Football Shout-out: Losing

Jack: Hello and welcome to Premier Skills English - Football Shout-out 

Rich: Football shoutout is the series that teaches you the language you need when you’re watching the game.

Jack: Hi everybody my name’s Jack 

Rich: and my name’s Rich and welcome to our latest Football Shout-out where we talk about the English you need when you’re watching football.

Jack: If you listened to our last lesson, you will remember this:

Jack: Go on! Have a shot!

Rich: Unlucky! Against the post!

Jack: Hold on! He’s gone round the keeper. Oh no! What a sitter! I can’t believe he’s missed that.

Rich: My nan could do better than that and she’s 83!

Jack: He’s got to be putting chances like that away. That’s three he’s missed.

Rich: He couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo this afternoon!

Jack: Penalty!

Rich: Oh no. Look who’s taking it! He hit the last one straight at the keeper!

Jack: Here we go! Oh no! He’s skyed it.

Rich: I can’t believe he’s fluffed another one. That’s miles off target. 

Jack: I think we might have to settle for a draw today. We couldn’t score in a month of Sundays.

Rich: We’ve definitely not got our scoring boots on today.

Rich: Our last lesson was all about what we shout when a player misses a chance. If you haven’t heard the lesson, there is a link on the side of this page for you to go back and listen and learn lots of instructions that we scream at players when they miss a chance.

Jack: This lesson is all about what we say when our team is losing or loses.

Rich: You might have heard fans saying things like I can’t believe we lost that match or we were so unlucky before. In this podcast, we’re going to look at some expressions that might be new for you.

Jack: The phrases and expressions we use often depend on whether we are losing and the match is still being played or we have lost and the match is finished.

Rich: That’s right. While your team is losing many fans always think there is a chance to win. It’s only when the match has finished when the reality hits them. Listen to this:

Jack: Oh no! That was shocking defending. I can’t believe we’ve let that one in.

RIch: The goalkeeper had no chance. The shot was too good.

Jack: But … the defending … shocking. Where was the defence?

Rich: I don’t know. We don’t deserve to be 1-0 down. No way. We’ve been the better team - we can still get back into this.

Jack: We always freeze on the big occasion. Look! The board is going up. Two minutes? There’s got to be at least 5 minutes extra!

Rich: Two minutes? You’ve got to be joking. Come on. We just need one more chance.

Jack: The final whistle. Rubbish!

...

Rich: You know … the best team won.

Jack: You’re joking, right? We were robbed!

Rich: It’s only a game. We’ll win next week.

Jack: Did you just say it’s only a game?

Rich: Err .. no?

Jack: We often don’t know what to say when we lose a game. If you’re playing, you can say ‘well played’ or ‘good game’ to an opponent, but fans can’t really do that.

Rich: No, fans are much more likely to say how they are really feeling. 

Jack: Some fans often feel that their team didn’t deserve to lose. They often say this even if it’s not true.

Rich: We often use conditional sentences here. We say things like ‘if only we’d taken our chances’ or ‘if only we’d scored with that chance near the end’.

Jack: Yes, there are often regrets, but sometimes we blame others. Opponents and referees are a common target.

Rich: We might hear ‘should have been’ here. This player should have been sent off or the ref should have given a penalty. My favourite phrase is ‘we were robbed’. 

Jack: I like that too. We use it when we think the other team has stolen the result through luck. You feel that your team deserved to win not the other team.

Rich: There are phrases we use while we are losing, too. We are usually more optimistic at this stage. We say things like ‘we can get back into this’ or ‘we just need one more chance’.

Jack: And we always complain about the amount of injury time. A good phrase to use here is ‘you’ve got to be joking’,’two minutes you’ve got to be joking there should be at least five!

Rich: Are you a good loser Jack?

Jack: No, I’m a terrible loser and you should never ever say ‘It’s only a game.’ That will just make things worse.

Rich: We’ll look at these phrases and a few more in the lesson which you can find below this podcast.

Jack: Listen again. Do you understand everything now?

Jack: Oh no! That was shocking defending. I can’t believe. We’ve let that one in.

RIch: The goalkeeper had no chance. The shot was too good.

Jack: But … the defending … shocking. Where was the defence?

Rich: I don’t know. We don’t deserve to be 1-0 down. No way. We’ve been the better team - we can still get back into this.

Jack: We always freeze on the big occasion. Look! The board is going up. Two minutes? There’s got to be at least 5 minutes extra!

Rich: Two minutes? You’ve got to be joking. Come on. We just need one more chance.

Jack: The final whistle. Rubbish!

...

Rich: You know … the best team won.

Jack: You’re joking, right? We were robbed!

Rich: It’s only a game. We’ll win next week.

Jack: Did you just say it’s only a game?

Rich: Err .. no?

Jack: So, there are a few expressions you can use when your team has lost or is losing. 

Rich: We’ve got some activities to help you remember the phrases that we’ve been speaking about in the lesson below this podcast.

Jack: We’ll be back soon with our next football English lesson, which will be about phrases football fans use when their team has a set-piece like a penalty, free-kick, corner or throw-in.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.