Football Language Podcast: June 2020 – June 2020 Everton v Liverpool. On this week’s football-language podcast we welcome back the Premier League and look back at some of the games that have already been played and of course look ahead to some more of the games taking place. We also explain a football language expression about the rustiness of some of the players after three months without any football. There is also a football-language question about the word ‘to ping’ and we have predictions – lots of predictions! Listen to the podcast by clicking on the file below – you can also subscribe and listen to all our football-language podcasts – there are hundreds of them dating from way back in 2006! You can improve your English by reading the transcript as you listen, or if you are a teacher of English you can use the transcript to make several listening and/or reading activities for your learners. We have also created a listening gap fill exercise based on a section of this podcast. If you have questions or comments then you can email us at: admin@languagecaster.com (Damon=DB; Damian=DF). Football Language Podcast: June 2020 Everton v Liverpool Introduction DB: You are listening to languagecaster.com. Welcome everyone to the show for all those who love the beautiful game of football and who are also interested in improving their English language skills. My name is Damon and I’m based in Tokyo, which has just lifted its COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, so all shops and restaurants can open and there are no travel restrictions. Still a bit strange and social distancing and masks are strongly recommended. And this coincides with the return of the Premier League this week, which joined other major football leagues in Europe and elsewhere in restarting. I enjoyed watching a few of the Premier League games, including Manchester City versus Arsenal and Tottenham vs Manchester United. Damian, how do you feel with the point Spurs got against Man United and how is the lockdown in England? DF: Hello Damon and hi to everyone listening in – we hope you are all well. Things here in London are moving towards a lifting of lockdown but there are still many restrictions including of course that football matches have to be played in empty stadiums. But at least football is back! All Premier League games are being shown live on TV here in the UK and as we have been starved of football for over 100 days I have managed to see all of them so far as well as a couple of La Liga games! Watching Spurs play was strange in front of no fans in their new stadium but if I’d been offered a point before the game started I would have taken it but then being one-nil up with ten minutes to go I was disappointed that United equalised from the penalty spot. A 1-1 draw was a fair result I suppose. How about you with Liverpool in the derby? DB: Like you, the result was fair. Neither side really carried much attacking threat, but Everton could have nicked it at the end. Another point and five more to go to win the title. I think it might be more difficult than some people think for Liverpool to get those five points! DF: OK, now what’s on the rest of the show? Line up DB: OK, we’ll start with a little review of the football news, followed by some English for football language, and this week  we explain ‘