Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

This episode is easy so we’re looking at common football words and phrases. Things you use and need to know to play the game.

Summary

Learn more football vocabulary with Premier Skills English. Each lesson in our Premier Vocabulary section looks at one football word or phrase. This lesson looks at the word press.

You can find more lessons on the side of this page.

Transcript

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to Premier Skills English - Premier Vocabulary.

Jack: Hi there! I’m Jack. We’re here to help you with your football English. Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time.

Rich: We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

Jack: This episode is easy so we’re looking at common football words and phrases; things you use and need to know to play the game.

Rich: The word we are looking at in this episode is: press.

Jack: Press has lots of meanings and we’re not going to look at all of them here.

Rich: First, we’ll look at a few ways how press is used in general English and then we’ll look at how it’s used in football.

Jack: Press can be a noun or a verb. The most common way press is used is probably when we push, or press, part of a device to make it work.

Rich: You might have to press a button to open a door; you need to press on the accelerator to make a car go faster.

Jack: On medicine bottles you often have to press and turn at the same time to open them. You apply physical pressure to the bottle.

Rich: Yes, they make them like this to keep medicine away from children but I can’t open them most of the time.

Jack: Really? I never have any problems, it’s not that difficult to be honest. We also use press when we push something closely against something else. Here are some examples from stories:

Rich: He pressed his face against the window as he watched her walk away and out of his life. They pressed their bodies together for warmth as they waited in the freezing conditions. The government agent pressed a message into my hand as she walked past me in the park.

Jack: The word press is connected to pressure which might be physical like when we press a button but it can also be used in connection with persuading people to say something. Here’s one example:

Rich: They’re still not sure if they're going to sign the contract or not.

Jack: We need to press them for an answer soon or we’ll have to go to a different company.

Rich: Here press means to try hard to persuade someone to do something.

Jack: In football press is used in a couple of ways. The first is connected to defending. A team might press the ball when they don’t have possession.

Rich: This means the defending team will get very close to the team with the ball and try to make them make a mistake under pressure.

Jack: It’s common nowadays to see attackers pressing defenders very quickly after a goal kick has been taken.

Rich: This is called a high press and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team are very good at it.

Jack: Klopp brought the tactic to Liverpool from Germany where it’s called Gegenpressing or counter pressing.

Rich: If a team lose possession in the attacking third the attackers will chase and close down the defenders as fast as possible to force them into errors or to make them play the ball long and concede possession.

Jack: The other way we see press being used in football is when we hear commentators say things like they are really pressing for the winner now.

Rich: It means a team is attacking more than usual and probably taking more risks as they are using more players in attack.

Jack: There is the final whistle!

Rich: We’ll be back soon with more Premier Vocabulary from Premier Skills English.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.

Discuss

Which teams are good at pressing?

Do you think a high press is a good tactic?