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In this football language podcast we preview the 2023 Women’s World Cup which starts this week by looking at some of the favourites, possible dark horses and underdogs. 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.
Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: 2023 Women’s World Cup Preview
DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners and teachers of English. I’m Damian and I’m based here in London where the weather is a lot cooler than many places around the world right now. I know that it is very hot in Tokyo, where of course the other member of the Learning English Through Football team, Damon, is based. I also wonder if Damon is enjoying the pre-tournament build up in Japan because of course the 2023 Women’s World Cup starts this week and Japan will be expected to do quite well, indeed, they are seen by many as dark horses for the tournament. Can you remember the meaning of the expression ‘dark horse’? Now, we have covered this phrase many times but just in case you don’t remember, a dark horse team is one that is not seen as one of the favourites but they still end up doing well – a little bit like Japan in 2011 when no one tipped theA Nadeshiko to win. And yet they defeated the USA on penalties to claim the title.
So, on this week’s football-language podcast, I will be looking ahead to the World Cup and making some predictions about some of the teams. I’ll be looking at some of the favourites, some of the dark horses and also some of the teams that we don’t think will do well at all. A phrase that we can use to describe them is ‘outsiders’; or ‘underdogs‘ or maybe even stronger would be ‘also-rans’ which means they have absolutely no chance at all!
Now, don’t forget to come along to our site at Languagecaster.com where you can hear the recent podcast on the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Numbers. We asked how many teams have won the World Cup? How many teams are making their debuts? And many other questions about the numbers of the World Cup. You can also access all our other football-language podcasts – we have hundreds of them that date back over 15 years by simply coming along to Languagecaster.com.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from a Dutch fan)
Yes, that message was from a Dutch fan and and yes, you are listening to Languagecaster.com. Now, this is the first time that a Women’s World Cup has been co-hosted by two countries (that’s Australia and New Zealand) and it’s also the first time that 32 countries will be taking part and on this podcast we will be looking at some of these countries: Who are the favourites? Who are the dark horses and which teams are the outsiders?
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from Vietnamese fans)
Pre-listening quiz
Now before we look at some of the favourites for the tournament let’s look at some of the language to describe nationalities; what words describe the players from these teams?
- OK, here’s question 1: What is the adjective to describe a player from the Netherlands?
- Question 2: How about a player from Zambia?
- Question 3: What about a player from Brazil?
- And finally, what about players from the Vietnam national team?
And we’ll have the answers at the end of this podcast.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Chinese)
Favourites
So, which teams are among the favourites for the 2023 Women’s World Cup? Remember, that these are the sides that are expected to do very well and will have a chance to win the title. The obvious favourites – the clear favourites – are the USA who will be hoping to win their third tournament in a row – (that would be their fifth in total) and they are still ranked number 1 in the FIFA rankings – so, a really strong side. The current European champions are England and the Lionesses will be hoping to repeat the win in the World Cup; though they have never made it past the semi-final stage and they are also missing some key players through injury. Germany are the team that England defeated in the final of the Euros and they are being tipped by many to win this tournament – they are ranked number two in the world and are currently playing very well indeed. There is another group of other European sides that have also been tipped to do well: Sweden are ranked third in the world; Spain, despite some off-the-field problems, will be strong; while France will also be among the favourites to lift the trophy.
Dark Horses
Which teams do we think might surprise us and maybe win the overall tournament? The Brazilians are the South American champions and have an interesting mix of experience and youth and many are suggesting they will have a good tournament. Australia, as one of the co-hosts, will also be strong, while the Canadians (who are in the same group as the hosts) will be hoping to build on their Olympic win in 2020. Two other sides that are dark horses for the tournament are the 2019 runners-up the Netherlands and the 2011 winners Japan, with maybe the Dutch having slightly the better chance. How about another team from Scandinavia such as Denmark or Norway? Or maybe the Nigerian or Zambian sides will cause an upset?
Underdogs
How about the underdogs for the tournament? Well, as we have already said, this World Cup is the first time that there are 32 sides participating; so there are quite a few teams that do not really have a chance of winning the trophy. This list includes The Philippines, Morocco, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica and a Vietnamese team that will be facing the US in their first ever World Cup match. These sides may be seen as outsiders but we all know that football is a funny old game and anything can happen in tournament competition!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Korean)
So, in that short explanation about some of the favourites, dark horses and underdogs in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, we mentioned some interesting language. Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases:
- Ranked: This shows the position in which a country is placed in a list – the best teams are at the top of the ranking and the higher the ranking number the worse the team. So, the USA are ranked number 1 in the FIFA rankings – FIFA recognises the US side as being the best in women’s football.
- Tipped: If many people think a team will do well then we can say that this team is being tipped by many people. To tip a team to do well means that we think this team will go far in the competition.
- Outsiders: So, if a team is an outsider it means that they are not expected to do well at all; they are not favourites; they do not have much chance of winning.
Don’t forget that you can find out more about these and hundreds more football-language phrases by coming along to our football-language glossary here at Languagecaster.com.
Glossary
A-BC-DE-FG-HI-K L-NO-QR-ST-VW-Z0-9Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Zambian fan).
Contact
DF: OK, if you have any questions or comments then drop us an email at admin@languagecaster.com and you can also look out for us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – and on the new platform Threads, while we will be posting some material on our new YouTube page very soon too – so come along and say hello! We also have a football-language forum where you can ask and answer any questions you have on the language of football and recently, we’ve had some questions on phrases such as, ‘a disgrace‘. So, take a look at the forum, do some of the quizzes that are there, add a comment or a question or simply say hi!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French).
Goodbye
DF: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was from a French football fan – we think France will be one of the favourites to lift the World Cup – what do you think? Let us know by adding a comment on our site, voting in our poll or coming along to the forum. And don’t forget there’s a transcript for this short podcast with lots of vocabulary support – we explain lots of the meanings of these words in the transcript, which you can access by coming along to our site.
OK, that’s it for this podcast in which we previewed the 2023 Women’s World Cup by looking at the favourites, the dark horses and the underdogs. Oh, and do you remember the answers to our questions at the start of the show?
Answers: Pre-listening quiz
We asked you about words to describe the nationality of some of the countries taking part – we mentioned these in the report – can you remember them?
- Here’s question 1: What is the adjective to describe a player from the Netherlands? Well, this one is Dutch – Vivianne Miedema is a Dutch striker.
- Question 2: How about a player from Zambia? Well, the answer to this one is Zambian – the Zambian team will play in Group C in this year’s tournament.
- Question 3: What about a player from Brazil? Well, the answer is Brazilian. So, Marta has played over 170 times for the Brazilian national team.
- And finally, what about players from the Vietnam national team? Well, the answer to this is Vietnamese and the Vietnamese team will be playing in Group E alongside the USA.
We also looked a little more closely at some words and phrases including ranked and tipped – remember that the USA are ranked first in the world, while many people are tipping Spain to do well in this tournament. Let us know if you hear any of the phrases that we’ve used on today’s show – in any language of course. And enjoy all the football and we’ll see you again soon when we will be looking at more language from the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Bye bye!
Related Vocabulary
- Women’s World Cup Language Review Quiz
- 2019 Women’s World Cup posts
- 2023 Women’s World Cup in Numbers
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
