Learn English Through Football Podcast: To down a team

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Learn English Through Football Podcast: To down a team

In this week’s football-language podcast we look at some meanings around the phrase, ‘to down a team/an opponent‘. We also look ahead to this weekend’s football with the Newcastle versus Nottingham Forest game in the Premier League. 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 about the phrase or our podcast then you can contact us here.

Hello

DF: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast.

DF: Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s football language podcast for learners of English who love football. My name is Damian and I am here in London where we have just had a storm pass over the country so the weather has been very wet and really windy! What is the weather like where you are? I think the weather in Tokyo, where of course the other member of the team Damon is living, is getting a little cooler, which is good. Now Damon won’t be with us this week as he is a little busy and I am sure it is definitely nothing to do with his favourite team Liverpool losing three games this week (sorry Liverpool fans!). Also apologies for the delay in this week’s podcast as it is the start of term here in the UK and things are also a little busy for me!

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Besiktas fan)

Embed from Getty Images

DF: Now, how did your favourite football team get on this week? I went to see my team Tottenham play last Saturday in the Premier League against bottom side Wolves and we drew 1-1. Not a great result but the equaliser came in the last minute – a stoppage-time goal – so at least that was good! We then came back to draw against Bodø/Glimt in Norway in the Champions League after being two goals down – we were very lucky indeed! This means we have come back after going behind to draw three times in our last three games. So, three times we have scored late equalisers to earn a point. This shows good fighting spirit but maybe we should try and find a way to keep the goals out first!

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

DF: And, before we start with some football language, just a reminder that the domain name is now learnengishthroughfootball.com as we think it better reflects who we are and what we do; it’s a place for people to learn English through football! You can still find us with the old address of languagecaster.com and you will hear stingers with that name throughout the show just like that one which was in Korean. We’d also love it if you can share or like our podcast and maybe tell your friends all about us!

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

DF: Yes, that message was in Dutch and, as always, we will have some more stingers or messages throughout the show in different languages. How many will you be able to recognise? And we’ll let you know the languages at the end of the show. And please send us a message in your own language – just tell us that, ‘You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast’. Or, you can tell us in English your name, where you are from, and the team you support, plus ‘you are listening to the Learn English through football podcast’. It would be great to hear from you and to get as many messages in different languages as possible!

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

DF: Great stuff! Let’s take a look at some language from the week and we’ll start with some words and phrases from this week’s Champions League. First up, ‘to down an opponent‘.

Football Language: To down a team/an opponent

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Right, this week’s football language comes from the big Champions League game between Barcelona and PSG. This was a great game to watch even though both sides were missing lots of players through injury. PSG, the current holders, came from behind to win 2-1 in Barcelona after a wonderful second half performance. The Guardian newspaper used the phrase ‘PSG downed Barcelona‘ to describe this victory.

So, the word ‘down’ appears in many football expressions: To bring down an opponent means to foul a player from the opposing team; to bring them down. Of course, if a team is relegated then they ‘go down‘; they go down a division – they are relegated.

But the phrase, ‘to down a team‘ means to defeat another team. So, when PSG downed Barcelona it means that PSG defeated Barcelona; they beat Barcelona. It is not such a common phrase and is often seen in newspaper or report headlines to describe quickly what happened in the game. The construction of the phrase is quite simple: Team A downed Team B. We can also change the team name for something else such as the opponent or another phrase that describes the opponent such as ‘they downed the champions‘ or ‘they downed the hosts‘ and so on.

Has your favourite team downed anyone recently? Or has your favourite team been downed by another team?

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

Football Language: Swat aside

DF: Now we received a nice question from Puji this week on the term, ‘swat aside‘ which is connected to a previous post we did, ‘sweep aside‘. Puji asks, Can you explain what “swat aside” means in the following sentence? ‘Manchester City swat aside Stoke City as James Milner sets up comfortable win’.

Well, thank you very much for the question Puji. Well, to swat something means to hit something hard; maybe a baseball player can swat the ball or sometimes we might hear that someone has swatted an insect so they have hit the insect. To swat aside means to move something (or someone) out of the way and in football, it suggests that one team has easily defeated (or downed) their opponent. In this example, the verb swat aside suggests that City’s win was an easy one – they easily downed Stoke City.

