Archive for May, 2010

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On this, the final podcast of the year, we take a look back at some of the highs and lows of the European football season. 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 review the football season in Europe. You can listen to the report by clicking above and can read the transcript below. Explanations of vocabulary in bold appears at the foot of the post. You can also post a comment telling us what you thought were the best and worst moments of the season.

Review of the 2009-10 Season

It has been the season of the double, the treble and the bubble, that is English football’s hegemony, finally being burst. For the first time in 7 years no English side competed in the Champions League final, many of the Premier League’s teams are all massively in the red, while one of its members, Portsmouth, went into administration due to its inability to pay off its debts. But this financial downturn is not restricted to England with Spain’s La Liga clubs also massively in debt – more than a billion Euros worth of debt in fact. Way back at the start of this season in August we asked whether La Liga had become more powerful than the Premier League but maybe we should have looked elsewhere. Italy’s Serie A has hardly re-invented itself into a thriving league – attendances are not increasing, stadia are crumbling and TV deals are not as lucrative as before – but they produced the team of the season in Internazionale, ironically without any Italians in its regular starting line up. So, without further ado, here are the best, the worst and the most horrible of the 2009-10 season.

2009-10 Season: The Best

Love him or loathe him, you cannot ignore Jose Mourinho. He took over two years ago at Inter with one main aim – to win the Champions League, something no manager had done at this club since 1965. They had been the best team in Italy for the past 5 years but were not really taken seriously by the pundits who claimed that the Interistas did not have the character to go beyond the second round. Of course, Jose takes much of the credit for infusing the team with some steel but Inter fans can also look at the transfer deal of the season which saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic move to Barcelona in exchange for Champions League supremo, Samuel Eto’o and cash. That cash bought Brazilian captain Lucio from Bayern Munich, Dutch midfield maestro Wesley Schneider from Real Madrid and Diego Milito from Genoa who all had magnificent seasons for Inter as they won the domestic double and then crowned their season off with that Champions League victory the club had so desired.

A measure of Inter’s achievement is the fact that they beat the best of England, Spain and Germany on their way to the Champions League title. German side Bayern lost in the final but had a magnificent domestic season eventually winning the Bundesliga title rather comfortably after a shaky start that had seen their Dutch manager Van Gaal threatened with the sack. Unlike Jose, his football philosophy is based on attack and with Frenchman Ribery on one side and Dutchman Robben on the other, the Germans knew only one way to play and to emphasise this they demolished Werder Bremen 4-0 in the German Cup final. continue

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

A great week for Inter, Blackpool and the football team from Cape Verde, while Portugal, Cardiff and Manuel Pellegrini all had bad weeks. 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

A great week for Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan as they beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Champions League final to complete an historic treble – the first Italian side to win the domestic league and cup double and the Champions League. it was the first time Inter had won the Champions League since 1965 and the first Italian team since 2007. Argentinian striker Diego Milito was the hero with two well-taken goals to sink the Germans who were simply unable to break down the Italian defence. In addition to Bayern, Inter also defeated Chelsea and Barcelona on their way to the title so a well-deserved treble for them indeed.

A fairy tale, in the English football league at least, as Blackpool F. C. become the smallest club ever to qualify to play in the Premier League. The team from a famous seaside resort in the north west of England, booked their place in one of the World’s top leagues by overcoming Cardiff 3-2 at Wembley despite falling behind to an early goal. The ‘Seasiders’ are managed by the charismatic Ian Holloway, known for his interesting and often humourous press intevews and have gained a lot of plaudits for their positive attacking style of play. They are already favourites to be relegated next year, but well done to Blackpool and if Hull could survive for two seasons, why not Blackpool? 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.

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This week we look at the phrase to play down. This phrasal verb combining the verb ‘play‘ and the preposition ‘down‘ is combined when you want to say something is not as important as it appears. Usually, the object follows the phrasal verb, as in – Cesc Fabregas played down rumours that he will leave Arsenal for Barcelona. Or, Fernando Torres has played down reports that he is not going to sign a new contract for Liverpool.  The two players want people to believe gossip and stories about them are not accurate. As we can see, to play down in football is often combined with the words reports and rumours.

To play down.

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This week’s podcast looks at the stats behind Inter and Bayern’s road to the Champions League final. 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 take a look at Bayern Munich and Inter’s chances in the CL – three football fans also give us their views. You can listen to the report by clicking above and can read the transcript below. Explanations of vocabulary in bold appears at the foot of the post.

So, the grand finale to the European football season sees Serie A’s Inter taking on the Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich in the Champions League final in the Bernabeu in Madrid – and like last year when Barcelona beat Manchester United , it is a battle between Champions as both teams have wrapped up their domestic titles. What makes this clash more interesting is the fact that both teams are chasing trebles – the domestic title, the most prestigious national cup trophy and to be crowned European Champions. there is also the added spice of the opposing managers: on the one side, Van Gaal, ex-coach of Barcelona, and on the other, Mourinho, Van Gaal’s interpreter at Barcelona – teacher vs pupil.

But let’s take a look at how the two teams got to the finals.

Goals: Bayern scored 21 and conceded 13 to Inter’s 15 scored and 9 let in.

Shots: Bayern averaged 6.5 shots on target a match compared to Inter’s 5.

Possession: Again Bayern come out on top here with an average of 34 minutes of possession to Inter’s 27.

Fouls: This is one part of the game where Inter come out on top – they averaged 15 fouls a game to Bayern’s 13.

Opposition: Looking at the teams they two faced on their way to the final you have to say Inter faced some tougher matches – they beat Chelsea, CSKA Moscow and many people’s ‘Best Team in the World’, Barcelona, in the knockout stages. This compares to Bayern who needed a bit of luck to get past Fiorentina and Manchester United, before beating Lyon.

All in all, it looks too close to call, making this a great game for the neutral. Let’s here what three neautral fans think.

Vocabulary

wrap up: complete, bring to a close, finish 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.

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This week’s English for football phrase is to score a brace. A brace means two of the same thing and comes from hunting – a brace of guns might be two pistols, a brace of birds would be two birds that had been shot for food. In football, you can score a brace, or two goals. If you score three goals, it is known as a hatrick. On the last day of the Premier League season, Didier Drogba scored a hatrick while his strike partner, Anelka, scored a brace for Chelsea.

To score a brace.

The good

Chelsea and Inter secure doubles (the league title and the domestic cup) in England and Italy respectively, while Barcelona also win La Liga after being pushed all the way by Real Madrid. Chelsea overcame a plucky Portsmouth 1-0 at Wembley despite giving a penalty away to the south coast side, which was missed, and fluffing a spot kick of their own. In Italy, Inter wrapped up the title and a double with a 1-0 victory of their own over Siena. They now look forward to the Champions League and a possible treble when they clash with Bayern Munich, also in with a shout of an amazing treble. continue

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Predictions

It’s the last week and it looks as though the predictions trophy for 2009~2010 is going to Damon, but we hope he’s not counting his chickens just yet as Damian can still turn it around with this week’s football matches: The Champions League final, a play off game to see which team gets the third promotion spot to the Premier League, and two international friendlies – 12 points up for grabs, with only 10 points in it!

This week’s guest is Ivan from the UK, an Arsenal fan.

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To commemorate Chelsea and Bayern Munich’s domestic doubles on this week’s podcast we look at what it means to win a double and feature some of the most successful double-winning sides in football. Remember you can also:

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