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Each week we explain a soccer phrase or cliché on our weekly languagecaster podcast. You can find many more examples by going to our football cliché page here.

Listen here to this week’s football phrase

This week’s English for football phrase is to give the ball away cheaply. This expression is used to describe a situation in a game when one team, under little or no pressure, loses the ball to the opposing team. It is similar to an unforced error in tennis. We use the word cheaply to describe the fact that the opposition have not had to work hard (or ‘pay’) to get the ball back. Coaches and fans become very frustrated when their team gives the ball away cheaply as it may prevent an attack from building or worse may give the opposing team a chance to counter attack. To give the ball away cheaply.

 

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On this week’s show we feature five questions about football derbies, including which one is the fiercest in world football. Remember you can also:

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There are a host of derbies being played around the world this weekend so we thought we’d take a look at some of these football rivalries in this week’s main report. You can listen to the report by clicking above while vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

What is a derby?

A derby is a game played between rival teams – usually from the same city or region though not always, think Barcelona against Real Madrid or Liverpool vs Manchester United, for instance. Generally the games are played at a frenetic pace as the teams are roared on by the fans who want to have bragging rights over their rivals. This of course means that form often goes out the window making these games very difficult to predict.

Where did the term originate from?

Well, though there is some confusion over its origin, it is now generally accepted that the term derby comes from a folk football match between two local sides from the village of Ashburton in Derbyshire in the Midlands area of England

What is the oldest derby in world football?

Again, there is some dispute about this but it seems that the Sheffield derby between Wednesday and United is now regarded as one of the oldest local rivalries in world football.

So derbies are always about geographical rivalry then?

Usually but not always. Sometimes there are other factors involved such as history (for example, West Ham and Millwall’s London rivalry dates back to an industrial dispute), animosity between a country’s different regions, religion, politics (for example the ‘eternal enemies’ Olympiakos and Panathanaikos in Greece) and footballing honours. For instance, there is rivalry between the two cities of Manchester and Liverpool yet when Liverpool take on Manchester City or Manchester United play Everton there is no real animosity. But when Liverpool and Manchester United play each other then a different form of rivalry kicks in: which of the two sides is the most successful in English football?

The clásico in Spain between Barcelona and Real Madrid is an example of a derby involving two teams from different regions but as many people know, this game is all about history and identity. Rangers and Celtic in Scotland not only share the same city, Glasgow, are the two most successful sides in Scottish football history but they are also divided on religious lines: Celtic, traditionally is a Catholic club while Rangers is a Protestant one. But then there is the example of Galatasaray and Fenerbahce from Turkey – two teams that are also divided on religious lines but they also come from from a city, Istanbul, that spans two different continents.

What are the biggest derbies in the world?

Celtic-Rangers, Galatasaray-Fenerbahce and Barcelona-Real Madrid are three of the most passionate, some would say hate-filled, games in the world but there are many others like them. continue

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Each week we explain a soccer phrase or cliché on our weekly languagecaster podcast. You can find many more examples by going to our football cliché page here.

Listen here to this week’s football phrase

This week’s English football phrase is to run riot. This expression is used when one team completely dominates another team and scores lots of goals. Before this week’s Champions League game between holders Barcelona and German side Stuttgart the experts were suggesting that Barca would run riot , however, the game finished 1-1. Another example was when Premier League side, Tottenham ran riot against Wigan earlier on in the season when they won 9-0. The expression can also be used to describe a player’s performance against an opponent as in, Wayne Rooney ran riot against the West Ham defence in the 3-0 victory. To run riot.

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A big game in the Premier League, derbies from Portugal, Scotland and Germany, as well as the Carling Cup final all feature along with some interesting international friendly games in this week’s predictions. Our guest this week is Maki who is a fan of AC Milan. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Current Scores: DB 114 | DF 112 | Guest 100

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

French clubs in Europe, John Terry vs Wayne Bridge, Portsmouth’s troubles and Thai politicians lose out to female footballers. These stories and more feature in this week’s good, the bad and the ugly section of the podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

It’s been a good 10 days for French clubs in European competition as Lyon and Bordeaux scored impressive wins in the Champions League and Lille and Marseille made progress to the last 16 of the Europa League. We spoke about Lyon’s 1-0 defeat of Real Madrid in last week’s show and in this week’s set of Champions League games, top of the table Bordeaux won in Greece at Olympiakos. Laurent Blanc’s side look as if they will retain the French title this season so they can focus their efforts on a possible surprise Champions League cup run. Good for French clubs in Europe. continue