Learning English Through Football Podcast: Lift The Trophy – 2022 FA Cup Finals

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In this football language podcast for learners of English we look back at some of the language from the two FA Cup finals that took place in England last weekend: The men’s final between Chelsea and Liverpool and the women’s final between Chelsea and Manchester City. 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.

Learning English Through Football Podcast: Lift The Trophy – 2022 FA Cup Finals

DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners of English who love the beautiful game of football. I’m Damian and I’m here in a sunny London and I’m one half of the languagecaster team, the other member of course is Damon who’s based in Tokyo, Japan.

Now, there were two FA Cup finals over the weekend here in England – the men’s game between Liverpool and Chelsea on Saturday in which the Reds won on penalties and then on Sunday the women’s cup final between Chelsea and Manchester City saw Chelsea win after extra time. In this podcast we take a look at some of the language from the BBC reports on the two games including the phrases, ‘to lift the cup‘; ‘run ragged‘ and ‘nestled into the corner‘.

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

Lift the Cup

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To lift the trophy (or lift the cup) is another way of saying that a team has won a tournament or a competition. Traditionally at the end of the final, the winning captain is presented or awarded the trophy and they then lift or raise the cup (also known as the trophy or silverware) above their heads in celebration. So, in this final, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson lifted the tropy after their win on penalties – and this is the eighth time the Reds have won this competition. The next day, Chelsea’s women also lifted the trophy the following day and this was their fourth FA Cup win.

Run Ragged/Pepper the goal

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Liverpool’s Colombian striker Diaz played really well in the final creating so many chances for his side. He caused so many problems for the Chelsea defence that we can say that he ‘ran Chelsea ragged‘. Now ragged can be used to describe someone is extremely tired, almost exhausted because the opposition player has made them work so hard; they have been under so much attacking pressure and their performance drops or suffers and this is what Diaz did against the Chelsea defenders – his continuous attacking caused huge problems for the Chelsea defence; they were run ragged. Now the BBC report also mentioned that he was peppering Mendy’s goal with efforts. So, to pepper the goal means to have lots of shots on goal and this is what Diaz did during the final – he peppered the Chelsea goal with shots or efforts.

Defend their crown/Complete the Double

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So, the BBC also reported on the Women’s FA Cup final the following day and in front of a record attendance of almost 50.000 fans, the Chelsea side ran out 3-2 winners after extra time. This was their second trophy in a week after winning the WSL (that’s the Women’s Super League) and so of course they won the Double; they completed the League and Cup Double. As Chelsea also won the FA Cup in 2020 (they were the holders), they defended their crown where ‘crown‘ refers to the trophy or title. Another way of saying this would be that they retained their title or crown.

Nestle into the bottom corner

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This part of the report describes the winning goal in extra time from Chelsea forward Sam Kerr. The Australian striker placed or directed the ball into the corner and so we can say that the ball nestled into the corner; the ball was placed with such accuracy that it rested in the corner of the net or the goal. Another great finish from Sam Kerr.

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Contact

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

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Goodbye

DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was in Polish and we’d love to hear from anyone else who might like to share this message, ‘you are listening to Languagecaster.com‘. And don’t forget 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 – a great resource for those learning the language and for those teaching the language.

OK, that’s it for this short football-language podcast in which we looked back at some of the language used from the two FA Cup finals here in England, including ‘to lift the cup‘; ‘run ragged‘ and ‘nestle into the corner‘. Enjoy all the football as we approach the final days of the domestic league seasons in Europe and we’ll be back soon with some more football language. Bye bye.

Related Vocabulary

• To clinch
• FA Cup Final 2021
• 5 Great Wembley finals
• 2021 FA Cup Final
• The FA Cup in Numbers (1): This report from 2011 looks at some of the numbers associated with the FA Cup – there is a worksheet with this report.
• The FA Cup Numbers (2): We look at some more numbers connected to the FA Cup (from 2014)
• The Language of the FA Cup: Back in 2013 we discussed some of the most typical FA Cup phrases, including David and Goliath!
• FA Cup Review: In 2014 we looked back at some of our previous reports on the FA Cup – a nice collection of resources here!
• Changes to the FA Cup: In this 2011 report we made some suggestions on changes to the FA Cup
• The FA Cup: This 2011 report looked at some of the language of the FA Cup (the format and the tradition) – there is also a worksheet.