Learn English Through Football

In this football language podcast we preview the 2023 Women’s World Cup which starts this week by looking at some of the favourites, possible dark horses and underdogs. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while 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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Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: 2023 Women’s World Cup Preview
DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners and teachers of English. I’m Damian and I’m based here in London where the weather is a lot cooler than many places around the world right now. I know that it is very hot in Tokyo, where of course the other member of the Learning English Through Football team, Damon, is based. I also wonder if Damon is enjoying the pre-tournament build up in Japan because of course the 2023 Women’s World Cup starts this week and Japan will be expected to do quite well, indeed, they are seen by many as dark horses for the tournament. Can you remember the meaning of the expression ‘dark horse’? Now, we have covered this phrase many times but just in case you don’t remember, a dark horse team is one that is not seen as one of the favourites but they still end up doing well – a little bit like Japan in 2011 when no one tipped the Nadeshiko to win. And yet they defeated the USA on penalties to claim the title.
So, on this week’s football-language podcast, I will be looking ahead to the World Cup and making some predictions about some of the teams. I’ll be looking at some of the favourites, some of the dark horses and also some of the teams that we don’t think will do well at all. A phrase that we can use to describe them is ‘outsiders’; or ‘underdogs‘ or maybe even stronger would be ‘also-rans’ which means they have absolutely no chance at all!
Now, don’t forget to come along to our site at Languagecaster.com where you can hear the recent podcast on the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Numbers.