This Week: Football Idioms 2

This Week: Idioms 2

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 Leicester City winning the FA Cup, a surprise goalscorer for Liverpool and this season’s Premier League Champions - Manchester City. 

Rich: We’re going to look at three headlines from the weekend’s action and in each headline, we will include an idiom that we then explain in a little more detail.

Jack: Ahh, yes. We are continuing to look at idioms - this is our second episode about idioms. I think these phrases are fun but they can be difficult to learn and use. 

Rich: While you listen to each headline, think about the football story and the sentence either before or after the idiom. This will help you understand.

Jack: The three idioms we are looking at this week are: to be over the moon, once in a blue moon, and to shoot for the moon. Can you see a connection between them?

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: Fantastic Foxes win first FA Cup

Rich: Leicester City fans were over the moon as their team won the FA Cup for the first time in their history. Youri Tielemans scored the only goal of the game - a fantastic long-range strike. Leicester had to hang on against Chelsea and there was a brilliant Kasper Schmeichel save and late VAR drama but the Foxes got over the line.

Jack: Leicester fans and players were so happy at the end - you could see that it meant a lot to them.

Rich: Yes, it was a brilliant performance. I think they deserved it - I’m very happy for them.

Jack: Leicester fans are happy, Leicester players are happy, you’re happy, everyone is happy - and our first idiom today means to be very happy.

Rich: Did you hear me use an idiom in the headline that means to be very happy? I said Leicester fans were over the moon.

Jack: To be over the moon means to be very happy or excited about something. You might be over the moon when your team wins an important match, when you pass an exam or when your first child is born.

Rich: Football players use this idiom a lot in interviews after they have won or scored an important goal. 

Jack: There are lots of idioms you can use to say you are very happy. We can say we’re over the moon, on cloud nine, on top of the world, in seventh heaven or we’re happy as Larry.

Rich: Happy as Larry is a funny idiom. Who is Larry? I have absolutely no idea.

Jack: Neither did I so I looked it up and Larry was a boxer who won a lot of money and was very happy about it and a newspaper from New Zealand and the headline Happy as Larry. 

Rich: There was also a bonus idiom in the headline. Did you hear it? It was to get over the line.

Jack: Rich said the Foxes got over the line. To get over the line means to be successful but by a small or narrow margin.

Rich: Well done to Leicester City for winning the Premier League. Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2 

Rich: New Premier League Champions aim for more.

Jack: Newly-crowned Premier League Champions Manchester City won a 4-3 thriller at Newcastle with Ferran Torres grabbing a hat-trick. City, who won the Premier League earlier in the week, now shoot for the moon when they head to Portugal to battle for a first-ever Champions League trophy.

Rich: It was a classic Premier League game. City came from behind twice and Torres scored a superb hat-trick. That backheel was sensational.

Jack: City have one more Premier League game and then it’s the Champions League Final against Chelsea. 

Rich: It will be a tough game - Chelsea have had a difficult week losing the FA Cup Final and the Women’s team losing their Champions League Final against Barcelona.

Jack: Yes, Chelsea will be looking to turn their fortunes around.

Rich: Let’s look back at our second headline and the idiom we want to look at. Jack said City will now shoot for the moon.

Jack: To shoot for the moon means to try to get or achieve something that is very difficult or challenging. The Champions League is very difficult to win, especially if you haven’t won it before.

Rich: To shoot for the moon can also mean to have or to set very high ambitions. My dad always told me to shoot for the moon when I was a kid.

Jack: This means always try to aim to be the best that you can - try to be as ambitious as you can. 

Rich: Manchester City as a club definitely shot for the moon when their new owners arrived. Their fans probably can’t believe the progress the club has made in the last twenty years.

Jack: I think the new owners came in and said the sky’s the limit for Manchester City.

Rich: The sky’s the limit - a bonus idiom for you there. The sky’s the limit means there is no limit to what you can achieve - you can be as successful as you want to be.

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

Headline 3 

Jack: Alisson saves Liverpool.

Rich: Alisson Becker’s injury-time header gave Liverpool three precious points in their fight for Champions League football next season. Goalkeepers only score once in blue moon and it’s the first time a goalkeeper has ever scored a header in a Premier League match.

Jack: It was pretty special, wasn’t it?

Rich: It was a brilliant header. I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I think that’s exactly what Jurgen Klopp said after the match, too. 

Jack: It’s the first time a goalkeeper has scored for Liverpool in their entire history.

Rich: And it means Liverpool can now qualify for the Champions League if they win their final two games so it was an important goal, too.

Jack: OK, did you hear the idiom Rich used in the headline? It was once in a blue moon. Rich said that goalkeepers only score once in a blue moon.

Rich: Once in a blue moon means not very often - very infrequently. Only eight goals have been scored by goalkeepers in Premier League history. How often do they happen?

Jack: Once in a blue moon. 

Rich: A more common phrase that means the same as once in a blue moon is hardly ever. I like this phrase and I think it’s very useful. Goalkeepers hardly ever score.

Jack: OK, we’ve looked at three stories and three idioms in our headlines. The idioms we’ve looked at were: to be over the moon, to shoot for the moon and once in a blue moon.

Rich: Listen to the headlines again to hear these idioms in context and don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of any of this vocabulary.

Headlines - Repeat

Prediction

Rich: It’s time for our football prediction. Last week we both went for a Chelsea win in the Champions League final but sadly we got that prediction horribly wrong.

Jack: Yes, Barcelona won 4-0 but I’m sure Chelsea will bounce back next season.

Rich: This weekend sees the final round of Premier League fixtures and the thing that is still to be decided is the race for the top four and the Champions League.

Jack: There are three teams in the race but only two places. Rich - do you want to make your prediction.

Rich: Well, the teams that can qualify are Leicester, Chelsea and Liverpool. Chelsea play Leicester in a re-run of the FA Cup FInal on Tuesday and I predict that match to finish in a draw which will open the door to Liverpool. I think Liverpool will win their final two matches and both Chelsea and Leicester will win theirs which means that Leicester and Liverpool will qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Jack: I think Liverpool will do it, too but I think Leicester will miss out on goal difference and finish fifth which will bring the Foxes back down to earth after their FA Cup Final success.

Rich: The final round of matches all kick off at the same time on Sunday so it should be very exciting.

Jack: We want you to make your predictions and 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 looked at three idioms in this week’s headlines and your language challenge is to learn three more idioms.

Rich: The idioms we looked at were all connected to the moon. They were to be over the moon, to shoot for the moon and once in a blue moon.

Jack: But you may have noticed that we spoke about some other idioms and phrases, too. 

Rich: We’re going to give you three sentences and you have to guess the missing words from these phrases. If you can’t remember or you’re not sure you can find all of them in the transcript or you can try listening to the podcast again.

Jack: Here are the three sentences. You have to try to guess the missing word? Are you ready?
 
Rich: Number one: Players are often nervous when they are winning an important game and there must be enormous relief when they finally get over the ______ .

Jack: Number two: The _______  the limit for a talented young player who can score goals in the Premier League.

Rich: Number three: The underdog _______  ever wins so it makes me happy when they do.

Jack: 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 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.

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.