Archive for June, 2010

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Every day during the World Cup, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché connected to this summer’s tournament. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript. You can find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football clichés here and our huge football glossary here.

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Today’s World cup phrase is to implode. Maybe most students of English have heard of explode, like a bomb, an explosion. Implode is a word used to describe a team, or team performance that is so bad it damages the chances of the team, it causes them to destroy their own chances – they collapse inwards. No prizes for guessing which team has imploded at this World Cup, France. Anelka sent home for swearing at the manager, captain Evra fighting with the coaching staff, players refusing to train and terrible, disjointed performances on the pitch. France imploded. They destroyed their chances and are now heading home early. To implode.

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Current Score: DB 13 | DF 29

What a stunner yesterday with Portugal turning on the style and  dismantling DPR Korea 7-0. Today, can France rise like a Phoenix from the ashes of their tournament, who will top group A? Mexico or Uruguay,  will Nigeria at least salvage some pride by beating Asian hotshots Korea, and finally can Greece stun everyone and qualify for the next round by beating Argentina? Join our predictions competition here, where there’s a chance to win an original languagecaster.com T-shirt!

	DB	DF	Result
Mexico v Uruguay	2-1	2-0	1-2
France v South Africa	0-1 (1)	1-0	1-2
Greece v Argentina	0-2 (3)	0-3 (1)	0-2
Nigeria v South Korea	1-2	1-1 (1)	2-2

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I was lucky enough to be invited to a nihonshu (sake) tasting event combined with the Holland vs Japan game last weekend organised by Etsuko and Te-chan from tokyofoodcast. The event was held in downtown Tokyo and the bar was crammed full of a bout 30 sake enthusiasts and Japan football team fans who had come along to taste the FIFA endorsed sake from all corners of Japan. As the alcohol started flowing the game kicked off and the fans already predicted a confident 2-0 or 2-1 victory for Japan – maybe they believe in the power of positive thinking. After 45 minutes and about six different sakes the score remained a 0-0 stalemate, and on the whole, the fans were still confident: 1-0 or 0-0. Of course, we all know the result, a Kawashima error let Sneijder score from distance and Japan lost 1-0 and Holland have qualified. But credit to the Japan fans who continued to chant and support their team throughout and who will, confidently, expect their team to beat Denmark in the final group match.

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Every day during the World Cup, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché connected to this summer’s tournament. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript. You can find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football clichés here and our huge football glossary here.

Listen Here | See the complete list here

Today’s World Cup Phrase is ‘to turn on the style‘. Style in this phrase is from the adjective ‘stylish‘, meaning sophisticated, cool, classy – basically very good. To turn on, means to start, as in to turn on the tap (for water) or to turn on the light. So, to turn on the style means to put on a classy performance, usually a game with good passing, exciting attacking play and effective defending. Last night, Brazil turned on the style against Ivory Coast beating the African side 3-1 to qualify for the next round and to kick start their campaign. Tonight, can Spain turn on the style against Honduras when the two sides meet in the second round of games in Group H?

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Current Score: DB 13 | DF 29

The shocks keep coming. How about New Zealand 1 – 1 Italy for a scoreline! Amazing stuff from the All Whites, who now can qualify for the knock out stages with a win against Paraguay – something Brazil did in some style by overcoming Ivory Coast 3-1 last night. Today it’s the turn of  Portugal v DPR Korea, Chile v Switzerland and Spain v Honduras. You can also join our predictions competition here, where there’s a chance to win an original languagecaster.com T-shirt!

	DB	DF	Result
Portugal v DPR Korea	2-1 (1)	1-0 (1)	7-0
Chile v Switzerland	2-1 (1)	1-0 (3)	1-0
Spain v Honduras	1-0 (1)	4-0 (1)	2-0

Join our predictions competition by clicking here

The 2010 tournament has reached the quarter-final stage and on our 8th World Cup podcast we look forward to these mouth-watering ties. For more World Cup news and resources come to our site, read the posts and check out our links section. You can also have a chance to win a Brazil top – click here to find out more.

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FEATURED POSTS

Download the latest podcast which is all about the World Cup quarter-finals here

Review week two at the World Cup here

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Listen to something from our World Cup podcast back catalogue: A review of the Second Round

Read our fabulous Glossary of footballing phrases

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PREDICTION

Tomorrow’s featured match is German v Argentina which Damian thinks will finish 2-3 and Damon feels Argentina will prevail 2-1.

