South American football, success in Europe for France, a rather strange newspaper campaign from the UK and a really bad week for Liverpool and Tottenham all feature on this week’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly section of languagecaster’s podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

It has been a great week for French clubs in the Champions League with Marseilles thrashing FC Zurich 6-1, Bordeaux winning away at Bayern Munich and Lyon qualifying for the knock-out stages after drawing with Liverpool 1-1. Bordeaux’s win was particularly impressive as many had been tipping Bayern to do well in this season’s Champions League but Laurent Blanc’s side now look odds-on to make the the next round after completing the double over Van Gaal’s team.

While in Europe, the Europa League is still grinding on, in South America the Copa Sudamericana, the southern continent’s equivalent, is reaching its climax. So, it was good for Cerro Porteno of Paraguay, River Plate of Uruguay, LDU Quito from Peru and Fluminense of Brazil, as all reach the semi finals. In the semis it will be Porteno vs River and LDU vs Fluminense. I wonder if there will be a similar mix of countries represented in the semis of the Europa League Cup and the Champions league this year?

Bad

It has been a bad week for languagecaster’s favourite teams: Tottenham and Liverpool. The pressure on Reds manager Rafa Benitez increased after his side could only draw in Lyon which leaves Liverpool’s chances of qualifying for the knock-out stage hanging by a thread. This setback came three days after the side had been beaten by Fulham in the Premier League in which saw two players sent off.

My team Spurs were shocking in the 0-3 defeat at arch-rivals Arsenal in the north-London derby last weekend. All three goals resulted from team errors but it was the overall performance that left the Spurs fans feeling let down and made a mockery of Robbie Keane’s pre-match comments that Tottenham had a squad to match that of Arsenal.

Bad all round as Jack Warner, CONCACAF president, a vice-chairman of FIFA, and bigwig on the Committee choosing who will host the World Cup in 2018, took offence when his wife received a specially designed handbag from the England bidding team at a special dinner last month - inferring that it was a kind of bribe. This is after complaining that the England bid was failing to make an impact on the committee, and pointing out as one reason the fact that the Australians had given complimentary bags to committee members previously. This is also the guy who has been involved in a number of scandals – a World-Cup-tickets-for-cash scandal, asking for match fees to be paid directly to his account, etc. Power, influence and money are always a bad combination and it’s a shame that bidders for the World Cup in 2018 should have to pander to this man.

Ugly

Premier League clubs are being pressured by a campaign in the Daily Mail newspaper to have poppy symbols embroidered on their shirts during the Remembrance ’season’. Many people in Britain and the Commonwealth wear a poppy-  a symbol to remember the soldiers who died in World War One – on or around the 11th of November. But just as with Christmas, the date for wearing poppies seems to get earlier and earlier each year. It’s fair to say that not wearing one, if you are a public figure like a politician or a TV personality for example, is frowned on and brings criticism for not honouring those who died in WWI and other wars. However, to bring this private mark of respect into the arena of sport and to pressurise football teams to wear them – the Daily Mail has already got a list of clubs not planning to put a poppy symbol on their shirts – is ridiculous.

Vocabulary

Grinding on: moving slowly forward, unstoppable but boring, ponderous

Semis: semi-finals (quarters – quarter finals)

completing the double : Beating the other team home and away

hanging by a thread: Though the team has a chance of qualifying it is very slim indeed.

setback : To stop progress and to move backwards

arch-rivals : Real rivals, a strong rivalry exists

made a mockery of : To seem ridiculous

To take offence: get upset, become angry, believe someone has insulted you

Bigwig: self-important person, someone with a lot of influence, celebrity

Bribe: a gift for a favour, often illegal, an inducement

Bid: proposal, a plan, an offer

Complimentary: free, a service with no charge

Pressured: intimidated, made to do something you don’t want to do, influenced

Frown on: look on something with disapproval, think something is not respectable or good