Learners' Podcast 16 [9:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome to another languagecaster free football podcast. On this show Damian talks about J-League while Damon introduces our weekly English for football phrase.

Download worksheets, vocabulary and more here.

J-League with Damian Fitzpatrick

Pre-Listening (Background information)
Teams and players mentioned in the report
Urawa Reds; Shimizu S-Pulse; FC Yokohama; Yokohama F Marinos; Yokohama Flugels; Gamba Osaka; FC Tokyo; Nagoya Grampus; Ventforet Kofu; Kawasaki Frontale are all teams that have played in the J-League while Genoa play in Italy.

Tulio plays for Urawa Reds, Kazu and Yokoyama play for FC Yokohama and Honda plays for Nagoya Grampus. Wanchope is from Costa Rica and now plays at FC Tokyo with Hirayama.

Zico (Brazil), Schilaci (Italy); Gary Lineker (England); Zinho; César Sampaio (both Brazil); Maezono (Japan); Dunga; Leonardo (both Brazil); Michael Laudrup (Denmark); ‘Pixie’ Stojkavic (former Yugoslavia); and Txiki Beguiristain (Spain) all previously played in the J-League.
Nakata played in Italy and England while Nakamura plays for Scottish team Celtic.

A. Main idea – matching information
Listen to the whole report and match the dates on the left with the events on the right.

1. 1993 a. Urawa Reds won the double

2. 2006 b. Yokohama Flugels went out of business

3. 1998 c. FC Yokohama were promoted to J2

4. 1995 d. Yokohama Flugels won The Emperor’s Cup

5. 1999 e. Damian came to Tokyo

6. 1999 f. The J-League was started

7. 2001 g. The last time a Yokohama derby was played.

B. Main idea – correct the false statements
Listen to the first half of the report and explain why all of these statements are false.

1. Many football stars arrived at the start of the J-League despite not receiving large salaries.
2. Many people knew that the J-League would be a success.
3. There are 18 teams in both J1 and J2.
4. Urawa Reds have not played well so far this season.
5. More than 80.000 supporters watch Reds play every week.
6. The J-League player of the year, Tulio, plays for Gamba Osaka.

C. Main idea – choose the correct option
Listen to the Japanese fans predicting the champion and dark horse (surprise team) for this year’s
Number 1 has been done as an example. J-League. Choose the answer they give in the table below.

Speaker Champion Dark Horse
Speaker 1 – Jaga FC Tokyo / Gamba Osaka Ventforet Kofu / Yokohama FC
Speaker 2 – Beto Urawa Reds / S-Pulse Urawa Reds / S-Pulse
Speaker 3 – Mako Reysol / Urawa Reds Urawa Reds / Grampus 8
Speaker 4 – Kamiji Cerezo Osaka / Gamba Osaka FC Tokyo / Kawasaki Frontale
Speaker 5 – Emi Gamba Osaka / Urawa Reds FC Tokyo / Gamba Osaka
Speaker 6 – Mac FC Tokyo / Yokohama Marinos FC Yokohama / S- Pulse
Speaker 7 – Damian Gamba Osaka / Urawa Reds S-Pulse / FC Yokohama

D. Listening – vocabulary

Listen to the second half of the report (about FC Yokohama) and fill in the gaps with an appropriate word.

Officially this was only Yokohama FC’s second game in the top (1) __________________ of Japanese football, as they were promoted to the J1 last season, but as everyone knows, this team was formed out of the (2) _________________ of the former team, Yokohama Flugels. Now, when I first came to Japan I used to go and see the Flugels in action where I saw World Cup winners, Zinho and César Sampaio as well as (3) _______________ Japanese star, Maezono playing for the home team and players such as, Dunga, Leonardo, Michael Laudrup, ‘Pixie’ Stojkavic, and Txiki Beguiristain for the away teams.

But despite winning the Emperor’s Cup in 1999, Flugels went (4) ________________ in the same year and were taken over by their cross-town enemy, Marinos. Flugels supporters were
(5) ___________________ when asked to support their former rivals and (6) __________________ decided to set up a new team that would be run by the fans. Playing in the semi-professional Japan League for two years under former World Cup winner, Pierre Littbarski, they won promotion to J-2, where they spent 6 years before finally winning (7) _____________________ to the top league last year.

Though many fans feel they will struggle to survive they have managed to make some important signings and of course they also have the most famous of all Japanese players in their team, 39-year old Kazuyoshi Miura, or ‘King Kazu’. (8) __________________ the first superstar of Japanese football, he played in Italy for Genoa paving the way for players such as, Nakata and Nakamura to (9) ___________________ in Europe later. Can they stay up this season? Yes, I think they can but I do not think they will be a dark horse as Mac predicted earlier in the report for I think the dark horses will be Shimizu S-Pulse and that Gamba Osaka will overcome their (10) __________________ team, Reds and become champions at the end of the year.

E. Comprehension
Listen to the report and answer the following questions.

1. Why was the NASL mentioned in the report ?
2. Why does Damian call Urawa Reds ‘the jewel in the J-League crown’?
3. Why will Mac be happy with the Yokohama derby result?