Learning English Through Football Podcast: 2021 AFCON Final

by Learn English through Football12 February 2022Add comment

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In this football language podcast for learners of English who love football, we look back at the final of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations between Egypt and Senegal. You can 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.

Learning English Through Football Podcast: 2021 AFCON Final

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DF: Hello again everyone, this is Damian from the Languagecaster.com team and we hope you are all well and enjoying all the football this week. This of course is the podcast for all fans of football who want to improve their English skills – learning English through football – and on this week’s podcast we look back at the final of the 2021 AFCON. And we have to congratulate Senegal after winning their first ever continental title last weekend after beating Egypt on penalties. We’ve been following the African Cup of Nations over the past four weeks and so on this week’s show we focus on the final by using the Guardian Newspaper’s report. Don’t forget that there is also a transcript with this listening report which you can use to help with teaching or learning English.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French)

Right, let’s have a look at some of the words and phrases from the AFCON final.

Score a decisive penalty

Mane scores decisive penalty as Senegal beat Egypt to win Africa Cup of Nations (Guardian.co.uk, Feb 6 2022)

This was the headline from the Guardian report on the final and it gives the main information from the game: the Senegal forward Mane scored the winning goal in the penalty shoot-out to give Senegal the AFCON title. The adjective ‘decisive‘ describes an important part of a game, a shot, a goal, a tackle – it means that this action has had an impact on the game; it has helped to decide the game. And Mane’s penalty gave Senegal their first ever AFCON title so it really was a decisive penalty!

Break down a team/Gamemanship

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They were not good enough to break Egypt down and allowed themselves to be dragged into the gamesmanship (Guardian.co.uk, Feb 6 2022)

To break down a team means to try and open them up; to beat a packed defence. There are different ways a team can try to break down an opponent by getting to the byline and crossing the ball (getting round the back); by shooting from distance or by short one-twos in and around the penalty area. In this report, we read that Senegal could not break down the Egyptian defence because they were not good enough – maybe we can also say that the Egyptians were really disciplined which made it difficult for Senegal to break them down.

Gamesmanship is another way of saying cheating, or maybe it is seen as a little less than cheating. Players are using the laws of the game to stop the flow, to argue with the referee, to break the concentration of the opponent, to waste time – all things that the Egyptian side were accused of in this match report. This sentence suggests that Senegal were affected by this gamesmanship and were ‘dragged into it‘ by the Egyptian side, i.e. they started to do the same, or they were affected by it.

Drill a shot low

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Mane took a long run-up and, with a great cathartic release, drilled his shot low and extremely hard to his left. (Guardian.co.uk, Feb 6 2022)

So, to drill a shot means to hit the ball really hard and so to drill a shot low means that the player hit the ball really hard into the corner of the net and this is what Mane did with his penalty to win the shoot out and the AFCON title. The word ‘cathartic‘ means to feel much better after doing something and as Mane had already missed a penalty very early in the game, and indeed had missed important penalties for his country before, the fact that he still scored this winning penalty is seen as cathartic – it removed the pain of the previous misses.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Swahili).

Goodbye

DF: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that message was in Swahili and as we said last week, we’d love to hear from any other fans of football in Africa who might like to share the message, ‘you are listening to Languagecaster.com‘ in their or indeed any other language.

OK, that’s it for this short podcast in which we have looked back at some of the key words and phrases from the AFCON final, including, ‘drill a shot‘ and ‘gamesmanship‘. 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. We also have a football language forum where fans of the beautiful game can ask and answer questions on all kinds of football language – come along and join in the football language discussion. OK, enjoy all the football this week and we’ll see you again soon. Bye bye.

Spain	-	Netherlands	2 - 2
England	-	Albania	2 - 0
Atlético Madrid	-	Barcelona	2 - 4
Paris Saint Germain	-	Olympique Marseille	3 - 1

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Learning English Through Football Podcast: 2021 AFCON Final

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