This Week: Back with a bang

Back with a bang

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: The Premier League season kicked off with a bang last weekend and we have a rundown of all the weekend’s action. 

Jack: A rundown of all the action. A rundown? I wonder if everyone has heard that word before? A rundown is a brief description of something. 

Rich: We have a rundown of all this weekend’s action. We’re going to give you a short description of this weekend’s action.

Jack: We’re going to look at some football English for you to learn and this week we’re going to focus on six phrases with the word ‘run’.

Rich: We’re going to look at three headlines from this weekend’s action and after each, we’ll look at a couple of useful phrases. 

Jack: 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.

Rich: 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 of our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: Don’t forget that we also have our weekly Premier Skills English podcast that is released every Friday. Every week we help you with some different vocabulary or an aspect of grammar.

Jack: Our latest podcast is called Premier League Previews: Liverpool to Wolves.

Rich: In the podcast, Jack interviews ten Premier League fans about their clubs and how they feel about the new season.

Jack: We look at ten football phrases or cliches that these football fans use. You can find the lesson on the homepage on the Premier Skills English website. 

Rich: OK, you’re now going to hear our three headlines. After each headline, we’ll have a little discussion and look at some vocabulary. 

Jack: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: to run close, to run down the clock, to run out for, to run out of steam, to run up against and a run of form.

Rich: 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: Leeds run Reds close in opening day thriller.

Rich: Liverpool got their Premier League title defence off to a winning start with a 4-3 win against newly-promoted Leeds United. The Yorkshire team surprised the Champions by equalising three times before a very late penalty gave Mohamed Salah the chance to complete his hat-trick and seal the points as the Reds ran down the clock.

Jack: That was a great match. If Leeds are going to play like that all season there are sure to be some exciting games.

Rich: Yes, I think Liverpool got out of jail with that late Salah penalty but we did have many more chances and really should have won comfortably.

Jack: To get out of jail. You said Liverpool got out of jail. That’s an interesting phrase. We use it when a team only just succeeds in avoiding a bad result. 

Rich: Yes, Leeds ran Liverpool close.

Jack: That’s our first phrase with run - to run someone close.

Rich: We use it to describe someone or something that was very nearly as successful as someone else. 

Jack: Liverpool won but Leeds were very good. Liverpool only just won. Leeds ran them very close.

Rich: Our other phrase with run from this headline is to run down the clock.

Jack: To run down the clock means to use or waste time. 

Rich: Teams will try to run down the clock by keeping possession of the ball or taking their time over set pieces like throw-ins and free-kicks.

Jack: They will also take ages over substitutions and players might even fake injuries. Liverpool weren’t doing this though - they just kept the ball in the corner so Leeds couldn’t get possession.

Rich: Let’s move onto our next headline.

Headline 2

Rich: Spurs sign one of the World’s best and Chelsea can’t stop scoring.

Jack: One of the game’s greats, Alex Morgan, will be running out for Tottenham Hotspur this season. The Olympic gold medal winner and two-time World Cup winner has scored 107 goals in only 169 matches for the United States and will help Spurs in only their second season in the Women’s Super League. On the pitch, Chelsea beat Bristol City 9-0. The Blues ran out of steam in the second half - they only scored four after scoring five in the first half.

Rich: A really exciting signing for Tottenham. Alex Morgan is probably the most well-known female footballer in the world. 

Jack: She’s got more followers on Social Media than Harry Kane. This is really big news.

Rich: And Spurs have only been in the Women’s Super League for a year. You can watch all the action on the FA Player.

Jack: Let’s look at two more phrases with run. We said that Alex Morgan will be running out for Tottenham this season.

Rich: In football, when we say a player is running out for a specific team we mean that they are playing for a specific team. 

Jack: We often use it when a team has switched clubs. Willian will be running out for Arsenal this season.

Rich: To run out of something is a phrasal verb we used in the headline. To run out or run out of something means to finish a supply of something - to have nothing left.

