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On this short football language podcast for learners of English we look at the phrase ‘top corner‘ after Arsenal’s opening goal in the [2022-23] North London derby. 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.
Learning English Through Football Podcast: Top Corner – Arsenal v Tottenham (2022-23)
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 am one half of the Languagecaster team and I’m here in a sunny autumnal London and it’s the day after the North London derby, which unfortunately for me Spurs lost 3-1 against Arsenal. The other Langugecaster team member is of course Damon and he is based in Japan and I wonder how he is feeling about the six-goal thriller between his favourite side Liverpool and Brighton who, under their new manager Roberto de Zerbi, earned a good away point. Now, on this very brief football language podcast, I’m going to look back at the phrase ‘top corner‘ which was used to describe the opening goal for Arsenal in their 3-1 win over rivals Tottenham in that North London derby. It’s going to be painful!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Bemba from Zambia)
Top Corner
OK, so the expression top corner describes the top part of the goal – both the left and right sides of the goal at the top are known as the top corners of the net (or the goal). Sometimes we might hear the expression ‘top bins‘ – a phrase that we covered in a previous podcast. If a player shoots or strikes the ball hard into the top corner it is really difficult for the keeper to stop it because it is so hard to reach. But of course, striking the ball into the top corner is a difficult skill because a player needs both accuracy and power. In the North London derby [2022-23], the Ghanaian international Thomas Partey struck a first-time shot into the top corner and this shot gave the Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris absolutely no chance as it was hit with such accuracy and power.
This is how Eurosport (Oct 1st 2022) described the goal: ‘Arsenal were deservedly in front in the 20th minute as Thomas Partey bent a side-footed strike from distance past Hugo Lloris and into the top corner.’ The Arsenal player used the side of his foot to shoot the ball – he side-footed the ball – and this technique gives a little more accuracy, while the ball curved or bent past the keeper and into the top corner. A great strike.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (In Vietnamese)
Now here at Languagecaster.com we are always interested in how other languages describe football and so today we have an expression from Zdenek who explains the phrase ‘top corner‘ in the Czech language.
Top Corner (in Czech)
Hi, I’m Zdenek an Arsenal fan and an English teacher from the Czech Republic. And today I’d like to tell you about the word Å¡ibenice, which is a Czech word, which, in English could be translated as ‘the gallows’. It’s basically if you don’t know what the gallows is, it’s a wooden structure used, especially in the past, to hang criminals from as a form of execution. People were getting killed as a punishment on that. And in the Czech language, we use it to refer to that part of the goal that basically is the top corner in English. And often when a player scores a goal, let’s say from range or something, and it goes into top corner we would say it was Å¡ibenice or it is Å¡ibenice, the gallows so I thought it was quite interesting to tell you about this one.
Contact
Thank you so much Zdenek for that explanation – really interesting indeed. I know that in Brazil the expression used to describe the top corner is ‘where the owl sleeps‘, obviously this is an English translation, while of course we sometimes use the term postage stamp in English – a stamp on a letter should always be on the top corner of the letter or postcard. If you know any other football terms to describe this part of the goal or indeed any other football language expressions you would like to explain in other languages then let us know by adding a comment on our site here or by using our forum. You can also send us an email at admin@languagecaster.com and look out for us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Danish).
DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was in Danish and we’d love to hear from anyone else who might like to share this message, ‘you are listening to Languagecaster.com’. It would be great to hear lots of different voices, especially with the World Cup coming up. In addition to this voice in Danish we have also had Vietnamese and Bemba from one of our listeners from Zambia on today’s podcast. Don’t forget that there’s a transcript to this podcast and there’s lots of vocabulary support which you can access by coming along to our site – just click on the links in the transcript. We think it’s a great resource for those learning and teaching the language – maybe there are some teachers out there who are using our resources – they could tell us how they use these materials in the classes.
2022 World Cup Predictions Competition
Now we are less than 50 days away from the start of the 2022 World Cup and here at Languagecaster we have launched our Predictions competition where you can guess the scores of all the matches from the Qatar tournament. It is very easy to play – simply register (for free), choose your results and click on the save button here at Languagecaster’s website. You can of course change your scores right up to kick off time. And we hope to announce some prizes over the next couple of weeks, which will make it even more intersting.
Goodbye
OK, that’s it for this very short football-language podcast in which we looked at the phrase ‘top corner‘ in both English and in Czech – thanks again to Zdenek for that.
Now, we’ll be back with some more language about the beautiful game very soon. Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast and to join in the football language conversation on our forums. Enjoy all the football this week – Champions League is back. Bye bye!
Related Vocabulary
Hi Damian, in Italian we say top corner as a€˜sotto la€™incrocioa€™ (below the cross) as ita€™s the point on which the bar and the post cross. Another expression is a€˜nel settea€™ (on the seven) as the cross between the post and the bar resembles the number 7.
Love the ‘nel sette’ expression – on the severn expression!
Damon
Hi Marco,
Thank you for sharing this – really interesting! We’ll mention these on our next podcast though I might need some help with pronunciation 🙂