This Week: Derby Days

This Week: Derby Days

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 three huge derbies that took place in the Women’s Super League over the weekend.

Jack: 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. 

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 of 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: to share the spoils, out of the blocks, local bragging rights, off the crossbar, a slice of luck and a fluke goal.

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 hit back to draw derby.

Rich: Manchester United and Manchester City had to share the spoils in this weekend’s Manchester Derby. City came out of the blocks the fastest as they raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half. The second half was a different story with United scoring twice; first through two-time World Cup winner Tobin Heath and then through substitute Kirsty Hanson. United stay two points clear at the top of the table.

Laura: All of our headlines this week are about derby matches so let’s just think about that word ‘derby’.

Jack: A derby is a match played between two teams from the same city or region. Here we’re talking about the Manchester Derby but we’re also going to talk about the Birmingham Derby and a London derby.

Rich: It’s not 100% certain but most people think the word derby comes from horse racing. The Derby was an important horse race and from there the word started to be used in other sports for important races or matches.

Laura: And the match against your local rivals is always one of the most important matches of the season. The phrase local derby is often used, too.

Jack: The first phrase we want to look at is to share the spoils. We said that Manchester United and Manchester City had to share the spoils in this weekend’s Manchester Derby.

Rich: The spoils are the profits you get from being successful or what you win from war - the spoils of war. In a football match, the spoils are the match points.

Laura: United and City had to share the points that are available for winning; they had to share the spoils.

Jack: Our next phrase is out of the blocks. We said City came out of the blocks the fastest.

Rich: This phrase comes from athletics. The blocks are the starting blocks where sprinters like Usain Bolt start the race from.

Jack: If we say someone is fast out of the blocks it means they have started a competition or a race really well. We might also say a player or a team raced out of the blocks or stormed out of the blocks.

Laura: We could also say someone is slow out of the blocks if they have started badly.

Rich: Let’s move on to our next headline.

Headline 2

Laura: Birmingham win second city derby.

Jack: Birmingham City won local bragging rights as they beat Aston Villa one-nil to win the first-ever Super League meeting between Birmingham’s two major football clubs. Claudia Walker got the only goal of the game when she scored off the crossbar in the second half.

Rich: Let’s look at Laura’s headline first - Birmingham win second city derby.

Jack: Birmingham is often referred to as the UK’s or at least England’s second city.

Laura: I always thought it was Manchester. 

Rich: I think there is a bit of debate about it. I think Birmingham is bigger than Manchester but Manchester attracts a lot of international business and is well-known around the world - probably because of the football.

Jack: I’m not sure how important it is though - they are both great cities.

Laura: The first phrase we want to talk about is local bragging rights. We said that Birmingham City won local bragging rights.

Rich: We’ve already spoken about local and local derby matches. The word local means near or geographically close.

Jack: To brag about something means to boast or to talk too proudly about something. If you brag you are saying how good you are - repeatedly - or how fantastic something is that has happened. 

Laura: Yes, it’s quite negative to brag and it can annoy other people but after a derby match this is what fans do on a Monday morning at school and work.

Rich: Because they have won they have the right to brag. They have won local bragging rights - at least until the next derby match.

Jack: Our second bit of language is off the crossbar. We said Claudia Walker scored off the crossbar.

Laura: This means the ball hit the crossbar and went into the net. 

Rich: We can say someone scored off the crossbar or off the post or the ball went in off the bar or the post or even the ball went in off the back of the goalkeeper’s head.

Jack: That last one would be such a fluke. Let’s look at our final headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Luck favours Chelsea in London Derby.

Laura: Arsenal looked to be heading back to the top of the Super League when Beth Mead scored the opening goal of the game in the 86th minute. However, Chelsea scored an injury-time equaliser when they got a huge slice of luck through a fluke own goal. Pernille Harder hit a shot for Chelsea which took a huge deflection and sailed into the Arsenal net. Arsenal stay second and Chelsea are third in the table.

Jack: Unlucky for Arsenal - Chelsea were lucky. An own goal in the last minute is very unfortunate.

Rich: The first phrase from our headline is something we hear when a team are lucky. Chelsea got a huge slice of luck.

Laura: A slice of luck is something that happens by chance and helps you win or achieve something. Chelsea got a huge slice of luck when the ball hit an Arsenal defender.

Jack: We can also use the phrases a stroke of luck or a piece of luck in the same way.

Rich: Our second bit of language is a fluke goal or in our case a fluke own goal.

Laura: A fluke is something that happens by chance and is unlikely to happen again. Chelsea scored a fluke own goal. 

Jack: If Pernille Harder hit that shot, in the same way, a hundred times it’s very unlikely to result in a goal again.

Rich: We often talk about fluke results. Things like Aston Villa beating Liverpool 7-2 this season or Leicester winning the Premier League a few years ago.

Laura: 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 share the spoils, out of the blocks, local bragging rights, off the crossbar, a slice of luck and a fluke goal.

Jack: Don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of this vocabulary.

Prediction

Rich: It’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction. There were no Premier League matches last weekend so here is a reminder of our prediction for Matchweek 9 with Laura.

Laura: There are some big games in Matchweek 9. Tottenham against Manchester City is a big match but I’m going to concentrate on Leicester City’s trip to Liverpool. Leicester travel to Liverpool as the Premier League leaders and they’ve already won at Arsenal and Manchester City. The Foxes will look to defend and counter-attack at pace. This will be a difficult match for Liverpool after the international break but I think it’ll finish in a draw. Final score: Liverpool 1-1 Leicester City.

Jack: I think Liverpool will have too much for Leicester but I’ve been known to be wrong before.

Rich: We want all of you to make your predictions for this match and all the Matchweek 9 fixtures on the Premier Skills English website.

Language Challenge

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

Rich: Earlier we looked at the phase a slice of luck. Here are three more phrases which use the word luck. 

Jack: We want you to write the missing word in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Laura: He’s never played golf before and he got a hole in one! ****** luck I suppose!

Rich: ****** luck with the exam tomorrow. I hope you do well.

Jack: ****** luck! Everyone loses sometimes. Get over it!

Laura: 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.

Jack: 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.

Laura: Bye for now and enjoy your football.