Archive for March, 2010

The quarter-finals of the Champions League kick-off this week with some mouth-watering ties that involve teams from 6 different countries. Can Barcelona be the first team to retain the top European title since AC Milan did so in 1990 or will Arsenal, Lyon, Bordeaux or CSKA Moscow ensure there is a new name on the trophy? Manchester United are looking to regain the cup they won in 2008 but perhaps the team with the most desire is Inter Milan who have not won the European Cup since 1965. Who will win the Champions League? Let us know by clicking on one of the options below and leave a comment to tell us why.

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On this week’s show we feature an interview with an expert on Mexican football, Juan Pablo Camargo, who tells us all about the Primera División de México. Remember you can also:

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Each week on languagecaster’s podcast we feature a main report and on this week’s show we have an interview with an expert on Mexican football, Juan Pablo Camargo, who tells us all about the Primera División de México. You can listen to the report by clicking above.

DF: Now for this week’s main report we have a special guest interview with top Mexican football blogger Juan Pablo Camargo and is going to tell us all about the Mexican League. We met recently down by the River Thames here in London and I started by asking him about the structure of the Mexican league which often looks rather confusing to outsiders.

Juan Pablo: I think to understand the league you should think about it as maybe the North American leagues of baseball, no, or even American football I think that’s the most useful. Because we are divided in groups and we don’t play … for example in England you play for points and the one who has more points in the end wins. So in Mexico you just play and then you qualify to the play-offs. The first two teams of each group or three teams qualify to the play-offs and then in the play-off you can be a champion even though you qualified in the eighth place. continue

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It’s been another good week for Barcelona and in particular their Argentinian star Leo Messi, my team Tottenham also had a good 7 days as they made it to the FA Cup semi-final. However, it has been a bad week for Celtic and Sevilla as they fired their managers for poor league performances. These stories and more feature in this week’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which can be heard on our weekly podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

Barcelona continue their impressive run of form with another victory to keep them in the race at the top of La Liga. This time they destroyed Zaragoza, or more accurately, Leo Messi destroyed them. He scored yet another hat-trick – his third of the season – to notch his 33rd goal of the campaign and all three goals were beauties. continue

Another good week for Lionel Messi and Barcelona, my team Tottenham enjoy a come from behind victory over Fulham to make the FA Cup semi-finals, while the MLS starts up again this weekend after the threat of a strike was averted. Bad news for Celtic in Scotland and Sevilla in Spain as both clubs fire their managers, while West Ham manager Zola remains under fire and looks ever increasingly like a dead man walking. These and many other news stories all feature in this week’s languagecaster.com’s football podcast. For more football news come to our site, read the posts and check out our links section.

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PREDICTION

This week’s featured match is Arsenal v Barcelona from the Champions League quarter-final first leg

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FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

This week’s English for football phrase is ‘to break the deadlock‘. The noun deadlock is a combination of ‘dead‘ and ‘lock‘ – it describes a lock in a door that has no spring and remains locked until you move it with a key. As long ago as the 18th century it was used to talk about a dispute or argument when it is impossible to find a solution. In sport a ‘deadlock‘ means a drawn game, a tie, when both sides have the same score (in football, usually 0-0). ‘To break the deadlock‘ means, therefore, to stop the stalemate, the situation where there is no movement, or no score, and to make a breakthrough, and in football to take the lead. It is usually used with a player’s name or a team as the subject. Here is an example from 2001 in The Observer (A UK Sunday newspaper): ‘A minute later, Larsson crashed a right-foot effort over the bar, and it seemed only a matter of time before Celtic broke the deadlock.’

To break the deadlock

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Which team has won most Mexican titles since the championship was reformed in 1996?

a. Guadalajara
b. Club América
c. UNAM
d. Cruz Azul

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘Which French team has won most French titles?’ The answer is b – Saint-Étienne.
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Each week we explain a soccer phrase or cliché on our weekly languagecaster podcast. You can find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here and football clichés here.

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This week’s English for football phrase is ‘to break the deadlock‘. The noun deadlock is a combination of ‘dead‘ and ‘lock‘ – it describes a lock in a door that has no spring and remains locked until you move it with a key. As long ago as the 18th century it was used to talk about a dispute or argument when it is impossible to find a solution. In sport a ‘deadlock‘ means a drawn game, a tie, when both sides have the same score (in football, usually 0-0). ‘To break the deadlock‘ means, therefore, to stop the stalemate, the situation where there is no movement, or no score, and to make a breakthrough, and in football to take the lead. It is usually used with a player’s name or a team as the subject. Here is an example from 2001 in The Observer (A UK Sunday newspaper): ‘A minute later, Larsson crashed a right-foot effort over the bar, and it seemed only a matter of time before Celtic broke the deadlock.’

To break the deadlock.

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The Champions League quarter-final first legs, big games at the top of the Bundesliga and Serie A and a set of huge derbies involving teams from Madrid, Istanbul and Mexico City. Our guest predictor this week, is HP Sauce who is a regular contributor to the show and is an Everton fan.

Current Scores: DB 131 | DF 127 | Guest 107

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On this week’s show we feature Ligue 1. We take a look at some background to the season, the contenders for the title, the relegation situation and French clubs in Europe. Remember you can also:

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A bad week for David Beckham and John Terry as they suffer injury and defeat respectively. Good however for Jose Mourinho, Leo Messi and Keisuke Honda as Inter, Barcelona and CSKA Moscow all progress to the last 8 of the Champions League. These stories and more in this week’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which can be heard on our weekly podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

A good week for Inter Milan, Barcelona, CSKA Moscow and Bordeaux as they all qualified for the Champions League quarter-finals after impressive victories over Chelsea, Stuttgart, Sevilla and Olympiakos respectively. Few expected CSKA Moscow to beat Sevilla away from home, while few were surprised that Leo Messi was the inspiration for Barcelona yet again – he scored twice to bring his tally for the season to 32 – but the biggest performance of the night was Inter Milan’s victory in London against Chelsea. Former manager Jose Mourinho came back to haunt his old club as his current side dominated the Blues, with Dutchman Wesley Schneider in particular standing out. This win will have given the Italian side a huge confidence boost and after today’s draw for the quarter-finals they will be even more so as they face CSKA. Can this be the year that Inter finally become the best team in Europe again a mere 45 years after the last time? continue

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Each week we explain a soccer phrase or cliché on our weekly languagecaster podcast. You can find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here and football clichés here.

This week’s English for football phrase is ‘to thump a team‘. If you thump a team it means that one team has beaten another team easily – other words that can be used include, thrashed, hammered and destroyed. The word thump actually means to strike or beat someone or something so we can suppose that if a team is thumped they feel battered and bruised, as if they have been beaten up. For example, this week Liverpool easily beat Portsmouth in the Premier League – in fact the BBC suggested that they thumped the team from the bottom of the league. To thump a team.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.