World Cup English: Competitive Vocabulary and Expressions

The 2014 World Cup is quickly arriving and we all know that means a time for Global unity, connection, and of course COMPETITION!

Do you consider yourself a very competitive person?

Recently, our good friends from Kaplan International, organized a friendly soccer competition amongst their students to celebrate football and the upcoming (will happen soon) World Cup in Brazil. There were more than 150 students from 25 nationalities that competed in this huge international event hosted at the West Ham United home stadium.

As you can probably imagine, there was a lot of tension in the air amongst competing students and a lot of friendly bantering (teasing). At the end of this 4-hour festival of soccer, Angola walked away (left the competition) victorious after beating France in a nail-biting (nerve racking) 1-0 final.

Competetive Vocabulary and Expressions

All of this talk about competing and the World Cup has put me in a very competitive mode and I have decided to teach all of you some cool new vocabulary and relevant expressions related to sports and competition. Let’s take a look.

Bite the dust – In a competitive sense to bite the dust means to fail miserably.

• “France bit the dust in their game against Angola.”

An Underdog – the team or person which has a huge disadvantage in comparison to the other competitors.

• “Australia is an underdog in this world cup but hopefully they will surprise us all.”

It’s anyone’s game – Everyone has an equal chance to win the game.

• “Hey Bob, who do you think will win the World Cup?”
• “I don’t know Charlie, it’s anyone’s game.”

A hat trick – 3 Goals scored by 1 player in the same game.

• Did you see Messi get hat trick in his last game?”

To be a sore loser – To not accept that you have lost the game and become very aggravated and even rude.

• “Be careful what you say to Suzie after the game because she’s a sore loser and gets very pissed off.”

A low blow – An unfair or unsportsmanlike criticism or attack.

• “That was a bit of a low blow the way that he tripped him like that.”

To have a fighting chance – To have a chance to win but with a lot of struggle and difficulty.

• “I know that Australia is not favorites but I still believe they have a fighting chance.”

A home advantage – To have a better chance and condition because you are playing in your country or city.

• “I think Brazil will win the world cup because they have a big home advantage.

Make the cut – To not be selected because you are not good enough to play with this other competitors.

• “Do you think New Zealand will play well this year?”
• “No because they didn’t make the cut.”

Now that you have prepared yourself for some competitive banter, get out there and support you team in this year’s World Cup in Brazil, that is if your team made the cut of course.