This Week: The stuff of dreams

Hello, my name’s Jack and welcome to the weekly round-up called This Week on Premier Skills English.

In This Week, we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

If you are listening to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org where you’ll be able to download the podcast.

On the Premier Skills English website, you can read the transcript and join the Premier Skills English community by completing a language task in the comments section. This will really help you remember the new words and phrases from the stories from the Premier League.

This week, I’m talking about Ipswich Town’s first match back in the top tier of English football as they welcomed Liverpool and Brighton who travelled up to Goodison Park in Liverpool to take on Everton.

The words and phrases I am going to talk about today are:

• The stuff of dreams
• Expectations
• To be a handful
• Inevitable
• To put it kindly
• Short lived
• A second bite
• The cherry on top

Listen out for this vocabulary in this week’s story.

But before I get to the story, I want to look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week, here’s one more chance to guess now.

Last week, the football phrase was ********. This is a tactic where players put pressure on their opponents when they have the ball so that they make mistakes and the team that is ******* can win the ball back.

The fiendish football phrase was a ***** ****. This is a centre forward that has been given the freedom to drop back into deeper positions to not only develop shots but also to be able to add support with counter-******* when the team is off the ball.
Congratulations to Alex from Ukraine, AndreTorre102 from Brazil, Gapa from Korea, Hasan from Turkey, MoBeckham from Turkey, Denis2000 from Belarus, Lukáš from Czechia and Idzingirai from Zimbabwe.

You all managed to work out that the football phrase was pressing and the fiendish football phrase was false nine. Now, Lukáš said that these phrases were easy so I am going to try harder to up the ante, that is to raise the level and make the fiendish football phrase much harder so Keep listening till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase and a new harder fiendish football phrase.

Hasan, you mentioned that I didn’t describe the difference between a bundle and a bonus very well. So ... a bonus is just a good thing that you didn’t expect. It’s something that makes you say: Oh! Wow, that’s great. So if you were sent to the UK for a work meeting and then, when you arrived, your boss said that as a special reward for your hard work they bought you tickets to watch Spurs play, that would be a really fantastic bonus.

A bundle is just a group of things tied together or wrapped up together. In Egypt and Indonesia, during Ramadan, some shops sell special Iftar bundles. In Indonesia, these are often quite strange collections of products that include cooking oil and rice, perhaps some chocolate and then other unusual items but they are all bundled together. I suspect you can find similar bundles on sale during Ramadan in Turkey.

I hope that helps you understand the difference.

Now it’s time for the first story.

Ipswich put up a fight at Portman Road

The sun was shining in the early afternoon at the Portman Road Stadium in Ipswich. For players and fans, this really was the stuff of dreams, when you think that just three seasons ago, their opening game was against Morecombe in League one, the third tier of English football. That game finished in a draw.

I think it’s fair to say that the home side’s fans’ expectations were pretty low. Liverpool are going to be a handful in any stadium in the land. In Portman Road, many fans were surely hoping to see a performance that showed they deserve their place in the league.

For Liverpool, this was their first Premier League outing for their new manager Arne Slot who will have to work hard to gain the level of trust and respect that the team and fans had for Klopp.

In the first half, Ipswich looked good and made trouble for their powerful visitors with a couple of good shots on target that were blocked by Alisson. But then in the second half, Liverpool found their rhythm and piled on the pressure, launching wave after wave of attacks, forcing Ipswich to batter away a barrage of shots.

When the first Liverpool goal came, it felt inevitable. Alexander-Arnold played a lovely through ball for Salah who was in a good position to shoot. But as the Ipswich defenders were quickly closing in on the Egyptian, Salah tapped the ball for Jota who was running into the centre and who slammed the ball into the net.

Five minutes later, Salah scored Liverpool’s second goal. A long cross and Salah played the ball into the middle. The ball was knocked back into Salah’s path and he fired the ball home scoring for the ninth time in an opening game setting a new Premier League record.

