2022 World Cup Language: Totally Outplayed – Qatar 0-2 Ecuador

by Learn English through Football21 November 2022Add comment

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We look back at the opening game of the 2022 World Cup between hosts Qatar and Ecuador and explain the phrases ‘totally outplayed‘ and ‘on paper‘ which both came from the BBC report on the game. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

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Football Language Podcast – 2022 World Cup Language: Totally Outplayed (Qatar 0-2 Ecuador)

DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners and teachers of English. This is Damian and I am one half of the Languagecaster team; with Damon, of course, being the other half of the team and he’s based in Japan and over the next month, we will be explaining some of the words and phrases from the 2022 World Cup currently taking place in Qatar. On this short podcast, I’ll be looking at the phrases, ‘totally outplayed‘ and ‘on paper‘ from the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador.

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Totally outplayed & On paper

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With Africa Cup of Nations champions Senegal and three-time finalists the Netherlands to come, this looked like Qatar’s easiest game on paper but they were totally outplayed.(BBC.co.uk, November 20 2022)

Here’s how the BBC reported on the game.

So, the 2022 World Cup is finally up and running after today’s opening match between Qatar and Ecuador. The South American side had an easy victory after scoring two early goals – a brace from veteran striker Enner Valencia. Maybe the Qatari side were affected by nerves in their first ever World Cup match but they started poorly and never really got into the game at all.

So, in this BBC report on the game, they start by highlighting the fact that the hosts will still have to play African champions Senegal and the Netherlands – ranked 8th in the world – in the two remaining games in this group, meaning that there are going to be even more difficult fixtures to come and this is why the report used the phrase ‘on paper‘. If we describe one team as being better than another team ‘on paper‘ it suggests that one of the teams has better players and therefore should easily win. But as we know in football, nothing is ever certain and there are always shocks and giantkilling. In this example, the BBC report is suggesting that this opening game for the hosts was supposed to be their easiest and they now might be fearful of their two remaining matches. The report also used the phrase ‘totally outplayed‘ to describe the Qatar performance and this means that the Ecuadorians were much, much better than the Qataris: the Ecuador side outplayed the home team; Qatar were outplayed by the visitors. The report also uses the adverb ‘totally – totally outplayed which adds more emphasis to the fact that Qatar were outplayed by Ecuador.

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Contact

Now, if you want to ask any football-language questions or simply say hello during the World Cup then you can do so by adding a comment on our site here or by using our forum. You can also send us an email at admin@languagecaster.com and you can also look out for us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram .

World Cup PredictionsStinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Wrexham fan).

Goodbye

DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was from a Wrexham fan [Gavin] and he will be supporting Wales in this World Cup. It would be great to hear from anyone else who might like to share this message, ‘you are listening to Languagecaster.com‘. Don’t forget there’s a transcript to this short podcast and there’s lots of vocabulary support which you can access by coming along to our site. We think it’s a great resource for those learning and teaching the language.

OK, that’s it for this, the first, of our daily World Cup football language podcasts. We looked at the phrases ‘on paper‘ and to be ‘totally outplayed‘. We’ll be back with some more World Cup football language tomorrow. Enjoy all the football and we’ll get back to you soon. Bye bye!

Argentina	-	Brazil	4 - 1
Japan	-	Saudi Arabia	0 - 0
Spain	-	Netherlands	2 - 2
England	-	Albania	2 - 0

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2022 World Cup Language: Totally Outplayed – Qatar 0-2 Ecuador