We look back at the opening game of the 2022 World Cup between hosts Qatar and Ecuador and explain the phrases ‘totally outplayed‘ and ‘on paper‘ which both came from the BBC report on the game. 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.   Football Language Podcast – 2022 World Cup Language: Totally Outplayed (Qatar 0-2 Ecuador) DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners and teachers of English. This is Damian and I am one half of the Languagecaster team; with Damon, of course, being the other half of the team and he’s based in Japan and over the next month, we will be explaining some of the words and phrases from the 2022 World Cup currently taking place in Qatar. On this short podcast, I’ll be looking at the phrases, ‘totally outplayed‘ and ‘on paper‘ from the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador. Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Twi from Ghana) Totally outplayed & On paper Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'uk33WBFCSh1nH8sbkMwWkg',sig:'qlCHaPz10iQBgpyoE8LRJ02Ovd1MKWfpAeU6jAOYSpU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1443088060',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Here’s how the BBC reported on the game. So, the 2022 World Cup is finally up and running after today’s opening match between Qatar and Ecuador. The South American side had an easy victory after scoring two early goals – a brace from veteran striker Enner Valencia. Maybe the Qatari side were affected by nerves in their first ever World Cup match but they started poorly and never really got into the game at all. So, in this BBC report on the game, they start by highlighting the fact that the hosts will still have to play African champions Senegal and the Netherlands – ranked 8th in the world – in the two remaining games in this group, meaning that there are going to be even more difficult fixtures to come and this is why the report used the phrase ‘on paper‘. If we describe one team as being better than another team ‘on paper‘ it suggests that one of the teams has better players and therefore should easily win. But as we know in football, nothing is ever certain and there are always shocks and giantkilling. In this example, the BBC report is suggesting that this opening game for the hosts was supposed to be their easiest and they now might be fearful of their two remaining matches. The report also used the phrase ‘totally outplayedR...