This weekend’s games give all the top teams a chance to consolidate their positions. Only Bremen, who are at home against Hertha, face another top six team and as D+D questioned on the podcast: Will Bremen be distracted by their game against Barcalona? Schalke, Bayern and Stuttgart all have games they should win. However, the teams that are around the foot of the Bundesliga must start winning soon. Mainz, Hamburg, Bochum and Moenchengladbach will be starting their ‘relegation battles’ now. Expect some tough games and do-or-die encounters. Bochum v. Hamburg, and Cottbus v. Hannover are the pick of these. I am tipping some upsets this weekend.

FSV Mainz 05 - VfB Stuttgart (0:0 Stuttgart missed a dozen chances)
Bayern München - Borussia M’gladbach (1:1 Important point for Gladbach)
Werder Bremen - Hertha BSC (3:1 Klose in form)
Borussia Dortmund - VfL Wolfsburg (1:0 Solid home win)
Arminia Bielefeld - Bayer Leverkusen (0:0)
VfL Bochum - Hamburger SV (2:1 BIG problems for Hamburg now)
Energie Cottbus - Hannover 96 (0:1 Hannover move up, Cottbus don’t!)
FC Nürnberg - FC Schalke 04 (0:0)
Alemannia Aachen - Eintracht Frankfurt (2:3 A hat-trick for Takahara)

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 Podcast 5 [14:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this week’s show -

- The good, the bad and the sublime!
- Dark horses in the Premier League
- English for football - Prima Donna
- Predictions

Remember to go to Worksheets and Audio to practice your English

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Now we have champions league qualification assured following our take over this week, I’m worried. It’ll mean I’ll have to go to the pub more often, increasing my alcohol intake and expenditure. I’ll have to watch all the matches on tele, time that i could be using more profitably. I’ll get worried when about whether we reach the knock out phase or not, increasing my stress levels and turning my hair grey.
Already I’m feeling nostalgic for the good old days, when we yo yod between divisions, only made cup finals once in a generation and were best known for winning the ‘66 world cup final. We were everyones favourite second team, played attractive, attacking foootball. Soon we’ll be hated/envied all through the land. Every kid aged 7 and under will be hammers fans and the “northern irons” fan clubs will stop me from turning up at 2:50 and being certain of getting a seat to the game. All we need now is an air crash to decimate our first team squad for our transformation to be complete.

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A lot of talk at the moment of Liverpool going 4-3-3 against Manchester City today. City don’t travel well and Liverpool have - amazingly - a great home record, it might work for Rafa to field an attacking side, but I don’t think it’s time to start switching formations too much at the start of the game. The league title is only a dream now, and it is a good time to work on finding how to play attractive football rather than ensuring wins. Here’s my team to start against Man City.

Reina

Finnan Carradonna Agger Riise

Garcia Gerrard Zenden Aurelio

Kuyt Bellamy

What do you think?

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It’s changing every week in the Bundesliga at the moment. Schalke took their chances last week and with a home game against a weak Bochum team, they should stay at the top. But wait, this is a local derby, so throw the form book away. Bremen are at home too, and after beating Chelsea mid-week, will be in a confident mood. Major concerns for Hamburg though, who have only won once so far this season. And they have to play Bayern. At the relegation end, Mainz need to start winning sometime soon, as do Gladbach who are currently sliding down the table. Can’t see it happening in Stuttgart though. Viel Spass!

Schalke - Bochum 2-1 (Schalke looking good)
Bremen - Bielefeld 3-0 (Getting into shape for Barcalona)
Hamburg - Bayern 1-2 (Doom and gloom in the North)
Hertha - Aachen 2-1 (Berlin on the up)
Hannover - Mainz 1-0 (Crucial points for Hannover)
Frankfurt - Dortmund 1-1 (Two mid-table teams)
Wolfsburg - Nürnberg 1-1 (Quiz question: In which city are VW’s made?)
Leverkusen - Cottbus 3-1
Stuttgart - Gladbach 1-0

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Here are the predictions from Damon and Damian this week. Can Damon maintain his 5 point lead? Can you do better than either of us?

Manchester United - Chelsea 2-0 2-1
Wolves - Sunderland 1-2 1-1
Valencia - Real Madrid 2-0 0-2
Palermo - Inter Milan 1-0 0-0

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A third away victory in the UEFA Cup last night against Bayer Leverkusen means that Spurs go through to the knock-out stage of the tournament after another disciplined performance.

However Martin Jol was still not entirely happy as yet again the team dominated possession and had numerous chances but failed to add to Berbatov’s 4th goal in European action this season. Having played for Leverkusen for 5 years it was always likely that the Bulgarian international would score against his old club, now let’s hope he can continue the form in the league this weekend against Wigan.

Match report

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DF                DB             Result
B. Munich v Stuttgart                     1-0 (1)         1-2               2-1
Chelsea v West ham                       1-2               3-0 (1)         1-0
Sevilla v Valencia                           2-0 (1)          1-0 (1)         3-0
Man City v Fulham                         2-0 (1)          2-1 (1)         3-1

This week’s score Damian 3 - 3 Damon
Overall scores Damian 5 - 11 Damon

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Podcast 4 (November 23rd) Vocabulary for podcast 4 pdf

powerhouse – a very strong team.
e.g. Doyle scored against the powerhouse of San Marino (ironic)

on the road – playing away from home
e.g. Liverpool still have not won on the road this season.

relegation – to be demoted to a lower league
e.g. Milan are 4 points away from the relegation zone

park football – low-level amateur football
e.g. The team played like a park-football team they were so bad..

kickstart their season – to start again in a more positive fashion
e.g. Valencia need to win to kickstart their season.

holding midfield player – a defensive midfielder
e.g. Chelsea’s Makelele is probably the best holding midfield player in England.

outside the box – shot from a long way out (outside the penalty area)
e.g. Robinson has allowed 5 shots to beat him from outside the box.

playmaker – the player who organises the team’s style
e.g. Tottenham miss their playmaker, Michael Carrick.

finding their feet – getting used to something new
e.g. The new players are finding their feet at the club.

dirty game – a violent, nasty game.
e.g. Manchester United and Chelsea should be a dirty game

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