Archive for April, 2010

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 Print This Post | Subscribe: English Football Phrase

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 take out‘. This phrase has several meanings: if you take someone out for diner, you invite them to a restaurant, if you get a take out, you order food and take it home. In football, to take out means to tackle someone badly or to defend against a player so well that they cannot influence the game. The first meaning, to tackle a player and usually knock him or her to the ground, is used most. To take someone out implies an over the top, violent tackle. Recently, Arsenal player Aaron Ramsey accused Ryan Shawcross of trying to take him out when the Stoke City defender tackled him and broke his leg.

To take someone out.

Lionel Messi destroys Arsenal, Bayern Munich dump Man Utd out of the Champions League, Lyon defeat Bordeaux and Marseille go top of Ligue 1 and of course El Clásico takes place this weekend. 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 Real Madrid v Barcelona from La Liga

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FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

This week’s English for football phrase is ‘to take out‘. This phrase has several meanings: if you take someone out for diner, you invite them to a restaurant, if you get a take out, you order food and take it home. In football, to take out means to tackle someone badly or to defend against a player so well that they cannot influence the game. The first meaning, to tackle a player and usually knock him or her to the ground, is used most. To take someone out implies an over the top, violent tackle. Recently, Arsenal player Aaron Ramsey accused Ryan Shawcross of trying to take him out when the Stoke City defender tackled him and broke his leg.

To take someone out.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Which of the three statements below about El Clásico is true?

a. Real Madrid have won more
b. Barcelona have won more
c. They have won the same number each

Answer next week.

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

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For all students of the beautiful game

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Predictions

El clásico between Real Madrid and Barcelona dominates this week’s predictions section of our weekly podcast. There is also a top-of-the-table clash in Germany, two FA Cup semi-finals from England and the biggest London derby of them all, Spurs versus Arsenal. This week’s guest predictor is Danny from Korea who is a Chelsea fan.

Current Scores: DB 142 | DF 134 | Guest 113

 Print This Post | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Leo Messi, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Lyon and Marseille all had good weeks but not so for Burnley or Sir Alex Ferguson. 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

Good for the four teams who all made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League. However, it was yet again a spectacular week for Argentinian superstar, Leo Messi. This time he scored all four goals against Arsenal to send his club Barcelona to the semi-finals of the Champions League where they will face Inter Milan in an intriguing tie. Described by Arsene Wenger as a ‘play station’ player, Messi scored a hat trick in 22 minutes before he added a fourth to leave him as Barcelona’s all-time Champions League scorer. He has now scored 39 goals this season and 24 in the last 28 games. Here are the goals. continue

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On this week’s show we spotlight the quarter final games in the Champions League. Remember you can also:

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 Print This Post | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Bayern exact some revenge, Lyon win all-French affair, Portsmouth suffer again and Boca Juniors continue to struggle. These and many other stories all feature in this week’s the good, the bad and the ugly section from our weekly podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

Wayne Rooney gets injured in the quarter final clash with German team Bayern Munich mid-week, and it looks like the England and United striker will be out for about four weeks with an ankle sprain. Rooney’s team lost 2-1 at Bayern and with his injury it may seem like bad news at first, but it will mean that the in-form forward will have a nice month break before the World Cup in June, which will surely be good news for England fans. He’ll come back rested, fit and hungry for more goals. continue

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 Print This Post | Subscribe: English Football Phrase

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 pledge his / her future. The verb pledge means to promise while future refers to how long a player or manager will stay at the club. This phrase is often used when there is a lot of speculation about whether this player or manager will remain with his or her current team. This week there has been quite a lot of speculation concerning two Premier League managers with Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini and Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill refusing to pledge their futures to their respective clubs. To pledge your future.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

The Champions League quarter finals are underway with controversial decisions, injuries and some sublime football. Brazilian teams are doing well in the South American equivalent of the Champions League, the Copa Libertadores, while qualifying for the Women’s World Cup in 2011 in Germany has held another round of games. Boca bomb in Argentia and Leeds are beginning to choke in England as the end of season approaches. 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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FEATURED POSTS

