Archive for January, 2011

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Predictions

On this week’s predictions battle we feature games from the FA Cup, the Asia Cup, Serie A and La Liga. Check out some language used in making predictions here. This week’s guest predictor is Laura, a Juventus fan.

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 Print This Post | Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase

Every week during the 2010-11 season, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché for learners of English who love the sport. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript below that. You can find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football clichés here and our huge football glossary here.

Listen here: To finish with aplomb.mp3| See the complete list here

Transcript

List of 2010/11 Football Phrases

This week’s English for football is the phrase ‘to finish with aplomb‘, which means to score a goal with a good deal of confidence, a great finish. To do something with aplomb means to be self-assured or very confident so when a player scores a goal with aplomb it means they never really looked like missing. In the Copa del Rey match between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, French full-back Eric Abidal scored his first ever career goal to help the Catalan side to make it through to the last 8. He side-footed the ball home after a pass from Xavi – who else? – he finished with aplomb. To finish with aplomb.

 Print This Post | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This is our first review of the football in 2011 and after taking a one week break at the end of last year we catch up with some of the big football stories – good and bad – from the last two weeks. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast. Explanations of key vocabulary (in bold) can be found at the foot of the post.

The Good

With most of Europe taking a break eyes were on the Premier League in England with its traditional feast of football – despite the weather disrupting many matches, Premier League teams were expected to play 4 games in 11 days. Because of this flurry of games this part of the season is often seen as a make or break time for relegation-threatened clubs and championship contenders. Coming top of the form table over this period was Manchester United, who despite failing to impress picked up 10 points out of 12, opened up a two-point gap with two games in hand over their nearest rivals, Manchester City. Next up for the Red Devils are Liverpool in the FA Cup on the 9th of January and then a big away clash against flying Tottenham, who picked up 9 out of a possible 12 over the same period. continue