This Week: Cup Thriller

This Week: Cup Thriller

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 the fourth round of the FA Cup and a huge win 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: stalemate, thriller, summit, call off, knock out and survive a scare.

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: United win cup thriller at Old Trafford.

Laura: Only seven days after producing a Premier League stalemate at Anfield, Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-2 in a cup thriller at Old Trafford. Mohamed Salah opened the scoring but United fought back with goals from Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford. Liverpool equalised when Salah got his second but Bruno Fernandes got the winner when he bent his free-kick around the wall and into the top corner.

Rich: It was a fantastic cup tie - both teams went for the win.

Jack: Yes, it was an end-to-end game.

Laura: I like this phrase end-to-end. It was an end-to-end game. It means that the ball moved from one side of the pitch to the other - first one team attacked and then the other.

Rich: There were loads of chances. The match could have finished six all. It was a cup thriller.

Jack: That’s our first word we want to look at this week - a thriller.

Laura: We usually see the word thriller used in connection with films or books. My favourite type of films are thrillers. Thrillers are films and books with exciting stories - they’re often about crime.

Rich: We can use it in sport in the same way - a thriller is an exciting match or a cup thriller is an exciting cup tie.

Jack: There are usually lots of goals and chances for both teams and these games are usually end-to-end.

Laura: It was very different from last week when Liverpool and Manchester United played out a goalless stalemate.

Rich: We used this word - stalemate in the headline -  only seven days after producing a Premier League stalemate at Anfield.

Jack: Stalemate is when neither side can win or get an advantage so nothing happens or changes. 

Laura: The term stalemate comes from chess and is used when one player can’t move but their king is not being attacked. The game ends as a draw.

Rich: In football, it describes a match where defences are on top and not much is happening. It’s all a bit boring - the opposite of a thriller.

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

Headline 2

Laura: City in seventh heaven as United go top.

Rich: Manchester City won 7-1 at Brighton to go third in the Women’s Super League but the red half of Manchester will be the happier as United’s 2-0 win against Birmingham took them to the summit of the table. The rest of the fixtures were called off this weekend due to bad weather and frozen pitches.

Jack: I see we’re using the phrase - to be in seventh heaven again this week.

Laura: We said last time - all journalists use this phrase whenever a team scores seven goals. Well, maybe not always but ...

Rich: Not when Aston Villa score seven. What word do you think journalists use when Villa score seven?

Laura: No idea. 

Rich: We used the word earlier. Aston Villa in seven-goal ...

Jack: Oh, yes. I suppose they used it a lot when Aston Villa beat Liverpool 7-2 earlier this season.

Rich: We don’t talk about that. Let’s look at some more language. We said that United have reached the summit of the table.

Laura: This word is usually used to talk about mountains. The summit is the top of a mountain. Everest is 8848 metres high at its summit.

Jack: It actually changed recently because the Nepalese and Chinese governments disagreed on its height.

Rich: And now they agree?

Jack: Yep, it’s 8848.86 at the summit. We can also use the word summit to describe the highest or most successful point in something. City have reached the summit in the Women’s Super League, a player might reach the summit of his or her career when they win the world Cup.

Laura: It’s like the peak or pinnacle of something when we talk about someone’s career.

Rich: The other word I want to take a look at from the headline is a phrasal verb and it’s called off.

Jack: Lots of matches were called off because of bad weather this weekend.

Laura: To call off means to cancel something. The matches were cancelled because pitches were frozen.

Rich: We use the word call off but the matches will be played in a few weeks so they haven’t been called off or cancelled permanently.

Jack: No, they have just been postponed. To postpone something means to cancel something temporarily and arrange for it to take place at a later time.

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

Headline 3

Rich: Abraham gets Chelsea firing but holders are out.

Jack: In other fourth-round FA Cup action, Chelsea got an important win against Luton with Tammy Abraham grabbing a hat-trick but Arsenal were knocked out 1-0 by Southampton. Manchester City survived a scare at Cheltenham and there were wins for Leicester, Burnley, Everton, Sheffield United, Brighton, West Ham and Wolves.

Laura: There were no big shocks in this round - the only Premier League teams to get knocked out were by other Premier League teams.

Rich: To knock out is our first bit of language from this headline. To knock a team out of a competition means to eliminate them from the competition.

Jack: Southampton knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup.

Laura: We can say that Southampton knocked Arsenal out or Southampton knocked out Arsenal.

Rich: We can also use the word knockout as an adjective. The FA Cup is a knockout competition. We often speak about knockout matches or the knockout rounds or stages of a competition.

Jack: The knockout stages are what comes after the group stages of a competition. In the knockout stages, the winners go to the next round or stage and the losers are eliminated. 

Laura: This happens in cup competitions like the Champions League and the World Cup.

Rich: The phrasal verb knock out has a more general meaning.

Jack: It means to cause someone to become unconscious. A footballer could be knocked out by an accidental elbow from an opponent or even a ball that hits him or her in the face.

Laura: It’s used a lot in boxing. The boxers try to knock each other out.

Rich: In the headline, we said that Manchester City survived a scare. Let’s look at this bit of language.

Jack: You may see this a lot when a big team wins against a smaller team but it was a difficult match and the smaller team scored first.

Laura: Manchester City were losing 1-0 to Cheltenham after 80 minutes. I imagine City fans were frightened or scared that their team would lose.

Rich: But City scored three times in the last ten minutes. They survived a scare and are in the hat for the next round.

Jack: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and lots of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at were: stalemate, thriller, summit, call off, knock out and survive a scare.

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 3-2 win in the Manchester United - Liverpool match. 

Rich: Yes, but I predicted a 3-2 win for Liverpool not for Manchester United.

Laura: Oh dear. Unlucky. Which match are you going to predict this week?

Rich: This week there is lots of Premier League action. Matches in midweek and at the weekend. Manchester United are now the team at the top and the team to beat so I’m going to take a look at United’s trip to Arsenal next Saturday. The Gunners have turned their form around recently although they did get knocked out of the FA cup last week. United are on fire at the moment and I think they will continue their fine form. Final score: Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United.

Jack: I’m not so sure. I think Arsenal will put up a better fight than you think. One-all.

Laura: 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 spoke about the phrasal verb to call off. It means to postpone or cancel something.

Jack: Here are three more sentences which include phrasal verbs with off. Can you tell us the missing words?

Rich: All her hard work on the training ground has **** off. She’s playing really well now.

Laura: I don’t like players who **** off when they are winning easily. I don’t think it’s very sporting.

Jack: The defender just ******** off at the back post and the striker got in front of him and scored.

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.

Laura: 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.

Jack: 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.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.