Archive for January, 2011

The Asia cup is reaching its climax, Liverpool have finally won two games in a row, Inter stumble, as do Dortmund. But the big news in the UK is all about ‘Can women understand the offside rule?’ – sexism rears its ugly head.  Check out languagecaster.com’s review section to read in more detail about some of these stories. We also try to predict who will come out on top in some of the big games in our weekly predictions. For more football news come to our site, read the posts, listen to our main reports and check out our links section.
________________________________________

FEATURED POSTS

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon
________________________________________

PREDICTION

This week’s featured match is the Asia Cup final between Japan and Australia. Here are Damon and Damian’s predictions: what do you think?

________________________________________

FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

This week’s English for football phrase is to be in ‘acres of space‘. An acre is a measure of land used commonly in the UK. It is approximately 4,000 square meters, nearly the size of a football pitch. If a player receives the ball with no opposing player near them, you can say they are ‘in space‘ – they have time to move, pass or shoot. If a player has the ball with a lot of space, you say they are in ‘acres of space‘. When this happens you usually expect the player to make a great pass or have a shot on goal. To be in acres of space.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.
________________________________________

This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Australia used to play in the Oceania confederation on FIFA? In 1997 they qualified as leaders of the Oceania group for a play off  for a place in the  World Cup in France 1998. Who did they play and did they win or lose?

a. Blackburn Rovers

b. Leeds United

c. Newcastle United

d. Fulham

Check the answer next week. The answer to last week’s question – was a) and c) Kenny Dalglish managed both these clubs.
________________________________________

Come along to our online shop and browse books and DVDs related to football and English language teaching and learning.

________________________________________
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

For all students of the beautiful game

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

On this week’s podcast, Hans takes a look at the Bundesliga and Shinji Kagawa, a Japanese star playing  in that league. We also have all the regular favourites on the show . Remember on this week’s podcast you can also:

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking here

continue

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Main Listening Report | Complete List Here

With the Asia cup being played this month our German correspondent takes a look at the Bundesliga and the impact of one Asian player is having in this big European League. Explanations of key vocabulary (in bold) can be found at the foot of the post.

This weekend the Asia Cup reaches its climax. Australia and Japan will go head to head in the final. Sadly though there is one player who won’t be taking the field, and his absence has been widely reported in the Bundesliga. His name is Shinji Kagawa, and his season so far has captured the imagination of all German football fans.

Kagawa was plucked from then J2 team Cerezo Osaka for a small fee by Borussia Dortmund, and on his arrival in Germany many questioned the logic behind such a signing. He is small, skillful and pacy, but with little big game experience in Japan, let alone internationally, it was feared that he would not be able to settle into the demands of such a big club. The be truthful, most had never hear of him.
continue

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

Good and bad news from the Asia Cup in Qatar, while in the UK a storm over sexist remarks by TV a pundit and anchor. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast.

The Good

This week has seen two great adverts for football in Asia in the two semi-finals at the Asia Cup. Australia blew away Uzbekistan with a clinical performance. The 6-0 win by the Socceroos will give them great confidence going into the final where they will meet Japan. The Blue Samuri were involved in a titanic struggle against their north-east Asian rivals, Korea. These two countries are always up for it when they meet and this occasion was no different. Korea took the lead against the run of play with a controversial penalty. But Japan hit back with  some beautiful play on the left with a fantastic, weighted pass slicing open the Korean defence.  It was extra time and Japan scored again and then looked to be heading for the finals before a dramatic equaliser in the last 10 seconds of normal time saw the game go to penalties. A dramatic game was wrapped up emphatically by Japan with Korea missing three of their penalties (watch highlights here).

continue

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase

Every week during the 2010-11 season, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché for learners of English who love the sport. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript below that. 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: To be in acres of space | See the complete list here

Transcript

This week’s English for football phrase is to be in ‘acres of space‘. An acre is a measure of land used commonly in the UK. It is approximately 4,000 square meters, nearly the size of a football pitch. If a player receives the ball with no opposing player near them, you can say they are ‘in space‘ – they have time to move, pass or shoot. If a player has the ball with a lot of space, you say they are in ‘acres of space‘. When this happens you usually expect the player to make a great pass or have a shot on goal. To be in acres of space.

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Predictions

In this week’s predictions battle we feature the final of the Asia Cup, games from Italy, England and Germany, as well as some big battles from the English FA Cup 4th Round. Can you guess the scores to these games from around the world? Leave your predictions as a comment below. Check out some language used in making predictions here. This week’s guest predictor is Paul, a Man United fan.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

On this week’s podcast we look at the controversy surrounding the future of the Olympic Stadium in London, as well as all the regular favourites on the show. Remember on this week’s podcast you can also:

• Listen only to the main report here – complete with transcript and vocabulary

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking here

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Main Listening Report | Complete List Here

This week’s main report looks at the future of the London Olympic Stadium with two London sides interested in possibly moving there. Explanations of key vocabulary (in bold) can be found at the foot of the post.

Introduction

The 2012 London Olympics is still 18 months away but the decision about what to do with the stadium after the games is causing huge uproar in the capital. When the UK Olympic bid won the right to host the games back in 2005 they promised a sporting legacy for London, which, it was assumed, would include using the stadium as a centre for athletics. Since then, however, two of the capital’s football teams have shown strong interest in taking over the stadium post-2012. West Ham appear to have the better ‘right’ to the stadium due to geographical and historical reasons with the east-London club based in the same Newham Borough as the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. But there’s another team, Tottenham, who also feel they have a have a right to the stadium. continue

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

A very good week for Inter though a mixed one for the big two sides in Spain while yet another fan on the field incident in England is featured in the ugly section. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast.

The Good

It has been a very good week for Italian champions Inter Milan as they won their fourth game in a row under new manager Leonardo. The team seem more relaxed since the departure of former manager Rafa Benitez, though they have also benefited from the return from injury of many of their key players including Diego Milito. Their 3-2 victory over Cesena followed a 4-1 thrashing of Bologna and they now are only 6 points behind their city rivals AC Milan with a game in hand. continue

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 Print This Post | Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase

Every week during the 2010-11 season, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché for learners of English who love the sport. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript below that. 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: To dump out of | See the complete list here

Transcript

Stevenage players celebrate dumping Newcastle out of the cup

This week’s English for football phrase is ‘to dump out of‘. This phrase is usually used when talking about cup competitions, such as the FA Cup (England), the Copa del Rey (Spain), or the Champions League (Europe) and so on. To dump something means to throw it away, and to dump a team out of the cup means to knock them out of the competition – to beat them. When used it usually has the added meaning that the losing team were embarrassed by the defeat. Last week, in the FA Cup, Stevenage dumped Newcastle United out of the cup by beating them 3-1. And, in Spain in the Copa del Rey, Barcelona avoided being dumped out of the competition even though they lost 3-1 to Betis – they had already beaten Betis 5-0 in the first leg.

To dump a team out of the cup.