This week, languagecaster explains the footballing phrase, to cause an upset. You can understand more about the word or phrase by reading the transcript below. You can also find many more examples by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.
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Today’s English for football expression is ‘to cause an upset‘, which means that something surprising has happened. Now we use this phrase in football to describe it when a stronger team is beaten by a so called weaker team. A surprising result, an upset. This weekend sees many World Cup qualifiers taking place and the big teams will be hoping to avoid an upset, while the smaller teams will be hoping to cause an upset. Perhaps the European minnows, the Faroe Islands will be able to cause an upset by beating Sweden.
To cause an upset
What does “(to) challenge” mean in football?
2 min: Thumping challenge from Jones on Assou-Ekotto but no foul given. Spurs counter with Lennon down the right but his cross is blocked by Evra. United started the better.
A challenge is another way of saying ‘tackle’ so a thumping challenge is a really hard or tough challenge.