Football Language: Main Report – Week 40: The Double

The Double: Each week on languagecaster's podcast we feature a main report and on this week's show we explain 'the Double': when a team wins the domestic league and cup. You can listen to the report by clicking above and can read the transcript below. Explanations of vocabulary in bold appear at the foot of the post.If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at [email protected].

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What is a Double?

Very simply to do the double means that a team wins both the league title and the main domestic cup in the same season; so, for example, in England this would mean winning the Premier League and the FA Cup - quite a feat indeed. To win a double, a team has to demonstrate all the traits of a champion - abundant skill, strong character, lots of concentration, good organisation and team work but in order to win the cup then other factors like luck are also necessary.

England



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When I was young, few people ever thought they would see another double-winning side again. When Tottenham won it in 1961 it was the first time it had been done since Aston Villa in 1897. Then when Arsenal became only the fourth side to do it in 1971 (Preston had won the double in 1889) we all thought that was that. Teams had to play more games in a season and their focus was firmly on winning international tournaments rather than domestic trophies. However, since Arsenal's triumph in 1971 it has occurred on 7 more occasions, including this season after Chelsea's win against Portsmouth in the FA Cup. Arsenal have won the double on three occasions, the last being in 2002, while Manchester United have also won it three times: in 1994, 1996 and in their treble-winning season of 1999. The only other club to have won a double in England is Liverpool when they managed it in 1986.



There have been many near-misses, demonstrating just how difficult it is to complete the double, with teams either losing the cup final after becoming champions or just missing out in the league but then going on to win the cup. Liverpool, for example, won the League and the European Cup in 1977 but surprisingly lost to rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup final that season, while Leeds lost out on three separate occasions in 7 years between 1965 and 1972. Indeed the Yorkshire side managed to complete a 'double horror' twice, that is, losing the FA Cup final and coming second in the league.

Europe

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Bayern Munich have just completed their 8th domestic double in Germany demonstrating their dominance at home - the third time in four years they have done this, indeed only three other clubs have managed to do the double in Germany, Stuttgart, Koln and Werder Bremen in 2004. The double is not so common in Italy - which may be partly due to the lack of interest in the Coppa Italia - but Inter Milan have a chance of winning their second ever double this season which would bring them alongside Juventus as the most successful double-winning team in Italian football. In Spain,