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English for Football Phrase – Week 10 2007: Giantkilling / Underdog

Each week we explain a soccer phrase or cliché on our weekly languagecaster podcast. You can understand more about this phrase ‘giantkilling’ by reading the transcript below. You can also find many more examples of soccer vocabulary by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.

Now this weeka€™s English for Football focuses on two expressions that are connected to the FA Cup. Now, underdog is the name we use to describe the weaker of the two teams that are playing in a game. This team has less chance than the favourite; so, for example, next weekenda€™s cup match between Chelsea from the Premier League and Macclesfield from the Second Division, Chelsea are the clear favourites and Macclesfield are the underdogs. Now, if Macclesfield were to beat Chelsea this would be seen as an example of giant killing and giant killing is the second of our words this week. Now this word giant killing comes from the Bible story of David and Goliath. David defeated Goliath who was a giant and a much bigger, more powerful opponent but David defeated him so David was a giant killer. So, when a team, a smaller team, defeats a much more powerful or bigger team we call this giant killing.

Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and if you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com

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    Learn English Through Football Podcast
    Learn English Through Football Podcast
    Damian Fitzpatrick

    Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills

    Welcome to the website that helps students interested in football improve their English language skills. Soccer fans can enhance these skills with lots of free language resources: a weekly podcast, football phrases, explanations of football vocabulary, football cliches, worksheets, quizzes and much more at languagecaster.com.

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