Learn English Through Football

This week’s football language podcast looks at some of the language associated with the FA Cup Third Round including, ‘gulf in class‘; ‘force a replay’ and ‘pull of a shock‘. And don’t forget that 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.
 

Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2024 FA Cup Third Round
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 back in London after a short Christmas trip to Ireland. I hope you had a great break and watched lots of football over the festive period. There’s been a slight delay with the latest podcast as work has been super busy for both myself and Damon who is of course based in Japan.
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Right, on today’s short podcast I will be focusing on some terms connected to the Third Round of the FA Cup in England which is when the Premier League and Championship sides enter the competition. This means that they play against teams from League One and Two, as well as some non-league sides – this year there were four of them involved at this stage of the competition. I’ll be looking at four of the matches, including one that I actually went to see, and I’ll be looking at some of the language that came out from these games including, ‘gulf in class‘; ‘force a replay’ and ‘pull of a shock‘.  
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Sunderland v Newcastle: Gulf in class
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There was a chance of an upset in this game with Championship side Sunderland taking on their north-east rivals Newcastle, especially as Newcastle had been going through a poor run of form. However, the Premier League side easily defeated their local neighbours 3-0 to progress to the Fourth Round of the Cup. The result was never in doubt with Newcastle much better than their opponents; so much better in fact that we can say there was a gulf in class. This phrase means that one side was far superior to the other one, that there was a huge difference between the two sides. Newcastle were quicker, stronger,