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A Soccer Match

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 275: A Soccer Match.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 275. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Visit our website at eslpod.com to download a Learning Guide for this episode that contains all of the vocabulary, definitions, sample sentences, additional vocabulary not talked about in the podcast, as well as a cultural note, and a complete transcript of this episode.

This episode is called “A Soccer Match,” what in most countries of the world would be called a “football match.” Let’s get started!

[start of story]

Shandy: Oh, that player just hit my boyfriend! Did you see that? That was definitely a penalty.

Giuseppe: No, I didn’t. I was watching the goalie. The referee isn’t doing anything.

Shandy: I can’t believe it. Why isn’t the coach talking to that referee? I’m sure the other player deliberately kicked Fabio with his cleats.

Giuseppe: Hey, look! Fabio has the ball and he’s taking it all the way down the field. He shoots, he scores! That’s his second goal of the game. He’s going to win the game for the team.

Shandy: What’s he doing now? Why is he on the ground? Is he hurt?

Giuseppe: I don’t know. The trainer is helping him off the field. It doesn’t look serious.

Shandy: That’s good, but he hates sitting on the bench. He won’t want to watch the rest of the match from the sidelines.

Giuseppe: Look at the stands over there!

Shandy: What’s happening? Why are they all standing up? Oh, they’re starting a wave. I thought for a minute that the fans were getting into a brawl.

Giuseppe: It’s coming this way.

Shandy: Okay, here we go!

[end of story]

This episode is called “A Soccer Match.” What we call “soccer” here in the U.S., most countries call “football.” When we say “football,” we mean American football, which is very different.

This is a dialogue between two people who are watching a game; we would say two “fans” (fans). The first fan, Shandy, says, “Oh, that player just hit my boyfriend!” This is not, then, probably a professional soccer game, but one with amateurs; people who are not being paid. I should also say that the word “match” (match) as in “soccer match,” is another word for game. So, soccer match – soccer game – means the same thing.

Shandy says that there was definitely a penalty when this player hit her boyfriend. A “penalty” (penalty) is a punishment against a team or a player who breaks a rule during the game. Most team sports – most sports that have teams playing it, such as basketball, soccer, American football, hockey, if you do something wrong, then there is a penalty.

We can also use this word “penalty” for anything that you have to do when you are caught doing something wrong. Any punishment could be called a “penalty.” The “death penalty,” for example, is when the government kills someone because they did something wrong. Well, this isn’t as serious as a death penalty; it’s just a penalty in the soccer game.

Giuseppe, Shandy’s friend, says, “No, I didn’t. I was watching the goalie.” The “goalie” (goalie) is also called the “goalkeeper,” and that is, in soccer, the player that tries to stop the other team from getting points by not letting the ball go into the net. Each team has one goalie. There are also goalies in hockey, for example.

Giuseppe says that the referee (referee) isn’t doing anything. The “referee” is the person who – or one of the people who watch the game, and make sure that everyone is following the rules.

Shandy then says, “I can’t believe it. Why isn’t the coach talking to that referee?” The “coach” (coach) is the person who leads the sports team; the person who is in charge of the team. Shandy says she is sure that the other player deliberately kicked Fabio, her boyfriend, with his cleats (cleats). When we say that we “did something deliberately,” we mean on purpose; it’s what we had planned to do. “Cleats” are shoes that have many small points on the bottom, and these small points go into the ground and help the person wearing them avoid falling down or slipping. So, the cleats, if you kick someone with them, could be very painful because they can be sharp.

Giuseppe says, “Hey, look! Fabio has the ball and he’s taking it all the way down the field.” The “field” (field) is the outdoor or the grassy area where sports games are played. You can have an American football field; you can have a baseball field; you can have a soccer field. Each of those fields, of course, looks different.