Jack: I ran out of milk and had to drink black coffee this morning.

Rich: In the headline, we said that Chelsea must have run out of steam. This is also an idiom and it means to run out of energy.

Jack: Teams often run out of steam towards the end of the game especially if they play with a high press or haven’t had much possession during the match.

Rich: I’m not sure if Chelsea ran out of steam though - they were still scoring in injury time.

Jack: Listen to our final headline.

Headline 3

Jack: Arsenal and Leicester breeze past new boys.

Rich: Arsenal and Leicester started their campaigns with comfortable away wins against newly-promoted Fulham and West Bromwich Albion. Fulham ran up against an in-form who Arsenal continued their good run of form with Willian getting all three assists. West Brom ran into problems in the form of Leicester’s defence. Last season’s golden boot winner, Jamie Vardy, got his season off to a good start with two well-taken penalties. 

Jack: It wasn’t a happy return for any of the new teams.

Rich: No. Leeds did pretty well but West Brom and Fulham will need to do a bit better to start getting some points on the board.

Jack: Let’s take a look at our final two phases. The first is to run up against. We said that Fulham ran up against an in-form Arsenal team.

Rich: To run up against is used to describe having difficulties because of a specific situation. Fulham ran up against Arsenal who are in good form.

Jack: Fulham found playing Arsenal difficult.

Rich: This morning I ran up against the problem of contacting my bank. Press one if you want to do this, press two if you want to do this, please hold the line ... then music for half an hour.

Jack: Yes, very annoying. Back to the football. We said Arsenal are on a good run of form.

Rich: This is our final phrase this week - a run of form.

Jack: A run of something can be used to describe a period of success or failure. You can have a run of victories or a run of defeats.

Rich: We said Arsenal are on a good run of form. Form is the way a team is performing at the moment. A team can be in good form or bad form.

Jack: Arsenal are on a good run of form at the moment.

Rich: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are:  to run close, to run down the clock, to run out for, to run out of steam, to run up against and a run of form.

Prediction

Rich: It’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction.

Jack: You said Leeds would shock Liverpool last week and they did but Liverpool still won 4-3.

Rich: Which match are you going to choose this weekend? Here are the fixtures: Everton against West Brom, Leeds versus Fulham, Man Utd at home to Crystal Palace, West Ham away at Arsenal, Southampton v Spurs, Chelsea against Liverpool, Leicester at home to Burnley, Aston Villa against Sheffield United and Wolves at home to Manchester City.

Jack: Well, there’s one standout fixture there. It’s got to be Liverpool away to Chelsea. Lots of people have been talking about this new-look Chelsea team and they’ve certainly made some big moves in the transfer market. However, will the team gel straight away? It often takes time for players to get used to new teammates and the pace of the game in the Premier League. For this reason, and because I still think Liverpool are the better team, I’m going for an away win. Final score: Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool.

Rich: I’m not so sure. I fancy Chelsea in this one.

Jack: We want you to make your predictions on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: Before we finish this section we want to point you in the direction of the Premier Skills English Fantasy Football League.

Jack: Thanks to one of our listeners - Mo Beckham from Turkey for helping us set this up. It’s a good idea to have a fantasy Premier League and if you play Fantasy Football on the Premier League website it’s very easy to join the Premier Skills English League.

Rich: The league starts on Matchday 2 so it’s not too late. The all-important league code you need to join is: n4rwjn. I’ll repeat that again: n4rwjn

Jack: We’ve put all the details 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 been helping you with phrases with run this week and we’re going to look at three more football phrases with run now. 

Rich: Write your answers in the comments section and if your answers are correct you will see that we have replaced your answer with asterisks so other listeners can guess too. Here are the three sentences.

Jack: I think setting up an academy is better than signing older players in the ______ run.

Rich: He made a great _______ run to pull the defender away from his teammate and make space for him to shoot.

Jack: They’re running ______ with it now. It’s 4-0 after only twenty minutes.

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

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

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.