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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: big wins, flops, and managers losing their cool

On this week’s review section we look back at some of the first games of the Spanish and English seasons and wonder what is happening in Paris. You can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.

Good

A good weekend in the Premier League for both Fulham and Swansea as they opened their 2012-13 campaigns with a pair of convincing 5-0 thrashings – against Norwich and QPR respectively. While in La Liga Barcelona and Betis also hit five in their wins against Real Sociedad and Bilbao.

Bad

It has not been a good start to the French season for big-spending Paris Saint Germain as they drew their second game in a row, this time a scoreless affair against lowly Ajaccio. That’s no wins from two games for the team from the French capital despite spending nearly 100 million Euros in the close season.

Ugly

After warning his players to behave more like the Olympic athletes, Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew found himself in hot water with the English authorities after he pushed the assistant referee in his side’s win at home to Spurs. Pardew tried to laugh it off but he needs to practice what he preaches.

Vocabulary

thrashing: winning by a large number of goals

big-spending: a club that has used a lot of money to buy new players

in a row: one after another; in succession

scoreless affair: a match with no goals

lowly: a small club; a team in the bottom half of the division

the close season: (pronounced ‘cloze’) when no official matches are played; between the end and the start of the league

be in hot water: be in trouble; have a problem with the games administrators

laugh it off: pretend it was a joke; say that it wasn’t serious

practice what you preach: do what you say; act in a way that reflects what you say

Welcome to the website that helps students interested in football improve their English language skills. Soccer fans can enhance these skills with lots of free language resources: a weekly podcast, football phrases, explanations of football vocabulary, football cliches, worksheets, quizzes and much more at languagecaster.com.

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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly