Football Language Podcast: 2017-18 Chelsea vs Manchester United

This week's Learn English Through Football Podcast starts off with the good, the bad and the ugly stories from the footballing world, then explains some football phrases, and finishes off with some predictions from the Premier League. This week, the focus is on the Chelsea vs Man United game. For those who wish to practise their English, there is a transcript below to help with reading and listening (Damian = DF, Damon = DB). Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2017 Chelsea v Man Utd Subscribe to the show and receive automatic downloads every week Subscribe through i-tunes here Click for the latest shows here Podcast FAQ Transcript of the show DB: You are listening to Languagecaster's football-language podcast. Hello everyone. Welcome to the show for all those who love the world's favourite game and who want to improve their English skills. My name's Damon and I'm based in Tokyo, which is enjoying some lovely sunny weather at the moment. Now, Damian is having a short trip to Ireland but has managed to keep in contact and send a few words via the magic of the internet. DF:A Yes, as Damon says I am in Ireland for the weekend and so am unable to join you live but I was able to record some things for this weeka€™s show. Now, the weather here in Ireland has been typical for this time of year a€“ windy, some rain and the temperature is fairly chilly though we have also had some sun and blue skies a€“ pretty much everything in fact! Now, the Premier League is huge here in Ireland and not just because most of the Irish national team play for clubs there, but most football fans here would support an English a€“ or sometimes even a Scottish club before a team from the domestic league - this is called the League of Ireland. Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Celtic have a huge following though you can find fans of most top-flight teams here and many of them will travel to the UK to watch their favourite teams on a fairly regular basis. So many fans here in Ireland will be looking forward to a big weekend of football action with Manchester City hosting Arsenal, Manchester United travelling to London to face Chelsea and Tottenham against Crystal Palace a€“ and these three games all feature in our predictions later on in the show. Now, there are two other big football stories here in Ireland. The first involves the national side as they get ready for their World Cup play-off game against Denmark next weekend and of course wea€™ll be looking at that game and all the other World Cup play-off matches in next weeka€™s podcast. The other big story here is the FAI Cup final (Thata€™s the Football Association of Ireland) which is taking place this weekend a€“ thata€™s the domestic football cup finala€“ between the recently-crowned League of Ireland champions Cork City and Dundalk United who have been the top team in the previous three years or so. It promises to be a big game and if I had to choose a winner I think Ia€™d go for Dundalk, which would of course prevent Cork from completing the league and cup double. DB: Yes a big week next week for Ireland in the World Cup play-off against Denmark. You're listening to languagecaster.com (Hull City fan) Line Up DB: On the show we have three main sections, and this is the same each week: a news section called the good, the bad and the ugly, a football language section, and a predictions section at the end of the show. Now, on this week we have a fairly long football language section, as we discuss some posts and ideas from listeners. Our predictions section has three games from the Premier League, including Chelsea vs Manchester United, or Conte vs Mourinho! So, let's kick off with the good, the bad and the ugly. Here's Damian's good and ugly! Good DF: It has been a busy Champions League week and yet again the English teams have done really well. After the fourth round of matches were completed this week the five teams involved have only lost once in 20 matches a€“ Chelseaa€™s away defeat at Roma last week. There were wins for Manchester United against Benfica, Liverpool, who easily easily brushed aside Slovenian champions Maribor 3-0, Manchester City who won away at Napoli 4-2 and, of course, Tottenham defeated the current holders of the competition Real Madrid 3-1 at Wembley Stadium. Another good week for English teams in the Champions League. Ugly DF:A  Well, I suppose the ugliest story to have emerged from the week was from the Europa League where Marseille veteran defender Patrice Evra was seen kicking out at one of his own fans before the match against Portuguese side Vitoria. Evra received a red card before the game kicked off and has been suspended by his club Olympic Marseille and will surely face a bigger punishment from the governing body UEFA over the coming days. Pretty ugly indeed. Good DB: I'm just going to skip bad and go for another good story. In South America