Final score: Ipswich Town 0 - 2 Liverpool

The phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• The stuff of dreams
• Expectations
• To be a handful
• Inevitable

The stuff of dreams
We use this phrase to say that something or a situation is so amazing, so wonderful, that it feels like it would only happen in a dream. If there’s something that you would love to happen, but it’s so unlikely, that it only exists in your mind, then it’s your dream. The word stuff means substance or material and we use it when we don’t know the name or when it’s not important what it really is. Some people make their dreams come true, but for most of us, our dreams are just fantasies. For League One football clubs, winning two promotions in a row to launch a campaign in the Premier League is such an unlikely prospect that it sounds more like a dream than a plan. But for Ipswich Town, they managed it and that’s why when the players walked onto the pitch on saturday, it was the stuff of dreams.

Expectations
Your expectations are what you expect or believe is going to happen. If you expect something positive, you can say that you have high expectations. If you are not very positive then your expectations are low. If you are feeling very positive about something, perhaps you have just had an interview for a job that you want and you think that you did very well and that you have got the job, you have high expectations. However, if one of your colleagues, someone you work with knows that lots of really good people have applied for the job, they might warn you to lower your expectations.

To be a handful
The word handful is literally, an amount that you can hold in your hand. We sometimes use the word to describe the quantity of something if there’s not much. So you could say that there were a handful of protestors outside the building, but not too many. The third meaning is quite good fun. It means a person or an animal or a thing that is hard to control. Most commonly it’s used to talk about really badly behaved children. My children are really well behaved, ahem ... but my youngest has a friend who is a bit of a handful. Any team that takes on Liverpool is going to find them difficult to control or manage so they are always going to be a handful.

Inevitable
If something is inevitable, then it is certain to happen. It is unavoidable. We often use it to say that there was no way to avoid something that happened. So lots of businesses really struggled to survive after they all had to shut when the country was locked down due to covid. And now, lots of businesses have closed down. Lots of people worked really hard to try to save their businesses, but in the end, it was inevitable that some would not survive; there was nothing that anyone could have done to prevent it.

Now it’s time for the second story.

A perfect start for Brighton

Putting it kindly, Everton were unlucky not to score in the first half. Jack Harrison found the net early on when he tapped in after Keane headed McNeil’s corner kick down, but his celebrations were short-lived as the assistant referee had spotted Harrison was offside.

A second, unbelievable moment of bad luck came after Joao Pedro was somewhat recklessly tackled in Everton’s penalty area. Tarkowski fired the ball away from the goal and the homeside launched a lightning counter attack.

Somehow, Doucoure was able to run past Brighton’s back line with McNeil in support. With just the keeper to beat, Doucoure tapped the ball for McNeil who blasted it across the goal and against the post. He had a second bite with the rebound but missed the whole goal from about 2 metres away and the ball rolled up the goal line where it was missed by Calvert-Lewin and Doucoure.

In the 25th minute, Mitoma received the ball on the edge of his own penalty area and sprinted down the pitch. As the Everton defenders ran in, he passed the ball to Welbeck who fired the ball wide to Minteh who ran forward before crossing the ball perfectly for Mitoma who hadn’t stopped running. The Japanese midfielder deflected the ball into the back of the net.

In the second half, Welbeck scored a second for Brighton. A poor pass was intercepted in Everton’s half. The ball was passed quickly to Welbeck who ran at the goal. Welbeck had support on both sides but didn’t need it and struck the ball well.

In the 86th minute Adingra cut through the Everton defence before hitting home with a confident strike. The third goal was the cherry on top, sealing the win and making the match the perfect start to the season at the top of the Premier League table.

Final score: Everton 0 - 3 Brighton and Hove Albion

The phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• To put it kindly
• Short-lived
• A second bite
• The cherry on top

To put it kindly
If you put something kindly, I think we almost always say put it kindly, if you put something kindly, when you talk about it, you try to make it sound better than it really is. People put it kindly, when they want to say something that doesn’t hurt or upset people, even if it is the truth. Sometimes, to put it kindly just means to focus on the positive more than the negative and sometimes, it involves a positive interpretation. So if you have a friend who is always late, who has terrible timing and never turns up for anything on time, let’s say he’s going on a date with another friend of yours. You might try to lower their expectations in advance by saying that your friend is always very busy and sometimes gets delayed. That would be putting it kindly as the truth is just that they are really bad at meeting on time.