Thanks again Puji for the football language question and it would be great if listeners want to ask us any more questions about football language – just send it on to us here at learnenglishthroughfootball.com or maybe you can post it onto our forum.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Zaragoza fan) 

Football Language: Swazz

DF: Now, I recently saw an interview with Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane in which the wonderful interviewer Archie Rhind-Tutt suggested that there was a ‘bit of swazz‘ on the shot. Kane had scored from outside the box with a low drive but the ball had moved or swerved into the goal; so Kane had curved the ball into the net. I think we can say he ‘swazzed it‘ but I think it might be more common to say that he used some swazz on the ball. Kane then described it as ‘almost like a driven pass’ so there was power and accuracy; he then also used a golfing term, ‘fade’ which means a ball gently moves from left to right; the directions changes from left to right. So, the word, ‘swazz’ is not very common but this is the meaning… it kind of moves from one side to another but I think quite powerful shot as well; he gave it some swazz! I wonder do any of our listeners have any examples of ‘swazz‘ or maybe another term or expression in another language? Let us know.

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

Right, next up it’s our predictions.

Predictions: Newcastle vs Nottingham Forest

DF: OK this week we are going to look at a big game in England on Sunday which sees Newcastle play Nottingham Forest. Now Forest changed their manager a couple of months ago and their new boss Ange Postecoglou has not won any of his first six matches. It seems that the former Tottenham boss has tried to implement a new style and it doesn’t seem to be working yet. Forest travel to Newcastle who have not been so convincing in their opening six matches either but they did have a fantastic away win in the Champions League this week. I think Forest might lose again to pile the pressure on Postecoglou. Maybe 3-1 to Newcastle.

What do you think will happen in this game or other games that you are watching over the weekend? Let us know by coming along to our site and leaving a comment either below this post or on our forum; it’s a really nice way to practise some of your writing. And you can leave a predictions voice note as well! And we’ll be happy to give you some feedback on this and maybe include it in our future podcasts.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Palermo fan)

Contact

DF: Right, remember you can contact us if you have any questions about the language of football or if you have some feedback on our podcast – we’d love to hear from you. Check out our website – remember, it’s now Learn English through football – and explore our Football Language Forum, where you can ask and answer questions about all kinds of football language. And don’t forget, we have a huge glossary of football terms, expressions, phrases, and clichés about the beautiful game of football.

We also have explanations and examples of some of the football language we have used in today’s show and you can find that by coming along to this post on Learn English Through Football.com.

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

Goodbye

DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football podcast and that message was in Cantonese. Did you guess the other languages you heard on today’s podcast? First, we had Korean, then Dutch and Welsh. After that we had Catalan and we also heard from a Zaragoza fan in Spain and of course that final message in Cantonese. Well done if you got any of those correct and remember you can add a message by sending us a recording for the Learn English Through Football podcast. We’d love to hear from you.

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast (from a Cameroon fan)

DF: And that was our latest stinger from a football fan in Cameroon. We heard from Tata last week who said that he expected the Indomitable Lions – that’s the Cameroon nickname – to qualify for the World Cup. Well, they are currently in second place and have two World Cup qualifiers next week: away in Mauritius and then at home against Angola. Good luck to them!

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast

DF: Right, let us know if you hear or see any of the phrases or words that we have talked about on this week’s show, including, ‘to down a team‘ or ‘to down an opponent‘. We also looked at swazz (or curve the ball) and the phrase ‘swat aside another team‘ How would you say these phrases in another language that you know? Or maybe can you tell us any examples when your favourite team has downed another team? Can you use today’s phrases in a sentence? If you can, send it on to us here at Learn English through Football.

Enjoy all the football this weekend and we’ll be back early next week with another weekly football expression from the weekend’s football. We’ll also be looking at some of the World Cup qualifiers coming up next week. See you all again soon. Bye bye!

More Examples

1. 1. 1. Goncalo Ramos said Paris St-Germain “want to win everything again” after his last-minute winner downed Barcelona in the battle of two of the Champions League favourites (Guardian.co.uk October 2 2025)

      2. Atalanta downed Liverpool at Anfield to end their unbeaten run.” (BBC Sport, Europa League 2024)

      3. “Nigeria downed South Africa on penalties to reach the Africa Cup of Nations final.” (BBC Sport, AFCON 2024)

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