Remember three points for a perfect score and one point for the right result. You can also join our predictions competition, where there’s a chance to win an original languagecaster.com T-shirt! Check all our predictions here and let us know how you think the games will finish.

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FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

Every day during the World Cup, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché connected to this summer’s tournament. Here is a list of all the phrases we have done so far and here is yesterday’s phrase:

Today’s World Cup phrase of the day is the expression to step down which means to resign or to quit a job. The World Cup is over for many teams and their coaches and this means that many of them will lose their jobs because of poor performances. Others have made the decision to leave by themselves – they have not been fired or sacked. Thus, Italy’s coach Lippi and his French counterpart Domenech announced that they would be stepping down before the tournament had even started, while Mexico’s coach Aguirre has stepped down after his side were knocked out of the second round by Argentina. I wonder how England fans would feel about their coach Capello if he were to step down? To step down.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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Today’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Germany beat Argentina on penalties in the World Cup quarter-final of 2006. Who missed the deciding penalty for Argentina?

a. Mascherano
b. Cambiasso
c. Sorin
d. Messi

Answer in the next newsletter.

In the last newsletter we asked what was the score in 1966 between North Korea and Portugal and the answer was d. Portugal 5-3 N. Korea
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POLL – Should there be Goal-line Technology?

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For all students of the beautiful game

This is your chance to to win an England World Cup football top (see left). To enter the free draw simply tell us what has been your favourite moment of the World Cup 2010 so far – Mexico’s performances? Germany missing a penalty? The USA’s comeback? Denmark vs Cameroon? North Korea’s goal against Brazil or maybe you are enjoying the fact that both England and France are suffering? Post your comment below and we will enter you into the draw that will take place after the final match of the first round next Friday the 25th June.

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‘Maybe it’s the pressure?’ suggested England manager Fabio Cappello after England’s dismal draw with Algeria, so on this World Cup podcast we take a look at the pressure of playing in the most important sporting event in the world. We also have our regular items on the show including:

Check out a new football expression in World Cup English for Football

Follow the predictions battle between Damon and Damian in the Predictions competition

For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources page with:

Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)

Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts

Transcript

Damon: Well, obviously bad for England, terrible in fact but worse for Rooney. He was out of the game completely and at the end of the match ranted at the England fans sarcastically saying ‘it’s nice to hear your fans booing’. It was a miracle that the booing hadn’t started earlier, England’s performance definitely deserved it and up until the end the England fans could be heard supporting their team above the din of the vuvuzela – at least they did their bit. Poor play and an even worse attitude from Wayne Rooney.

Damian: Well, that was Damon’s take on the Algeria – England scoreless draw, which left fans here in the UK scratching their heads and wondering why players such as Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard have not performed for the country like they do for their clubs. Manager Fabio Capello puts it all down to pressure – the inability to cope with it is causing the team to malfunction.
continue

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 Print This Post | Subscribe: World Cup Football Phrase

Every day during the World Cup, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché connected to this summer’s tournament. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript. You can find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football clichés here and our huge football glossary here.

Listen Here | See the complete list here

On day one of the World Cup we brought you the word vuvuzela, the plastic horn that is creating such a special atmosphere at the South African World Cup. Today, another word special to this competition, jabulani. The jabulani is the new ball being used at the tournament, the word means ‘rejoice‘ in Zulu. But the ball, made by Adidas, is not being rejoiced by some, who say that it’s flight through the air is unpredictable or that it is too light. Last night, Kawashima, Japan’s goalkeeper missed a straightforward looking save and his defenders have been quick to say that it was the jabulani moving at the last minute. Another goalkeeper, David James of England, has also criticised the ball, but he added that it was the same for everyone – a much more balanced opinion. The jubulani.

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Current Score: DB 13 | DF 27

Today’s Damon and Damian will be trying to predict the results of Slovakia v Paraguay, Italy v New Zealand and the pick of today’s action – Brazil v Ivory Coast. You can also join our predictions competition here, where there’s a chance to win an original languagecaster.com T-shirt!

	DB	DF	Result
Slovakia v Paraguay	1-1	0-1 (1)	0-2
Italy v New Zealand	2-0	1-0	1-1
Brazil v Ivory Coast	1-1	2-1 (1)	3-1

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Just register (on the right hand side of the homepage) and click on World Cup Predictions in the menu bar.