In today’s football language podcast we look at some of the words and phrases that emerged from the 2022 World Cup qualifier between England Poland as described in The Guardian (March 31, 2021), in particular we explain the phrases, ‘defensive lapse’; ‘swing the tie’; talisman’ and ‘roof of the net’. You can find more football words and expressions in our glossary of footballing phrases here, and you can visit our site to access all the previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then contact us at [email protected].

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Football Language Podcast: 2022 World Cup Qualifier England vs Poland

DF: Hello everyone, this is Damian from the Learning English Through Football team. I hope we are all doing well and that we are safe wherever we are in the world. Now on this short football language podcast we take a look at some of the language from the World Cup qualifier between England and Poland at Wembley and in particular  the words, ‘defensive lapse’; ‘swing the tie’; talisman’ and ‘roof of the net’

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Polish).

DF: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that message was in Polish. Don’t forget that there’s a transcript to this podcast which you can access by coming along to our site. And you can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or you can drop us a line at: [email protected]. Right, let’s take a look at some of the words and phrases from The Guardian newspaper’s report (March 31, 2021) on the England versus Poland World Cup qualifying tie.

Defensive lapse

A lapse is an error – one that happens due to a lack of concentration – and so a defensive lapse is a mistake made by a defender or a group of defenders. Here’s the sentence from the Guardian:

It was a horror moment and the central defender could not hide, a lapse that presented Poland with an equaliser to shock England…

The writer describes the lapse as a ‘horror moment’ which suggests that the mistake was a really bad one before going on to use the expression ‘present Poland with an equaliser’ which of course means that the defender gifted the goal to the