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

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PREDICTION

This week’s featured match is Manchester United v Chelsea  – a top of the table clash in the Premier League

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FOOTBALL CLICHE

To run your socks off

This cliché is used when a team or an individual player is seen to work very hard during a game. The expression is often used with the verb ‘work’ as in he worked his socks off throughout the game. Indeed, this phrase is synonymous with certain types of battling midfield players such as Steven Gerrard or formerly Roy Keane who often run their socks off to get their teams back into a game. If a team works their socks off it means that they battled hard and did not give up. To work your socks off.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Which country has had the most winning teams in the Champions League?

a. Germany

b. Spain

c. England

d. Italy

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘Which team has won most Mexican titles since the championship was reformed in 1996?’ The answer is c – UNAM.
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Check out the site for the latest polls – at 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

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 Print This Post | Subscribe: Main Report

Each week on languagecaster’s podcast we feature a main report and on this week’s show we take a look at the second legs of the Champions League quarter finals.  You can listen to the report by clicking above. There is vocabulary support at the bottom of the post.

Next week, the eight teams left in the Champion League meet in the second legs hoping to progress to the semis. Let’s take the ties one by one.

First, Barcelona v Arsenal. In the first leg in London neutrals and Barca fans were left drooling as the Catalan side utterly dominated the English side in the first 45 minutes. In the whole game, they enjoyed 65% of the possession and had 23 shots compared to Arsenal’s 6. It’s difficult to pick a stand out player from the tie, but ironically perhaps it was Almunia the Arsenal goalkeeper who held back the tide and kept the Gunners in with a shout. At the Nou Camp it is hard to see how Arsenal can overcome the reigning European Champions, especially with their captain, Fabregas, out suspended and injured. Both sides will be missing their first choice centre backs, but Barcelona look better equipped to take advantage. 2-0 to Barcelona.

Second, CSKA Moscow v Inter. A slender 1-0 lead is all Inter can take to Moscow after a frustrating night in Milan. Inter were the better side and it looked like the Russian side had come for the draw. I wasn’t until the 65th minute that the Argentinian, Milito, broke the deadlock with a shot on the edge of the area. CSKA will be hoping that playing in front of their fans will help them, but Inter will be confident that they can progress, after all a goal from the Italian side will leave CSKA needing to score three. The sides met in the 2007 Champions League group stages and Inter won the tie in Moscow 2-1. A repeat of that would suit them.

Next, Bordeaux v Lyon. Bordeaux went into the tie complaining about a rescheduled game for Lyon that they suggested gave their opponents more time to recover for the clash, and the war of words off the pitch translated into a frenetic and pulsating tie that despite the 3-1 scoreline in favour of Lyon was much closer. The key moment was a penalty awarded to Lyon with 13 minutes to play. It was a controversial decision with Bordeaux’s Chalme adjudged to have handled in the area. For the return leg, Laurent Blanc’s side will have key defender Diarra back and with their away goal they are by no means out of this.

Finally, Manchester United v Bayern Munich. The German side surprised most pundits by beating United 2-1 at the Allianz Arena. The German side dominated United after falling behind to a Rooney strike in the second minute and United have their goalkeeper to thank for keeping the score so close. They were also perhaps lucky that Bayern’s in-form winger, Robben, wasn’t playing, as he would surely have stretched the United full backs more. The main talking point with the return leg, however, is the injury to Rooney. Can United pose a threat without him? At the same time, Bayern will probably have Robben and Schweinsteiger back. The German’s must fancy their chances of going through to the semis.

Vocabulary

left (fans) drooling: made fans admire them, played so well that fans were very impressed continue

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Predictions

Top of the table clashes in England and the Bundesliga in Germany kick off this week’s predictions as first place and second place teams meet and we also take a look at the second legs of the Champions League to try and guess which teams will be making it into the lucrative semi-finals and potential glory in May. This week’s guest predictor is Tim, a Liverpool fan and contributor to the podcast.

Current Scores: DB 137 | DF 132 | Guest 110