Archive for May, 2009

Fears that Madrid would copy Chelsea’s match against Barça on Tuesday had arisen before tonight’s clasico. Minutes after the kick off at eight o’clock, Real gave the impression that they were not going to dance in the same way as the Stamford Bridge guys. A recovered Robben was threatening from the right flank while Abidal was trying to stop him without success. This busy beginning had an early reward for Real when they scored first. Higuain lit the euphoria in the Bernabeu. That euphoria was not going to last long. With Barça’s common temperament, Guardiola’s guys reacted quickly. Like Tiger Woods’ approaches around the green, Messi bent a pass to Henry who with his majestic control hit Casillas’ net. continue

Download the latest podcast – Barcelona and Real Madrid

A look at the rivalry between these two giants of Spanish football. The two teams have met 157 times with Real Madrid coming out top 68 times to Barca’s 59.

Download the latest worksheets and transcripts here.

Check out this week’s predictions. Can you do better?
Listen to the podcast, read the posts, then leave a comment.

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The latest football news – The good, the bad and the ugly

Boring Champions League semis, the race for La Liga title, injuries, football and influenza, and a the chop for a manager in the Bundesliga all feature on this week’s good, the bad and the ugly section of languagecaster’s football podcast. Click on the link above to read more about the stories from last week.

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Weekly football phrase (audio and text) - English for Football

To Park the Bus

This week’s English for football is ‘park the bus‘. Many people say that this phrase was first said by Jose Mourinho when he was Chelsea’s manager. He was describing a negative Tottenham team who played very defensively in a meeting between the two London clubs some years ago. To park the bus, means to play very defensively, to get a lot of players behind the ball, to have no attacking play. Imagine a bus parked in front of the goal. It is almost impossible to score, so people use ‘to park the bus‘ to mean one team was very negative, boring and defensive. This week’s Champions League semi finals were not very exciting and Barcelona have accused Chelsea of playing very negatively, of ‘parking the bus‘ in front of goal.

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And finally…

QUESTION:

Which of the following players has NOT played for both Barcelona and real Madrid?

a. Ronaldo

b. Raul Gonzalez

c. Luis Figo

d. Samuel Eto’o

Answer next week.

(The answer to last week’s question which South American club team that has been in more than one Copa Libertadores final has won all of them was c. Independiente.)

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Go to languagecaster.com to read more posts, write comments and read our huge collection of football phrases and cliches!

Write to us at admin@languagecaster.com if you want to have your say on our weekly podcast.

For all students of the beautiful game

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week, Barcelona visit their great rivals Real Madrid in La Liga’s El Clasico. Madrid are only four points behind the previously unstoppable Barcelona and would love to get closer. On this week’s show we look at the rivalry between these two famous clubs.

In addition we:

• Review the football news in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Introduce a new football expression in English for Football
• And continue the predictions battle in the Predictions competition

For learners of English check out our new Football Language Resources page with:

• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists

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Transcript

This weekend sees one of the biggest matches in world football when Real Madrid and FC Barcelona play at Madrid’s Santiago Bernebeu Stadium. The fact that there are only four points separating the two sides adds spice to the game as the title is very much up for grabs but with such a huge amount of history, tradition, passion and rivalry  between the two sides it would not really matter if they were playing a pre-season friendly. Madrid and Barcelona simply don’t do meaningless games. continue