Archive for November, 2009

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This week’s main report looks at the World Cup newcomers, Slovakia. Independent since 1993, this small central-eastern European country is hoping to cause some surprises next year in South Africa. The transcript can be found below, while vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Listen to the report here

Slovakia, from Eastern Europe, was part of Czechoslovakia from 1918 until 1993, when it and and the Czech Republic became two countries in 1993. This is their first visit to the World Cup although Czechoslovakia qualified eight times making the finals twice, the last time in 1962. For this qualification they were drawn in the same group as their former countrymen, the Czech Republic who finished third and didn’t qualify, while Slovakia topped their group with 22 points.

At 49,000 square kilometers in area, Slovakia is slightly bigger than Switzerland and Denmark, but less than half the size of Honduras. It’s capital is Bratislava on the famous Danube river. The city itself borders Austria and Hungary, the only capital in the world to do so. The country has a population of about five and a half million, making it one of the smallest countries in terms of population at the World Cup – the smallest is Slovenia with just over two million.

How about club football in Slovakia? Well, there are twelve teams in the top flight Super Liga, and it is not really a surprise that the most successful and most popular team historically is based in the capital. The biggest and richest club, Slovan Bratislava FC, can even boast wining the UEFA cup – they beat Barcelona in 1969 3-2 to secure the cup. The sky blues biggest rivals were FK Inter Bratislava until they merged with FK Senica, from the fourth division this season. Expect the name to change next season back to Inter – this year the name change documents were submitted too late. In the era of the new Slovakian top league, however, MŠK Žilina perhaps have the edge over Slovan with four Championships in the last ten years.

What can we expect of Slovakia in the World Cup? Well, as winners of their group they should not be taken lightly, particularly when you think about the quality of most European teams. In that campaign they beat arch rivals and neighbours, the Czech Republic away 1-2 and held them to a draw, 2-2, at home. FIFA ranks them 34th, ahead of Honduras but behind Paraguay. A recent win in a friendly over The US team 1-0 shows that they will prove difficult to beat, but they were then beaten by form South American team, Chile, 2-1. I predict they will get a victory in the group stages but won’t get further.

Watch out for these names in their line up: defenders, Martin Škrtel of Liverpool, Peter Pekarik of Wolsburg; midfielder and captain and still only 22 Marek Hamšík of Napoli; and striker, Róbert Vittek, originally of Slovan Bratislava but now of Lille. So, plenty of top club level experience for the Slovakian team and they could be contenders for dark horse quarter finalists.

Congratulations Slovakia on qualifying for the 2010 World Cup!

Vocabulary

be drawn: be put into a group, have your name chosen for a group continue

On this week’s podcast we spotlight World Cup newcomers, Slovakia. We also review the football stories of the past week and make our predictions on the big games – this week a host of derbies to look forward to. Come along to the site at languagecaster.com to read more.

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PREDICTION

This week’s featured match is Barcelona v Real Madrid

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FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

This week’s English for football is the expression ‘all bets are off’, which has a general meaning of a prior agreement no longer being applied. In football we use the expression when talking about a game that is difficult to predict – not because the teams are evenly matched but because of other factors such as it being a local derby game. Form counts for nothing as each team really wants to win the local bragging rights and so there is nothing certain in the game, it would be unwise to bet on the result – so all bets are off.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Which country inspired the Barcelona football team’s colours?

a. Germany

b. Austria

c. England

d. Switzerland

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘When was the last time that Manchester City won the League?’ was b. 1968

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For all students of the beautiful game

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This week we continue our look at the qualifiers for next year’s World Cup. And this podcast is all about Slovakia, who have qualified for the first time in their history.

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Champions League action, the return of two scoring heroes and unfortunately some more violence from Argentinian football all feature in this week’s the good, the bad and the ugly. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

Good for Spanish giants, Real Madrid, who go top of the La Liga after a 1-0 victory over Racing Santander. In the Champions League they also beat FC Zurich, who famously beat AC Milan earlier in the competition, again 1-0. But more importantly for Real, their star Christiano Ronaldo made a return in that game, and could be available for el clasico this weekend against arch rivals, Barcelona. continue

Derbies are the theme of this week’s predictions, so all bets are off and the form book is out the window. We travel through England, Spain Greece, Italy, Portugal and Argentina to highlight some of the big local rivalries in world football. This week’s guest is Zolo from Mongolia, who is a Manchester United fan.

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The World Cup qualifiers have finished and we interview two English fans, Simon and Tim, and ask them for their World Cup predictions.

Listen to the report here

You can also try our online listening quiz:

Click here to listen to the report and answer listening comprehension questions.

Before you listen, check that you understand these words:

dark horse: outsider, not favourite, but may have a chance, may surprise

unusual: not usual, strange, not expected

something missing: not complete, not perfect, can’t be relied on

to fancy: to expect to do well

fancied team: a team people expect to do well

form: recent history of results, good form = winning a lot of recent games

a quote: famous words, well known words

On this week’s podcast the World Cup continues to take centre stage. We also review the football stories of the past week and make our predictions on the big games. Come along to the site at languagecaster.com to read more.

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FEATURED POSTS

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

________________________________________

PREDICTION

This week’s featured match is Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

When was the last time that Manchester City won the League?

a. 1951

b. 1968

c. 1972

d. 1974

Answer next week.

________________________________________

Check out the site for the latest polls – www.languagecaster.com | Click here admin@languagecaster.com if you want to have your say on our weekly podcast.

You can also follow us at Twitter

Come along to our online shop and browse books and DVDs related to football and English language teaching and learning.

For all students of the beautiful game

Congratulations to Slovenia, a pair of bad managers, strange cures and daylight robbery all feature in this week’s good, the bad and the ugly. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

It’s been a good week for Uruguay, Algeria, Portugal, Greece, France, New Zealand and Slovenia as they all booked their places in next year’s World Cup finals with play-off victories over the past few days. Perhaps the most congratulations should go to Slovenia – a country of only 2 million people after they shocked Russia to qualify for only their second World Cup appearance. continue

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The World Cup dominates this week’s show as we take a look back at the dramatic play-offs and we also have two England fans looking forward to the finals in South Africa next summer. You can also:

This week we focus on teams that are on a run, who have several wins on the trot, or having a hard time breaking a winless streak. As always we cross the globe to choose our matches – England, Germany, Italy, Holland, Brazil, and Japan. This week’s guest predictor is Mike who is a fan of Manchester City.