Man: What a game! Five-nil¹! That must be the most exciting match I’ve ever been to.

Woman: Exciting? That was ridiculous. There’s no way you deserved to score five goals.

Man: You’re just sore². Your team got beaten, fair and square³.

Woman: Fair and square? Two of the goals were offside⁴!

Man: Offside? We were sitting in the same place, right? Okay, one of them was close, but…

Woman: Close? He was way offside. And we had that goal disallowed after seven minutes…

Man: Yeah, of course, cos⁵ your player fouled⁶ the keeper⁷…

Woman: There wasn’t a foul. And if that goal had stood⁸, who knows what would have happened?

Man: Even if I agree with you, we totally outplayed⁹ you.

Woman: You didn’t outplay anyone. The ref¹⁰ had a terrible afternoon. There were so many bad decisions I lost count.

Man: Is someone a bad loser¹¹?

Woman: Oh shut up. We’re still ahead of you in the league.

Man: Not for long, if you keep playing like that…

Woman: Well, enjoy your moment. It won’t happen every week!

Vocabulary Notes

1. Nil = zero. In many sports, including football, we use nil instead of zero
2. Sore literally means painful. Here it means that the woman is unhappy because her team lost.
3. Fair and square = completely fairly
4. Offside in football means that an attacking player is too far forwards when someone passes the ball.
5. Cos = because (conversational)
6. To foul = to break the rules when trying to take the ball from another player
7. Keeper = goalkeeper, the player in a football match who protects the goal
8. To stand here means to be counted
9. To outplay = to play much better than
10. Ref = referee (conversational)
11. A bad loser = someone who complains when they (or their team) lose

Match the phrases to their meanings

Can you find the words/phrases in the text with these meanings?

6. Really stupid or unbelievable
7. Your team lost
8. I don’t know how many there were
9. Be quiet
10. Really bad

1. c
2. a
3. d
4. e
5. b
6. ridiculous
7. you/your team got beaten
8. I lost count
9. shut up
10. terrible