In a week of European drama both on and off the football pitch, our Language Research team has collected and analysed more than 2 million words of worldwide media reports on Euro 2016. In this post we explore the three words that have characterised the tournament so far (other notable words are shown in italics).
‘Humiliation’. The England team once again have been ‘humiliated’, and have caused ‘disappointment’ and ‘despair’ with their performances (as did Russia – the other team most frequently found with this word). Much of the blame for England’s performance seems to have been levelled at ‘Hodgson’, the England manager, who we see frequently occurring with the word ‘failure’, and who ‘resigned’ as a result. England have long missed out on big tournament wins though, frequently not managing to ‘live up to expectations’. In our research we see that ‘humiliation’ was not England’s alone, with penalty takers on both teams being ‘humiliated’ in the dramatic events of the Germany vs. Italy game.
‘Dramatic’. This is one of the most frequent descriptors found in our research, used both positively to refer to a ‘dramatic victory’ and negatively with ‘defeat’. Off the pitch, ‘dramatic’ was also used to describe the fan violence at the start of the contest, with ‘dramatic scenes’ and ‘panic’ being widely reported. It wasn’t all bad news about fans though – Republic of Ireland was said by many to have the ‘best fans’ who had a lot of ‘craic’ and interacted with other fans by singing rather than fighting.
‘Shock’: The ‘shock’ successes of ‘underdogs’ like Wales and Iceland has gathered lots of attention in the press. Despite their ‘crushing defeat’ against France, Iceland returned home to a ‘hero’s welcome’ after an unforgettable time in the competition, with their fans feeling ‘proud’ of their achievements. We also see the word shock being used ironically when referring to Germany’s perhaps predictable eventual victory in their penalty shoot-out with Italy.
As the Euro 2016 tournament has now drawn to a close, we know that ‘resilient’ Portugal has emerged triumphant against the ‘almost perfect’ France. Many people said ‘mighty’ Germany might have gone all the way, however not many predicted Wales getting to the semi-finals! We wonder who will ‘bounce back’ during the Summer Olympics games?
If you’re interested in sports, why not read our article about the Olympics?