Podcast: Play in new window | Download (857.4KB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Blubrry | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | More
[print_link] | Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase | Follow @languagecaster
Listen here: To draw a blank.mp3
Transcript
This week’s English for football is ‘to draw a blank‘. This phrase originates in 17th century Britain and is a kind of lottery. Tickets were picked out of a pot. Some were winning tickets and had the name of the prize written on them, some had nothing written on them – they were blank and you won nothing. Another verb meaning to pick or choose something out of a pot for example is, to draw. So to draw a blank meant to win nothing, to not be successful. In football a team or a player can draw a blank, meaning they cannot score, they get no goals. This week in the Champions League, Manchester United drew a blank against Marseilles, they didn’t score and the game ended 0-0.
To draw a blank