Learn English Through Football

In this short football language post we explain the expression ‘the goal led a charmed life‘ and how it is used in football. Check out our football glossary  and  football cliches pages for hundreds more explanations of the language of soccer. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
Football Language: Lead a charmed life
DF: Hello everyone, this is Damian from the Learning English Through Football team – we hope you are all well and in this short football language podcast we are going to look at the phrase ‘the goal led a charmed life‘ and how it is used in football. Don’t forget that there is a transcript for this report which can be accessed from our site at languagecaster.com.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Irish).
DF: If something is charmed, not charming, it means that it has a lot of luck involved with it, almost like there is a spell protecting it. So, if a goal leads a charmed life it means that no matter what the attacking side tries they are unable to score a goal – the goal was protected by something like a charm or a spell. We can also use the name of a team in this phrase to suggest that this team has been very lucky in a match. So, for example, former Leicester City manager Craig Shakespeare admitted after a win over Liverpool that, ‘Leicester led ‘charmed life‘ in Liverpool win’ (Sky Sports, 19 September 2017) and this means they were very, very lucky to win. Here’s another example, this time from the BBC website: ‘Sunderland’s goal led a charmed life at times too, Burton having had numerous good chances earlier in the match…’ which means that Burton had lots of chances to score but somehow Sunderland did not concede a goal – their goal led a charmed life.

Stinger: You’re listening to languagecaster.com (in Greek).
DF: Thanks everyone for listening – we hope you enjoyed our look at the phrase, ‘to lead a charmed life‘ and how it is used in football. Listen out for examples of this word when you are watching or reading about football. Indeed, maybe you can let us know how this phrase is said in other languages. Drop us a line at admin@languagecaster.com and let us know.
Don’t forget we also have a transcript for the report which can be accessed for free at languagecaster. OK, we’ll be back soon with some more football language. Enjoy all the football this week – see you soon. Bye bye.
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