Episode Details

This football language podcast looks back at Day 9 of the 2020 European Championships. We explain some phrases connected with talking about the woodwork. To do this, we focus on the Portugal versus Germany game. You can read a 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. (DB=Damon) Frame of the Goal - Football Language: Euro 2020 - Day 9 DB: You're listening to languagecaster.com's football language Euro 2020 podcast. Hi there everyone. My name is Damon, one half of the languagecaster team? How are things with you? On this show, I'm going to talk about how to talk about the woodwork in football, and I'll be focusing on the match between Portugal and Germany in Group F. Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Swedish). Woodwork DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was in Swedish. So, day nine and the match between Portugal and Germany. What a game! I hope you had a chance to watch it. Six goals and a game full of incidents. There were a brace of, or two, own goals by Portugal in the space of five minutes, a goal chalked off, which means disallowed, stunning counter attacks, and exciting play in the box, especially by Germany. But I want to talk about the near misses, the shots that nearly found the net. We had two examples of the ball hitting the woodwork in the match, so leta€™s take a look at those incidents and the football language to describe them. First, in the 78th minute, with Portugal trailing Germany by two goals at 2-4, Renato Sanches smashed a shot which hit the woodwork. This is how the Guardian minute-by-minute described it. "They play it short. Sanches, the substitute, thunders a fantastic shot from distance which crashes back off the frame of the goal." The Frame of the Goal DB: In this description the writer uses a€˜the frame of the goala€™ instead of woodwork. Woodwork and theA frame areA  general terms that describe the whole goal - the two vertical posts and the horizontal bar. These three pieces make the woodwork, the frame of the goal. When describing the ball hitting the woodwork we can use the verb a€˜to hita€™ - to hit the frame, to hit the woodwork. In the example from the Guardian we have a€˜to crasha€™. You could say the shot crashed against the woodwork, or crashed back off the post for example. Smash could be used instead of crash with the same meaning - a hard shot against the woodwork. http://gty.im/1324428912 So, Sanches' shot crashed back off the frame of the goal. It actually hit the post, the vertical piece of the goal, so if we want to make the description clear, we could say the shot crashed back off the post. One more option would be a€˜the uprighta€™.A  OK, leta€™s look at the second example, which was an attempt by Goretzka from outside the box. A shot that just touched the woodwork as it flew over the goal. Here, again, is the Guardian minute-by-minute. "Goretzka bears down on the Portuguese goal on the counterattack, and cracks a right-footed shot from a central position which flies just over, kissing the crossbar as it flashes by." Kiss the Woodwork DB: Goretzka's shot is different to Sanches' as it only just touched the woodwork. The writer uses the verb 'to kiss' to describe this light touch. As in the example with Sanches' shot, we can describe the incident with more detail by replacing woodwork with crossbar orA bar - the horizontal part of the goal. So, the shot kissed the bar as it flashed by. Alternatives to kiss, would be to graze or to shave. Both of these verbs describe delicate contact. Indeed in the live commentary of the game, the commentator said the shot shaved the crossbar. Of course when we talk about the ball hitting the woodwork, we use many different prepositions, such as against, on, off, over, pas