Trapping - Futty Danso of Timbers FC

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

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• trapping
• defender
• ground ball
• aerial ball

• head

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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One of the most impressive things about watching soccer is seeing players pass the ball to each other high in the air over long distances. Imagine receiving one of these passes. You can’t use your hands. So what do you? You trap the ball.

To trap something means to hold or contain it. You can set traps for animals in the woods if you need to catch some food. Police will set traps to catch people violating traffic laws. To trap the ball in soccer, you use your feet, legs or body to get control of it before passing it on.
Mamadou “Futty” Danso of Portland Timbers FC was kind enough to demonstrate and explain this term further after a recent training session.

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Futty

Jason:  Alright, this is English, baby! and this is trapping with Futty of Timbers Football Club. We were wondering if you could show us and talk about what it means to trap the ball.

Futty:  Yeah, sure, I can do that. I mean, it’s like one of the most important things in soccer. You have like thousands of different stops depending on where the ball is coming from and the situation you are in in the game.

Jason:  And you’re a defender, so do you find yourself trapping the ball a lot when it’s coming down the field?

Futty:  Um, yeah, we trap the ball a lot, especially ground balls, that’s where use it lot. To trap the ball, like somebody outside passing you the ball, trapping. I mean, we have like, most of the aerial balls...we trap them, but normally we head them out. So most of our trapping is rolling balls that are rolling towards us.

Jason:  You just stop the ball so you can get control.

Futty:  Yeah, pretty much. Trapping is like…the most important part is try to control the ball before your opponent comes in, as quickly as you can.

Jason:  Futty says that trapping means to stop the ball with your body. Off the field, when you trap something, it means you hold or contain it. Let’s hear Futty’s definition again.

Futty:  Just try to control the ball before your opponent comes in, as quickly as you can, so you can give the player next to you time to control the chance to have time to control before the opponent comes in. If your trap is bad, more than likely, you’re going to give the next player a bad pass and that’s going to put the whole team under pressure and defenders can’t do that at all. English, baby!

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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