well done to Brazilian side Grêmio and Argentinian outfit Lanús - both through to the final of the Copa Libertadores. The Porto Alegre sideA Grêmio were 4-0 winners over two legs against Barcelona of Ecuador, whileA Lanús overturned a 1-0 first leg deficit to beat River Plate 4-3 on aggregate. The final is also played over two legs, the first of which is the 17th of November at Lanús. Should be cracking match! You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French). Follow us DB: If you want to drop us line, listener, get in touch with us via [email protected] and you can follow us on all the usual places: twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Spread the word and get your friends to check out our show, follow us, and look up our massive football glossary at languagecaster.com - click on the letters at the top of the website. Now here's Damian with an update on a Facebook conversation. DF: Thanks to everyone who has been in contact with us this week including Adam, Tammo, Ahmed, Mark and Will who all offered us some wonderful suggestions about unstoppable shots on goal on our Facebook page. We started off with the phrases, a€˜a crackera€™ and a€˜a pearlera€™ - there is a sense of beauty attached to this one a€“ and then we had a€˜bulleta€™; a€˜thunderbolta€™; a€˜rocketa€™ as well as the verb phrases a€˜fire homea€™; a€˜blast homea€™; a€˜hammer homea€™ and a€˜power homea€™ where of course a€˜homea€™ refers to the goal. If you have any other suggestions for unstoppable shots or indeed any other questions or comments about football words or phrases then let us know and drop us a line at [email protected] or through our Facebook or twitter pages. DB: We also had a suggestion for a new football phrase fromA José in Brazil. He emailed the phrase 'law of the ex' for when a player scores against his old team. José gives us this example in a headline from the Guardian newspaper: "Southampton will have to be wary of falling foul of the Law of the Ex on Sunday a€“ because Gastón Ramírez is on a hot streak." Personally, I haven't heard this phrase, although all supporters know the feeling when an ex-player is an opposing player and you think they are bound to score against your team. And here's a final football phrase we featured this week in one of our languagecaster posts. Football Language: Out-and-out This phrase functions as an adjective modifying a noun. So, you may hear phrases like, an out-and-out striker, and out-and-out defender. basically this adjective means pure or 100%. An out-and-out striker mean a player who is a pure striker, they do not do any defensive work and are not expected to focus on linking up the play. And of course an out-and-out defender is not expected to dribble the ball out of defence, bomb forward, or link up with the midfield in a creative way a€“ their job is 100% defence. It is used in aA fairly positive way, meaning the player is a great example of an attacker or defender doing their main job. Example: Gylfi Sigurdsson was tasked with what at first seemed a a€˜false ninea€™ role but turned out to be an out-and-out target man. (BBC 2 November 2017) DB: Next, and finally, it is predictions. Well, we have joint leaders as Alexrr and Johnny Magicboots have 70 points each, while Damian, you are on 59 and I am still on 51. Now, remember it's three points for the perfect score and one if you get the right result. Come along to the site and join in! Alright, let's take a look at what we thought. Predictions: Tottenham vs Crystal Palace DB: Now this game is being played as we speak, but this is what I thought. I was sure pessimists amongst the Spurs fans would probably think that after a great mid-week performance against the giants of Spain, Real Madrid, that their team will come back to earth with a bump and lose or draw against strugglers Crystal Palace. Palace do seem to have turned a corner a bit, with Zaha making a difference, but the Spurs fans will roar on their team at Wembley and they'll brush the Eagles aside 2-1. Damian, what did you think? DF: Spurs should be too strong for the south London side Palace. However, they have started to find a little form and will be tough opponents. I think Ia€™m going to go for a 2-1 home win. Manchester City vs Arsenal DB: This should probably be a good one to watch for the neutral. Although it could be one way traffic with Manchester City in such good form. Arsenal have the players to compete, withA Lacazette, Sanchez, and Ramsey, but there is something fragile about Arsenal, so I'm going for a 3-1 City win. You? DF:A Is there any team that can stop City right now? I dona€™t think it will be Arsenal a€“ 3-0 for the home side for me. Chelsea vs Manchester United DB: Finally, Chelsea v Manchester United and I think this has got 0-0 written all over it. And this is what Damian thinks. DF:A This one has 0-0 written all over it a€“ a scoreless draw for me. DB: Great minds think alike! Good bye DB: Alright folks,