This Week: Unbeaten Runs

This Week: Unbeaten Runs

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

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

Rich: My name’s Rich. If you want to listen and read at the same time we have a transcript of this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Laura: This week we focus on two unbeaten runs: one in the Premier League and the other in the Women’s Super League.

Jack: We’re going to look at three headlines from the weekend’s action and look at six words and phrases connected to those headlines. 

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

Laura: If you listen to us on 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: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: midweek, dozen, 

Laura: Later on we’ll also have a language challenge for you to have a go at so you need to be ready for that.

Headline 1

Jack: Wins by the dozen for City.

Laura: Manchester City are back on top of the Premier League following two wins over the last seven days. City followed up a 5-0 win at West Brom in midweek with a 1-0 home win against Sheffield United at the weekend. The Citizens have won their last dozen games - a new club record - and are three points clear at the top of the table.

Rich: City are looking strong - they’ve won every game they’ve played this year.

Jack: They’ve got a game in hand, too. It’s looking good for the title.

Laura: Come on guys! We’re only halfway through the season! There’s a lot of football left in the season yet.

Rich: You’re right. Let’s look at some language. This week’s first word is midweek. Premier League teams are playing more games in midweek this season.

Jack: Midweek means the middle of the week - it’s a bit subjective but I’d say midweek is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Laura: Usually, midweek is for European matches and cup football with an occasional round of Premier League matches but this season is shorter so there are many more Premier League matches in midweek.

Rich: Be careful with the preposition you use here. Matches are played at the weekend but in midweek.

Jack: The second word we want to look at from the first headline is dozen. We said that Manchester City have won their last dozen games.

Laura: How many is a dozen? A dozen is twelve. City have won their last twelve games.

Rich: It’s unusual. I don’t really know why we have a special word for 12. We don’t have a special word for thirteen or nine. It’s only really used for eggs, isn’t it? You can buy a dozen eggs or half a dozen eggs.

Jack: Actually, I’ve read that twelve is one of the earliest groupings of numbers. People first saw twelve cycles of the moon as the Earth orbits the sun. There are twelve months in a year - that kind of thing.

Laura: In the headline, Jack said City win by the dozen. This is an idiomatic phrase and it is used to mean large numbers in general. 

Rich: The shop was really quiet in the morning, but by midday, people were arriving by the dozen. 

Jack: Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2

Laura: Chelsea stretch their unbeaten record in the Women’s Super League.

Rich: Two goals from the German midfielder, Melanie Leupolz helped Chelsea beat Spurs 4-0 and extend their unbeaten run to an amazing thirty-three matches. Leupolz’s first was a spectacular swerving strike from long-range and her second from the penalty spot. Despite Chelsea’s good form, Manchester United are still level on points with the leaders following a 2-0 win at Everton.

Jack: Thirty-three matches without defeat is a major achievement. Did you know that Chelsea haven’t lost a game for over two years!

Laura: Let’s look at some longer pieces of language from the headline. Rich said that Chelsea extended their unbeaten run. A run is a period or spell of time. In sports, we usually mean a series of matches.

Rich: Chelsea are on an unbeaten run. They have not been beaten - they have not been defeated - they have not lost for a long period of time - thirty-three matches. 

Jack: Chelsea extended their unbeaten run at the weekend. It went from thirty-two matches to thirty-three matches. In the headline, Laura used the word stretch to say a similar thing: Chelsea stretch their unbeaten record.

Laura: Let’s look at another extended bit of language from the headline. Rich said Melanie Leupolz scored a spectacular swerving strike from long-range.

Rich: The keyword here is strike. Strike is the act of shooting the ball. It is often used to describe a shot that results in a goal.

Jack: Leupol’s shot was from long-range. This means it was far away - outside the penalty area. The strike was from long-range.

Laura: It was a swerving strike - the ball swerved in the air. To swerve means to suddenly change direction. In football, it means that the ball moved in the air because of how it was kicked. It was a swerving strike from long-range.

Rich: And it was a spectacular strike which means it was impressive - it looked good. Melanie Leupolz scored a spectacular swerving strike from long-range.

Jack: It was a very good goal. Let’s move on to our third headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Liverpool have a good week in the capital

Jack: Liverpool and Mohamed Salah are back in form following two wins in London in the past seven days. A 3-1 win at Tottenham was followed up with a 3-1 success at West Ham. Salah scored for the first time in seven games with a trademark turn and curling finish and got his second just ten minutes later when he finished off a swift counter-attack.

Laura: Liverpool are back up to third and their bad run of form seems to be over.

Rich: Yes, I hope so. We’re playing Manchester City this weekend!

Jack: OK, let’s look at some language. I said that Mohamed Salah scored with a trademark turn and curling finish. 

Laura: The word trademark is most often used for products. A trademark is a symbol that is put on a company’s products to show that it was made and belongs to them and can’t be copied or used by other businesses without permission.

Rich: The word trademark is also used to describe something that is typical of a famous person. It’s used when a famous person or sports star regularly does something that makes them stand out or different.

Jack: Salah scored with a trademark turn and finish. This is the kind of goal that Salah often scores.

Laura: The second bit of language I want us to look at is another extended bit of language: Salah finished off a swift counter-attack.

Rich: A counter-attack is a sudden attack from a defensive position.

Jack: Counter-attacks are usually fast or swift - swift means the same as fast. A swift counter-attack.

Laura: To finish off is a phrasal verb which means to complete or to do the final thing to complete something. Salah finished off a swift counter-attack.

Jack: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and lots of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at were: midweek, dozen, to extend an unbeaten run, a spectacular swerving strike from long-range, trademark and to finish off a swift counter-attack

Laura: Listen to the headlines again to hear these words and phrases in context and don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of this vocabulary.

Headlines - Repeat

Prediction

Jack: Last week, Rich predicted a win for Manchester United against Arsenal but as I thought the Gunners performed well and got a draw.

Laura: Manchester United didn’t have a good week. A draw against Arsenal and a shock defeat against Manchester United.

Rich: I think Liverpool are Manchester City’s main challengers this season and they clash at Anfield on Sunday.

Jack: What do you think is going to happen?

Rich: Well, I’m hoping for some goals because many of the big matches have been a bit of an antic-climax so far this season. City, as we said earlier, have won their last dozen games so are in excellent form but Liverpool are back on track after a blip and they probably need the three points more than City. For that reason, I’m going to go for a home win. Final score: Liverpool 2-1 Manchester City.

Laura: City are on their best run of wins in their entire history. I’m not sure that’s going to stop this weekend. A City win for me. 

Rich: What do you think the score will be? We want all of you to make your predictions for this match and all the Premier League fixtures which you can find on the Premier Skills English website.

Language Challenge

Rich: To finish up the show we’ve got a quick language challenge connected to this week’s vocabulary.

Laura: Earlier we looked at the sentence a spectacular swerving strike. Each word uses the letter s at the beginning. This is called alliteration and is very common in sports headlines.

Jack: Here are three more sentences which use alliteration. Can you guess the missing word?

Jack: Dodgy Dave ______ again to win penalty. 

Rich: Firmino’s Fabulous _____ wins the game

Laura: Bruce Bounces ______ as Newcastle win.

Jack: We want you to write the answers on the Premier Skills English website where we have some more questions and activities connected to this week’s show.

Rich: Or write your answer on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us. Just write the answers in the review section and say hi.

Laura: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope all of you stay fit and healthy.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.