This Week: Football Phrasal Verbs 4

This Week: Football Phrasal Verbs 4 

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

Jack: This week we focus on FA Cup glory for Chelsea and Leicester City, and Premier League heartbreak for Sheffield United. 

Rich: We’re going to look at three headlines from the weekend’s action and look at six phrasal verbs we use in those headlines.

Jack: We want you to use and practise these phrasal verbs by interacting with football fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: You can find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Jack: The phrasal verbs we are looking at this week are: to knock out, to give up, to look forward to, to cheer on, to bounce back, and to pull together.

Rich: Remember that we’ll also have a language challenge for you to have a go at later in the show so you need to be ready for that.

Headline 1

Jack: Chelsea end City’s quadruple dream.

Rich: Chelsea knocked Manchester City out of this year’s FA Cup with a 1-0 win at Wembley which ended City’s chances of winning four trophies this season. The only goal of a close game was scored by Hakim Ziyech. City didn’t give up but it will be Chelsea heading to Wembley again for the FA Cup Final.

Jack: So, no quadruple for Manchester City this season but they’re still in the Champions League, lead the Premier League, and play the League Cup Final next weekend.

Rich: I think City fans will still be very happy where they are right now - maybe not a quadruple but still in with a chance of a treble.

Jack: Let’s look at some language. There are two phrasal verbs we want to describe in more detail. They are knock out and give up.

Rich: Let’s start with knock out. If you listen to our Friday podcast this might be very helpful as it’s our football phrase this week.

Jack: To knock a team out of a competition means to eliminate them from the competition. Chelsea knocked Manchester City out of the FA Cup.

Rich: You can also say Chelsea knocked out Manchester City or that Manchester City were knocked out.

Jack: More generally this phrase also means to hit someone so hard that they fall to the ground and become unconscious. 

Rich: In boxing, the fighters try to knock each other out.

Jack: The second phrasal verb we used in the headline was to give up. Rich said that City didn’t give up.

Rich: To give up means to stop trying. City didn’t give up, they continued to try to score a goal.

Jack: People sometimes give up when something is too difficult. If a team is losing 5-0 and there are only a couple of minutes left they might give up.

Rich: You should never give up, you should always try to do your best.

Jack: That’s what people say but it can be difficult not to give up sometimes. Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2 

Rich: Foxes fight to reach FA Cup Final.

Jack: Leicester City reached their first FA Cup Final for over fifty years when they beat Southampton 1-0 in the semi-final on Sunday. Kelechi Iheanacho got the only goal of the game. The Foxes were cheered on by 4000 fans at Wembley and can look forward to even more fans when they face Chelsea on the 15th of May.

Rich: A great win for Leicester. It’s hard to believe that they have never won the FA Cup and that their only final was way back in 1969.

Jack: Yes, that’s a big story and another big story was the return of football fans.

Rich: Yes, this semi-final was a pilot event - a pilot event is a test that is used to evaluate something before doing something bigger. 

Jack: There were 4000 fans at the match - the most fans at any match in the UK in over a year. The spectators for this match were all local but for the final, there will be fans from Leicester and London - 21,000 in total. 

Rich: It’s great that fans will be back in stadiums soon. Let’s look at some language. The two phrasal verbs we’re going to look at from this headline are: cheer on and look forward to.

Jack: Let’s start with cheer on. In the headline, I said that Leicester were cheered on by 4000 fans.

Rich: To cheer on means to support. Leicester were supported by 4000 fans. But, the word is usually associated with vocal support because to cheer means to shout to encourage your team.

Jack: Most of the fans in the stadium were neutral supporters from the area around Wembley. Who do you think were cheering on Leicester and who do you think were cheering on Southampton?

Rich: Not sure. I’d have been cheering on Leicester, but it’ll be much better when fans can get back to cheering on their own teams.

Jack: The second phrasal verb I want to look at is to look forward to. In the headline, I said that Leicester can look forward to even more fans at the final in May.

Rich: To look forward to something is a phrasal verb that we use when we want to say that we feel happy about something that will happen in the future.

Jack: Both Chelsea and Leicester fans will be looking forward to the FA Cup Final.

Rich: It’s also a common phrasal verb to use at the end of formal letters or emails. We often say something like I look forward to hearing from you or I look forward to speaking to you before we sign our names.

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

Headline 3

Jack: Blades first team to be relegated this season.

Rich: Sheffield United’s 1-0 defeat at Wolves means that the Blades are relegated from the Premier League after a two-year stay in the top division. The manager said after the match that the club will need to pull together and will try to bounce back next season. 

Jack: Your home town club have been relegated, Rich. How do you feel?

Rich: Well, the writing has been on the wall for a while and it’s such a pity, especially after such a great season last year. I’m sure we will bounce back though.

Jack: That’s one of the phrasal verbs we want to look at from this headline: bounce back and pull together.

Rich: To bounce back means to recover or recover from something. Sheffield United want to bounce back next season. This means they want to recover from this season’s relegation and get promoted to the Premier League again.

Jack: We can use this phrasal verb outside of football, too. We need to bounce back after disappointing or sad things happen in our personal or working lives.

Rich: Bad things might happen but we usually bounce back in the end and things get back to normal.

Jack: Our final phrasal verb this week is to pull together. In the headline, Rich said that the club will need to pull together.

Rich: To pull together means for a group to work hard to achieve something. Everyone has to work hard to complete a task; usually something difficult. 

Jack: If people pull together they often achieve better results than when everyone works by themselves. Here are some examples:

Rich: If we all pull together we can win this match. If we pull together we can get the job done. If everyone pulls together we can beat this virus.

Jack: OK, we’ve looked at three stories and six phrasal verbs in our headlines. The phrasal verbs we’ve looked at were:  to knock out, to give up, to look forward to, to cheer on, to bounce back, and to pull together.

Rich: 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

Rich: It’s time for our football prediction. Last week Laura got the prediction right because she said Leicester City would win without the need of extra-time and penalties and they won 1-0.

Jack: But Laura is not here today so I think you should make a prediction this week, Rich.

Rich: Well, I’m going to choose the League Cup Final that is this Sunday and it’s between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. City may have lost the chance of a historic quadruple but they’re still on for an amazing treble. Although, they have lost two of their last three matches which will give Tottenham hope. Spurs haven’t been playing well lately but any team with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min has a chance. Despite that, I’m going for City. Final score: Manchester City 2-0 Tottenham.

Jack: Surprisingly, I agree with you this time, Rich. A City win and it will be easy. 3-0.

Rich: An Arsenal fan predicts a heavy defeat for Spurs. What a surprise! What do you think the score will be? Do you agree with me or Jack or do you think that Spurs will win?

Jack: We want you to talk about all this week’s football 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.

Jack: We’ve looked at six phrasal verbs in this week’s headlines and your language challenge is to use those phrasal verbs now.

Rich: We’re going to give you three sentences and you’ve got to decide which phrasal verb to use. You need to use one of the six we looked at earlier.  Can you guess the missing phrasal verb?

Jack: They won’t _______ until relegation is mathematically certain.

Rich: I’m really _________ seeing fans back at stadiums.

Jack: Norwich City have _______ at the first attempt. Congratulations to Norwich City who were promoted to the Premier League last weekend.

Rich: 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.

Jack: Or write your answers on Apple Podcasts or on Youtube if that’s where you listen to us. Just write the answers in the comments and say hi.

Rich: 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.