Giuseppe then says, “He shoots, he scores!” “To shoot” here means to kick the ball towards the net of the other team. “To score” means to make a point; to score a point; to win a point. When you kick the ball into the other team’s net, we call that a “goal” (goal), a goal. The word “goal” has a couple of different meanings in English; take a look at our Learning Guide for this episode for some additional definitions.

Shandy says, “What’s he doing now,” meaning what is her boyfriend Fabio doing now. “Why is he on the ground?” Giuseppe says, “I don’t know. The trainer is helping him off the field.” The “trainer” (trainer) is the person that gives medical help – medical assistance – to the players when they get hurt. So, every big team has a trainer, a person who goes out and helps the players who get hurt during the game.

Shandy says that’s good that is not serious, but she knows that Fabio hates sitting on the bench. The “bench” (bench) is a long seat where members of the team sit when they are not playing. So, if you’re “on the bench,” you are not actually playing in the game. So it means you are not as good as, perhaps, the other members of the team or that you have been hurt. When I played basketball for a very short time as a boy, I would often sit on the bench during the games. I was not one of the better players. I was also one of the shorter players.

Going back to our story, we find that Shandy is saying that Fabio won’t want to watch the rest of the match from the sidelines. “Match,” we already know, means game. The “sidelines” (sidelines), in this case, refer to the area around the sports field where the team members are standing when they aren’t playing in the game. So, like the bench, people will sometimes use the word “sideline,” or “sidelines,” to refer to people who, or a place where you find players who are not playing. It is even a verb: “To be sidelined” means that you are taken out of the game for some reason, or something bad has happened to you and you can’t continue doing what you were doing before.

Giuseppe says, “Look at the stands over there!” The “stands” (stands), these are the rows of seats where people sit during the game. So, if you are a fan, and you go to watch the game, you can sit in the stands.

Shandy says, “What’s happening? Why are they all standing up? Oh,” she says, “they’re starting a wave” (wave). A “wave,” at an American sports game, or any sports game, is something that started maybe 20 years ago, where everyone stands up in a certain part of the stadium, and then the people next to them stand up, and you sit down. And this continues like a wave of water, all around the stadium. “Wave” has a couple of different meanings as well. Again, take a look at the Learning Guide for that.

Usually in the wave, people put up their hands as they stand, and they take their hands, or arms, down as they sit down again. It was very popular 10-15 years ago. I’m not sure if it is as popular today, but you will still see it.

Shandy says, “I thought for a minute,” meaning for a short time, “that the fans were getting into a brawl” (brawl). A “brawl” is another word for a fight, a very loud, noisy fight. Often, when people drink too much alcohol – when they are drunk – they get into brawls, especially men. That, of course, sometimes happens at some soccer games, but not most of them. It can happen in any sport, of course, especially swimming. Those swim fans – be careful!

Now let’s listen to the dialogue again, this time at a native rate of speech.

[start of story]

Shandy: Oh, that player just hit my boyfriend! Did you see that? That was definitely a penalty.

Giuseppe: No, I didn’t. I was watching the goalie. The referee isn’t doing anything.

Shandy: I can’t believe it. Why isn’t the coach talking to that referee? I’m sure the other player deliberately kicked Fabio with his cleats.

Giuseppe: Hey, look! Fabio has the ball and he’s taking it all the way down the field. He shoots, he scores! That’s his second goal of the game. He’s going to win the game for the team.

Shandy: What’s he doing now? Why is he on the ground? Is he hurt?

Giuseppe: I don’t know. The trainer is helping him off the field. It doesn’t look serious.

Shandy: That’s good, but he hates sitting on the bench. He won’t want to watch the rest of the match from the sidelines.

Giuseppe: Look at the stands over there!

Shandy: What’s happening? Why are they all standing up? Oh, they’re starting a wave. I thought for a minute that the fans were getting into a brawl.

Giuseppe: It’s coming this way.

Shandy: Okay, here we go!

[end of story]

The script for this podcast was written by a big soccer fan, Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2007.