot-kick is a penalty, a penalty kick. You score from the spot. The penalty spot is painted on the pitch and sometimes we call a penalty, or a penalty kick, a spot-kick. 

Rich: We said Manchester United nearly scored but the shot hit the underside of the crossbar. The crossbar is the part of the goal that connects the two posts. The underside of the crossbar is the bottom part of it.

Jack: It’s very unlucky when the ball hits the underside of the crossbar bounces down on or near the goalline but doesn’t go in the net.

Rich: Let’s take a look at the phrases we used to talk about the Manchester City - West Ham match. We said Georgia Stanway was making her 100th appearance for City.

Jack: Each time you play or appear on the pitch for a team this is called an appearance. It’s often used to talk about how many times a player played for a club.

Rich: Marta, who many think is the best woman footballer in history, has made 151 appearances for Brazil.

Jack: Our final bit of vocabulary this week is a booking. Georgia Stanway was sent off after two bookings. 

Rich: A booking is a yellow card. The referee writes down the player’s name in her book and if you get two of them you are off!

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: a record attendance, to be bottom of the pile, a spot-kick, the underside of the crossbar, an appearance and a booking.

Football Awards

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

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

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

Rich: Our Player of the Week is Arsenal’s Dutch striker, Vivianne Miedema. One goal and one assist and a 2-0 away win for Arsenal in the first-ever North London Derby in the Women’s Super League.

Jack: Our Team of the week could be Brighton for picking up their first win of the season - 3-0 against Birmingham but we’re going to go with Manchester City. A thumping 5-0 win against West Ham.

Rich: Finally, our Goal of the Week. We’re going to leave this one to you. We’re going to give you three options and you need to tell us which you think was best.

Jack: And, you can see all these goals on Twitter. We’ve put links to the goals on the Premier Skills English website so you can watch them all and choose your favourite.

Jack: Goal number one: Lea Le Garrec for Brighton against Birmingham. A long-range strike from outside the box.

Rich: Goal number two: Kim Little for Arsenal v Spurs. Little drops a shoulder and puts a curling shot into the bottom corner.

Jack: Goal number three: Georgia Stanway for Manchester City versus West Ham. A great strike to mark her 100th appearance in a City shirt.

Jack: If you haven’t seen any of this action a great place to see the goals is on the club Twitter feeds and take a look at the official club websites for reports on all the games.

Matchweek Prediction 

Jack: Every week, Rich predicts the result of one Premier League match and we want you to make your prediction, too.

Rich: We’re on an international break at the moment.

Jack: Let’s hear your prediction again then for the next round of Premier League matches. It’s Manchester City against Chelsea

Rich: OK, matchweek 13. Manchester City have fallen down to fourth place after defeat against Liverpool and Chelsea are up to third after winning six matches in a row. A trip to the Etihad, however, is a true test of this Chelsea team and Frank Lampard’s managerial credentials. Chelsea will be adventurous as they have been all season so I see goals in this one but I think City will be hurt after losing to Liverpool and will win. Final score: Manchester City 3-2 Chelsea.

Jack: Should be a good game this one. Like I said last week, I’d like to see a four-all draw or maybe 5 each or six ...

Rich: Let us know in the comments section what you think the score will be.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for. I hope you have enjoyed this football round-up. 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.