Green for England call up. The campaign starts here.

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Tottenham are 125 years old this season and Monday’s game against Aston Villa will be the official ‘anniversary match’. More importantly it is being dedicated to the greatest manager the club has ever had, Bill Nicholson.

continue reading

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It seems that Bayern are indeed scoring for fun, and Klose is enjoying the ride. A hat trick during the week against lowly Cottbus sees the Bavarians comfortably on top of the table, three points ahead of Leverkusen. continue reading

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Here are some of the words and phrases from this week’s show

• go all the way - to win the competition

Can Urawa Reds go all the way and win the AFC Championship.

• spearheading the attack - leading striker in the team

Lionel Messi is spearheading the Barcelona attack.

• bore draw - unexciting scoreless draw

Genoa and Saampdoria played out a scoreless bore draw last week

• harassing referees - constantly arguing with the referee

Chelsea players have a reputation of harassing referees

• bust up - a fight or big argument

Allegedly John Terry had a bust up with Jose Mourinho.

• Munich disaster - In 1958 eight Manchester United players died in an aircrash in Munich.

• too many cooks spoil the broth - too many options

Manchester United have Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo and Saha - possibly a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

• goal poacher - a goal scorer (hunter)

Pipo Inzaghi is a classic goal poacher.

• one-off game - a knock out game

The quarter final of the cup is a one-off game - if you lose you are out!

• return leg - the second of two matches between the same sides.

Liverpool should beat Porto in the return leg at Anfield.

• to pan out - happen, take place

How do you think it will pan out after all the problems at the club.

• turmoil - trouble, chaos, big problems

The turmoil at Chelsea may affect their chances in the league.

• to relish - look forward to

Arsenal will not relish the trips to Eastern Europe.

• strength in depth - a big enough squad

Arsenal will not win the Champions League because they do not have enough strength in depth.

• a hunch - a gues, a feeling

I have a hunch that Mourinho will become England manager in the future.

• dismissal - sacking, to be fired

Mourinho’s dismissal has caused shock waves throughout football.

• can’t buy a goal - are not scoring goals

Damon reckoned Barcelona cannot buy a goal at the moment.

• title credentials - a marker to show their rivals that they are a serious side.

Roma need to win to show their title credentials.

• hit form - play as well as expected

Inter have not hit form yet in Serie A.

• on fire - playing well at the moment.

Messi is on fire at the moment for Barcelona, as is Klose for Bayern.

• scent blood - smell a weakness

Valencia scent blood and will go out to win against Chelsea.

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In week 8 we look at the Champions League and the four English teams, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Try out our worksheets or online quiz to help you practice your listening and vocabulary skills.

If you click on the audio when it is playing on an iPod you can see the transcript as you listen. It’s a great way to practice listening and fluency!

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Damian stormed back last week with 10 points and leads in the languagecaster pod predictions 38-36. Can Damon turn it around again in this see-saw battle?

Week 8 (2007/8) Predictions

	DF	DB	Result
West ham v Arsenal	1-0	1-3 (1)	0-1
Chelsea v Fulham	2-1	2-0	0-0
Roma v Inter	2-1	1-1	1-4
Torino v Juventus	1-1	0-1 (3)	0-1
Leverkusen v B Munich	0-2 (1)	0-3 (1)	0-1
Benfica v Sp Lisbon	1-1 (1)	2-1	0-0
Man U v Roma	2-1 (1)	1-1	1-0
Valencia v Chelsea	1-0	2-1	1-2
A Juniors v R Plate	0-2	0-1	4-1

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Here are some of the stories featured on this week’s show.

Good

• Lionel Messi is on fire at the moment video of his goal against Sevilla continue reading

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Damian and Damon bring you more free football news from around the world. Live and direct from Tokyo the languagecaster team brings you:

• The past footballing week in The Good, the Bad and The Ugly
• The English teams in the CL
• Your views in Vox Pops
• A new football phrase in English for Football
• And the predictions battle King of predictions

For learners of English there are also

• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists
• Online quizzes
• Weekly blogs from our football-crazy writers in fans’ forum

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It’s only the end of September, but already it feels like our season is on a knife-edge. Tonight the Blues go to Hillsborough to face Sheffield Wednesday in the Carling Cup. This much-maligned competition is hard to get excited about at the best of times, but I genuinely wish we could win it because it is the only domestic trophy the club has never won. continue reading

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Amazing as it seems, Frankfurt can hit the lead in the Bundesliga (at least for one night) if they win tonight against Bochum. They have made a surprisingly good start to the season, much like Bielefeld, and are looking down the table to more fancied rivals. continue reading

1 Comment »

Here is the seventh learner’s podcast. In it we look at the Champion’s League. Try out our worksheets or online quiz to help you practice your listening and vocabulary skills.

If you click on the audio when it is playing on an iPod you can see the transcript below as you listen. It’s a great way to practice listening and fluency.

Transcript continue reading

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There’s a Japanese expression that goes something like “the hunter who chases two hares catches neither”, and this came to mind when Rafa surprised a number of fans and pundits when he said that his Liverpool squad were aiming to be Champions both of Europe and the Premiership. Most fans, myself included, would prefer to see the Reds concentrate on becoming league winners this season, and so were somewhat surprised to see continue reading

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Here are some of this week’s words and phrases from languagecaster’s week seven podcast.

• equaliser - the goal that makes the game equal

Klose scored Bayern Munich’s equaliser against Schalke

• derby - a game between two local rivals

Arsenal won the North London derby against Tottenham

• transfer deal - when a player moves from one club to another

Chimbonda’s transfer deal is under investigation

• thrashing - a big defeat, to lose by a wide margin

Sevilla’s thrashing at Arsenal was unexpected

• unbeaten - the team has not lost

Arsenal, Real Madrid and Roma remain unbeaten so far

• to stutter - to perform inconsistently, not fluid

Newcastle’s form is stuttering at the moment

• lowly - be ranked in a low position

Newcastle lost to lowly Derby 1-0

• a scorcher - a fantastic goal (usually long range shot)

Kenny Miller scored a scorcher against Newcastle

• dead man walking - about to be sacked or fired (comes from death row)

Sammy Lee and Martin Jol appear to be dead men walking

• to top the group - to lead or win the group

Fran thinks Real Madrid will top their Champions League group.

• Ibrox - the home of Rangers FC from Scotland

Ibrox is a passionate ground which scares opposing teams.

• clash of the titans - a battle between two big teams

Manchester United against Chelsea is a real clash of the titans match.

• powerhouses - strong, dominant teams

PSV and Feyenoord are two powerhouses of Dutch football.

• cracking game - very exciting match

• England against the USA promises to be a cracking match

• bore draw - a 0-0 boring draw

Damon feels that the Genoa derby will be a bore draw

• can’t buy a goal - the team cannot score

Barcelona until recently could not buy a goal

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It was another interesting week of football and here are some of the stories from this week’s podcast:

Good

• Miroslav Klose scores for Germany and Bayern Munich. Here are the goals against Wales video continue reading

  4 Comments »

Damian and Damon bring you more free football news from around the world. Fresh from London this week’s episode looks at:

• The past footballing week in The Good, the Bad and The Ugly
• The English teams in the CL
• Your views in Vox Pops
• A new football phrase in English for Football
• And continue their fight to see who will be the King of predictions

For learners of English there are also

• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists
• Online quizzes
• Weekly blogs from our football-crazy writers in fans’ forum

1 Comment »