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In this week’s football language podcast for learners of English, we look at some of the language to describe the Premier League game between Manchester City and Liverpool – what do we mean by the phrase ‘title showdown‘ or ‘top-of-the-table clash‘? You can find out by listening to this week’s football-language podcast! You can also read a 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 Podcast: Title Showdown – Manchester City vs Liverpool 2021-22 Season
DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners of English who love the beautiful game of football. This is Damian and…I’m in London and I’m one half of the languagecaster team, the other member of course is Damon who is in Tokyo, Japan – I wonder if he stayed up to watch the big Premier League game live this weekend between his favourite team Liverpool and current league leaders Manchester City? It was a great game between two top sides and on this podcast we look at some of the words and phrases used to describe this match-up between the top two in the Premier League.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Spanish)
Title Showdown
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In football, a showdown is a battle between two teams with the suggestion that there’ll be a final outcome or result; maybe something like a winner-takes-all game. In this kind of match we can add the word ‘title‘ to showdown to show that this is an important game – title showdown – the winner can probably go on to win the Premier League title. Another expression to describe this would be a ‘top-of-the-table clash‘ which means the two top teams in the league face each other (and here the word ‘clash‘ means a battle) – though maybe this expression can be used at any stage of the season, whereas a showdown suggests a more decisive game towards the end of the season. Of course, there are still seven games to go in this season’s league but many pundits feel that both sides are so good and are playing at such a high level that they will not lose any more matches or indeed drop any points at all (but remember that these football experts are not always right!). And this is why many felt this Manchester City versus Liverpool game was a title showdown.
To be in their own hands
This saying in football means that a team does not rely on another team to win a tournament or to stay in the division (so, to avoid relegation). The team is in charge of its own destiny and so if they win all their games they can achieve their goals. Before this game between City and Liverpool both sides had their title hopes in their own hands; so if both sides could win all their remaining eight games they would be champions. Of course, the game finished in a draw which means Manchester City remain one point ahead – or one point clear – of Liverpool so if they win their last seven matches they will be champions and Liverpool can do nothing about it. It is in City’s own hands and out of Liverpool’s hands.
Down to the wire
This phrase appeared on the back page of the Daily Mail here in the UK and suggests that the title race is not over as both teams still have a chance of winning it – the title race will continue to the very last game of the season is the meaning of this phrase. The phrase suggests that the result of a competition or a race is still unknown – it’s difficult to predict – and will only be decided at the end of the competition because it’s a very tight or close race. There are different suggestions about where this phrase has originated but it may have come from horse racing as a way to decide the first horse to cross the finishing line (that’s the wire). Also in this newspaper article, the remaining seven fixtures (games) of the two sides have also been published – this is known as the title run-in – because they wanted to show how close this race will be.
Double, Treble or Quadruple
Now, both sides are in the remarkable position of possibly winning multiple trophies or titles this season. Liverpool could win an unprecedented quadruple – that’s four trophies – as they have already won the Carabao Cup (The League Cup) and are in the semi-final of the FA Cup and are one step away from the semi-final of the Champions League and of course are only one point behind City in the League. City are also in the semi-final of the FA Cup (where they will play Liverpool) and have a good chance of making the semi-finals of the Champions League after winning 1-0 at home against Atlético Madrid. Of course, they are one point ahead of The Reds in the league which gives them a slight advantage and means they could win the treble. Now, only one side in English football has ever won the treble (The League, The FA Cup and the Champions League) and that was Manchester United in 1999 – United of course are big rivals of both Liverpool and City so there is added motivation for both clubs in this the business end of the season.
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Contact
Now, if you want to ask any football-language questions or simply say hello then you can do so by adding a comment on our site here, or by using our forum, by sending an email to us at admin@languagecaster.com or by looking for us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
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Goodbye
DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was in Korean and we’d love to hear from anyone else who might like to share the message, ‘you are listening to Languagecaster.com‘ in any other language. And don’t forget that there’s a transcript to this podcast and lots of vocabulary support which you can access by coming along to our site here at languagecaster.com – a great resource for language learners and language teachers.
OK, that’s it for this week’s football-language podcast in which we looked at the phrases, ‘title showdown‘; ‘down to the wire‘; ‘treble‘ and ‘to be in their own hands‘. What do you think will happen in the run in? Will City retain their title or can Liverpool win their second title in three years? We’ll be back with more football language next week and until then enjoy all the football this week. Bye bye.