Short-lived
If something is short-lived, it doesn’t exist for very long. I think that this is quite easy to understand, though it is figurative as we often use it for situations that aren’t really alive. So, I used to work in a shop. However, my career in retail sales was short-lived because ... I really hated the job. I didn’t mind the work, but I was young and there’s only so much you can learn from selling clothes and shoes and camping equipment so I think that it was inevitable that my career would be short-lived.

A second bite
I spoke about this phrase a few years ago with Rich. If you get a second bite, that means you have a second chance to do something. We usually use the phrase a second bite when it’s surprising somehow that we’re getting another chance. The full phrase is either a second bite of the cherry or a second bite of the apple. I tried looking up the origins of the phrase and found lots of blog posts that suggest it has something to do with eating fruit but that’s not very helpful. In football English, it usually means a second chance to score. So if a striker takes a shot and the goalkeeper blocks it, but the ball falls to the striker, they will have a second opportunity to shoot. This is a second bite of the cherry or more simply a second bite.

The cherry on top
Another cherry idiom and another that I have spoken about in the past, quite a lo9ng time ago. The cherry on top means a good thing that happens on top of a situation that is already very good. The full idiom is the cherry on top of the cake. So if it’s your birthday, someone might bake you a cake. When they have baked the cake and put icing on the cake, they might put a cherry on top for decoration. So the cherry on top is like a little bonus, it’s a good thing on top of something that is already good. In football English, it means a goal when the game is already safe. So in the 86th minute when Brighton were already 2 goals up, the result was pretty safe. It was very unlikely that Ipswich were going to launch a comebvack. So when Adringa cut through the everton defence before powering the ball into the net, Brighton were already winning so the third goal was like the cherry on top of a delicious first match, first win of the season cake.

Today, I’ve spoken about 8 useful words and phrases.

The words and phrases were:

• The stuff of dreams
• Expectations
• To be a handful
• Inevitable
• To put it kindly
• Short lived
• A second bite
• The cherry on top

Listen to the stories one more time to hear this language in context.

Language challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about this language again. I have used AI to come up with examples of today’s words and phrases and edited them slightly. I have removed the vocabulary from the stories so I want you to fill in the gaps with the correct forms of the language from the podcast.

Number 1. The coach had high ______________ for the team this season, believing they could win the championship.

Number 2. With the way the storm was approaching, it was __________ that the outdoor concert would be cancelled.

Number 3. Winning the championship was incredible, but being named MVP was _______________.

Number 4. Saying the project is running behind schedule is ________________ — we're months late and nowhere near finished.

Number 5. She wasn’t selected for the role initially, but when the first choice dropped out, she got _____________ at the audition.

Number 6. Landing a role in a blockbuster movie alongside your favourite actor is _____________ for any aspiring actor.

Number 7. The team's lead in the game was __________, as the opposing team quickly scored two goals.

Number 8. My little brother is smart, but he____________  in class because he gets bored easily and starts distracting others.

Leave your answers to this language challenge in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week's football phrase.

This week, the football phrase is just a word and the word is ******. This is something that you hold, but it’s not a physical thing. You set one of these when you’re the first person to do something. If someone does it better than you, often faster or for longer or at an earlier age, then your ****** will be broken and you will no longer hold the ******.

The fiendish football phrase is to **** **** ******. This means to reach a point where you are comfortable and confident in what you are doing. In football, sometimes a team takes a while to **** **** ****** and they play badly. Passes are missed, runs are mistimed and the performance is poor. However, sometimes a team settles down and starts playing well together. When this happens, you can say that they ***** ***** ******.

If you know the answer, be sure to leave it in a comment on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Before I finish, I am going to go through the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1. Our budget for the project is limited, so we need to be resourceful.

Number 2. The company offers a bundle deal where you can save money if you pay for multiple services.

Number 3. The game offered extra levels as a bonus for players who finished quickly.

Number 4. The athlete performed well in the competition and won a medal.

Number 5. We were touched by the warm hospitality we received from our hosts.

Number 6. The coach arranged a transfer for the player to join another football team.

Number 7. The weather will determine whether the event is held indoors or outdoors.

Number 8. The football squad trained hard for the upcoming campaign, each member determined to earn a starting spot.

Number 9. After a long walk, they rested on a wooden bench by the lake.

And that’s all I have time for today. Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope everyone stays fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.