Learn English Through Football

In this week’s short football language podcast, we take a look at the verb ‘to feed‘, along with some other football language. Check out our football glossary and football cliches pages for hundreds more explanations of the language of soccer. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments then please email us at: admin@languagecaster.com. (DB=Damon)

Listening Report: (to) Feed
DB: You’re listening to languagecaster.com. Hello everyone. Welcome to languagecaster and another short podcast on the language of football or soccer, depending on where you are in the world.  My name’s Damon, I’m based in Tokyo, and, as you may know if you are a regular listener, I’m one of the languagecaster team, the other being Damian in London. We both hope you are all keeping away from the corona virus wherever you are and are enjoying the football.
So, on today’s show, I’m going to take a look at the verb to feed and how it can be used when talking about football.
Stinger: You’re listening to languagecaster.com (in Korean)
To Feed
Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com, and that message was in Korean. Send us your message – you are listening to languagecaster.com in your language and we’ll add it to one of our shows. OK, let’s get started.
‘To feed‘ means to give food to. You can hear the resemblance between the verb ‘feed‘ and the noun ‘food‘, can’t you. So, you might feed your family, or feed your pet dog. Picture in your mind yourself putting food on a plate or in a bowl and then handing it to someone. We can also use ‘feed‘ to describe putting something in something – for example, you can feed wire or string through a hole, or you could feed data into a computer. You can even feed someone lies, tell them lies.
But what about football? Well, I’ve already says that if you feed someone, it can mean you pass them food. In football if you feed a player, you pass them the ball, you supply them with the ball, so that they can then use it somehow – maybe run with it, shoot, or pass it on. Remember I talked about feeding some wire or string through a hole or a pipe – maybe an electrician is feeding an electric wire through a wall. Now, imagine a player feeding the ball between two opposing players so that his or her teammate can latch on to the pass, can collect the pass.
Examples
This week, I’ve been watching the Champions League, so let’s imagine we have a player like Mbappe and his teammate Florenzi. We might say that Florenzi fed Mbappe, meaning he passed the ball to the striker. Other structures could be, Florenzi fed the ball through to Mbappe, or Florenzi fed the ball across the area. This last example is a little different as it is not feeding one player but giving an opportunity to anyone.
Stinger: You’re listening to languagecaster.com (Arsenal)
Right, let’s look at some real examples from football reports. First, the structure feed a player:
(Bernardo Silva) patiently and inventively fed Raheem Sterling at the back post to extend the lead by a further goal. (Liverpool Echo, Feb. 2021)
And here is the structure, feed the ball to someone or somewhere.
Peter Clarke fed the ball across the face of goal after Stanley failed to clear a corner and Ellis had the easy task of tapp...