Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2024 Review (Part 1)

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Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2024 Review (Part 1)

In this football language podcast we look back at some of the language that emerged from some of the big stories of the year [2024]. In this podcast we look at words and phrases from the first six months of the year. You can read the transcript for this podcast below and we have a Vocabulary Quiz (2024) Part 1. 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.

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Hello

DF: You’re listening to Languagecaster’s Learning English Through Football Podcast.

Hello everyone and welcome to the show for all those who love the beautiful game of football and who want to improve their English language skills. I hope you have been able to have some kind of a break and of course Happy New Year to you all – we hope 2025 is a good one for you and your football team.

My name is Damian and I am based in London where the weather is really cold and we have snow across the country. What is the weather like where you are? I also wonder what the weather is like in Tokyo, Japan where of course the other member of the Languagecaster team Damon is based? And we’ll be hearing from him later on in the show.

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

DF: That message, or stinger, was in Japanese and we’ll be hearing some more languages throughout the show.

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

Today’s Show

Now, on this football language podcast we look back at some of the language that emerged from some of the big football stories of the year [2024]. We’ll be looking back at words and phrases from the first six months of 2024. We will also have a Vocabulary Quiz with this podcast – with answers – that you will be able to download from our site. So, how much of 2024 can you remember?

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

January

In our first podcast of the year, we looked at language from the Third Round of the FA Cup including the word thunderbolt after Tottenham’s Pedro Porro scored with one against Burnley. This type of shot is a really hard one that flies into the net and similar words include screamer and ‘worldie’. We also explained phrases such as ‘force a replay‘ and ‘pull off a shock’ from the FA Cup and also the expression, ‘gulf in class‘ when talking about Premier League Newcastle’s win over Championship side Sunderland.

We also looked at the Africa Cup of Nations from the Ivory Coast which started in January and there were loads of shocks and surprises early on. This is what we said about some of the giant killing from some of the lower-ranked nations in the AFCON tournament:

But perhaps the best part of the competition so far is the performances of the so-called minnows or weaker sides as they pulled off shock after shock. Who would have thought that Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde and Angola would top their groups? This giant killing began when Namibia, ranked 114th in the world before the tournament, defeated Tunisia to record their first ever AFCON victory, while Mozambique, ranked 111th in the world, almost beat African powerhouse Egypt who only equalised with a last-minute penalty. The shocks continued to come with Equatorial Guinea thrashing the hosts Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) 4-0 in their second match, while Algeria were beaten 1-0 by Mauritania which was their first ever win at AFCON as well.

February

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In February we continued with some more language from the AFCON and Asian tournaments, including the phrase ‘Zombie Football‘ after both South Korea and AFCON hosts Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) made dramatic comebacks throughout the tournaments. South Korea were eventually beaten in the semi final by Jordan who then went on to lose to Qatar in the final – Qatar retained their title. Côte d’Ivoire won their third African title in dramatic circumstances as they continued to come back from seemingly impossible situations. And this is how we explained some of the language around this remarkable win back in February.

People started to believe that their name was on the trophy – their come back from the dead performances meant they were locally known as, ‘Les Revenants’ – Zombies – as they could not be knocked out of the tournament! A last-minute equaliser in normal time and then in the final minute of extra time saw the hosts defeat Mali in the last eight and then they beat DR Congo in the semi final to set up a final against the powerhouse of Nigeria in the final. Of course, they then went a goal down in the first half but they turned the final around  to win 2-1 and claim their third African title with a goal from Sebastien Haller in the second half. A remarkable story from the hosts.

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

March-April

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In March we looked at the phrase, ‘to turn the game around‘ after three Premier League sides came from behind late on in their matches to win. We also looked at the terms, ‘byline‘ and ‘as it stands‘, as well as ‘cameo‘ and ‘supersub’. Here’s Damon explaining the meanings of these two terms:

DB: …a cameo appearance is mostly used with substitutes. Another phrase used when talking about substitutes is supersub (or super-sub). Here, ‘sub’ is short for substitute. A supersub is a player that is usually not in the first team, but often plays really well when they come on as a substitute.

In mid-April we looked at some of the language from the Champions League quarter-final matches including delicately poised; the ties were far from over; hanging in the balance and nothing to choose between the two teams. In the end Real Madrid, Dortmund, PSG and Bayern Munich all won through to the semi-finals. And of course Real Madrid won the title again – their 15th title even though they had to ride their luck against Dortmund in the final at Wembley.

May

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In May Damon looked at a cliche that many fans use at the end of a season when they look back at their favourite team’s performance: If you’d offered me that.

DB: This is where we use the cliche: If you’d offered me that. The full phrase is ‘If you’d offered me that at the beginning of the season, I would have bitten your hand off’. I would have bitten your hand off, means I would have taken the offer quickly with no questions.

I think Damon was fairly happy with his team Liverpool after they won the Carabao Cup against Chelsea and of course they also qualified for the Champions League.

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Now, May is a time when teams are winning titles so we looked at the term successive titles after Chelsea won their fifth successive title in the WSL (The Women’s Super League here in England). We also looked at many of the domestic cup finals and in particular at the phrase, ‘do (or complete) the double’ as many clubs around Europe were hoping to win both the league and cup. Manchester United prevented City from winning the double – they defied the odds to do so. But PSG in France, Celtic in Scotland and Bayer Leverkusen in Germany all completed the domestic double. 

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

Contact

DF: Right, here is a reminder that if you have any questions about the language of football or comments on the podcast, please contact us via e-mail at admin@languagecaster.com. Also, come along to the website to check out the football-language forum where you can ask and answer any questions you have on the language of football – we’ve recently had questions around the phrases, ‘touch and go’ and also ‘on the grass’. And come along to our massive glossary of football vocabulary too to find out more about different kinds of football language. And we’d love it if you can tell a friend about us and maybe give us some likes and follows on social media: we are on Instagram, Facebook and Blue Sky among many others.

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

Goodbye

DF: Thanks for that message, which was in Dutch. And thanks everyone for listening today – we looked at some of the words and phrases from the first six months of 2024. And we’ll be looking at language from the second half of the year in the upcoming days, including a review of the Olympics and the Euros.

And don’t forget there’s a transcript for this podcast with lots of vocabulary support for you and you can read the transcript to this show while listening – and there is also a worksheet with answers. Enjoy all the football and we’ll be back early next week with a new football language expression. Bye bye!

2024 Podcasts [January-May]

Football Language Glossary

Football Language Glossary