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A bad week for David Beckham, John Terry and Phil Brown as they suffer injury, defeat and job loss 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 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 Manchester United v Liverpool from the Premier League

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FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

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.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Which French team has won most French titles?

a. Olympique de Marseille
b. Saint-Étienne
c. FC Nantes
d. Olympique Lyonnais

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘Where was the 1950 World Cup played?’ The answer is d – Brazil.
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For all students of the beautiful game

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Two big games from Ligue 1, a top of the table clash in Holland and a host of derbies that include the Eternal Derby from Greece, the Superclásico from Buenos Aires and the small matter of Manchester United against Liverpool. Our guest predictor this week, is Peter who is a Celtic fan.

Current Scores: DB 128 | DF 119 | Guest 107

 

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On this week’s show we feature the World Cup of 1950 when Uruguay upset all the odds to win their second tournament and send Brazil into mourning. Remember you can also:

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Continuing our World Cup countdown we feature one of the most dramatic tournaments to have taken place, the 1950 World Cup in Brazil in this week’s main report. You can listen to the report by clicking above while vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Background

The 1950 World Cup was the first tournament to be held after the Second World War and as much of Europe’s infrastructure had been destroyed, FIFA turned to Brazil to host the fourth World Cup. Before the competition had even started there was drama with many teams pulling out for a variety of reasons: Argentina didn’t go because they were in dispute with their neighbours Brazil, Scotland had qualified by coming second in their group behind England but refused to travel as they were not British champions. Turkey pulled out and then so did their replacements, France, while India withdrew because they were not allowed to play barefoot. Austria felt their team was too young while Germany were banned from international competition leaving a total of 13 teams to participate. continue

Beckham’s return to Old Trafford, Real Madrid dumped out of the Champions League – again – Portsmouth make the semi-finals of the FA Cup, Goal-line technology has been kicked into touch while AC Milan were thrashed. 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 Chelsea v Internationale in the second leg of the Champions League knock-out phase

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FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

This week’s English for football phrase is ‘to be cagey‘. If you are cagey about something, you do not give a clear answer, or make a firm decision. A cagey answer does not want to give away too much information, and a cagey player may be a clever, but cautious footballer who thinks a lot about the game. Managers are often described as cagey, especially when asked about their future plans. This week, in the Champions League, many people people have been asking Leonardo whether or not David Beckham will play against his old club Manchester United. But the manager remains cagey and will not say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Quote (ESPN Soccernet)

‘Leonardo cagey on Becks – Leonardo is not promising David Beckham a place in his starting XI at Old Trafford even though he knows how “special” it would be for the former Man United favourite.’

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Where was the 1950 World Cup played?

a. Uruguay
b. France
c. Argentina
d. Brazil

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘How many times has India qualified for the World Cup? The answer is b – 1. They qualified in 1950 but refused to take part as they would have to wear footwear.
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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

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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 cliché page here.

Listen here to this week’s football phrase

This week’s English for football phrase is to give the ball away cheaply. This expression is used to describe a situation in a game when one team, under little or no pressure, loses the ball to the opposing team. It is similar to an unforced error in tennis. We use the word cheaply to describe the fact that the opposition have not had to work hard (or ‘pay’) to get the ball back. Coaches and fans become very frustrated when their team gives the ball away cheaply as it may prevent an attack from building or worse may give the opposing team a chance to counter attack. To give the ball away cheaply.

 

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On this week’s show we feature five questions about football derbies, including which one is the fiercest in world football. Remember you can also:

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There are a host of derbies being played around the world this weekend so we thought we’d take a look at some of these football rivalries in this week’s main report. You can listen to the report by clicking above while vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

What is a derby?

A derby is a game played between rival teams – usually from the same city or region though not always, think Barcelona against Real Madrid or Liverpool vs Manchester United, for instance. Generally the games are played at a frenetic pace as the teams are roared on by the fans who want to have bragging rights over their rivals. This of course means that form often goes out the window making these games very difficult to predict.

Where did the term originate from?

Well, though there is some confusion over its origin, it is now generally accepted that the term derby comes from a folk football match between two local sides from the village of Ashburton in Derbyshire in the Midlands area of England

What is the oldest derby in world football?

Again, there is some dispute about this but it seems that the Sheffield derby between Wednesday and United is now regarded as one of the oldest local rivalries in world football.

So derbies are always about geographical rivalry then?

Usually but not always. Sometimes there are other factors involved such as history (for example, West Ham and Millwall’s London rivalry dates back to an industrial dispute), animosity between a country’s different regions, religion, politics (for example the ‘eternal enemies’ Olympiakos and Panathanaikos in Greece) and footballing honours. For instance, there is rivalry between the two cities of Manchester and Liverpool yet when Liverpool take on Manchester City or Manchester United play Everton there is no real animosity. But when Liverpool and Manchester United play each other then a different form of rivalry kicks in: which of the two sides is the most successful in English football?

The clásico in Spain between Barcelona and Real Madrid is an example of a derby involving two teams from different regions but as many people know, this game is all about history and identity. Rangers and Celtic in Scotland not only share the same city, Glasgow, are the two most successful sides in Scottish football history but they are also divided on religious lines: Celtic, traditionally is a Catholic club while Rangers is a Protestant one. But then there is the example of Galatasaray and Fenerbahce from Turkey – two teams that are also divided on religious lines but they also come from from a city, Istanbul, that spans two different continents.

What are the biggest derbies in the world?

Celtic-Rangers, Galatasaray-Fenerbahce and Barcelona-Real Madrid are three of the most passionate, some would say hate-filled, games in the world but there are many others like them. 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 cliché page here.

Listen here to this week’s football phrase

This week’s English football phrase is to run riot. This expression is used when one team completely dominates another team and scores lots of goals. Before this week’s Champions League game between holders Barcelona and German side Stuttgart the experts were suggesting that Barca would run riot , however, the game finished 1-1. Another example was when Premier League side, Tottenham ran riot against Wigan earlier on in the season when they won 9-0. The expression can also be used to describe a player’s performance against an opponent as in, Wayne Rooney ran riot against the West Ham defence in the 3-0 victory. To run riot.

Another busy week in the world of football with English club Portsmouth going into administration, Chelsea players warned about their public behaviour, Wayne Bridge deciding not to play for England any more, Wayne Rooney continuing his impressive league scoring run for Manchester United, Champions League wins for Inter Milan and Bordeaux and an impressive FA Cup victory for my team Spurs and a Europa League win for Damon’s team Liverpool. These and other stories will feature on this week’s podcast, which looks at football derbies. Indeed, we feature three of them in our regular predictions battle, as well as the final of the Carling Cup and some international friendlies. We also have another English for football phrase. Come along to the site at languagecaster.com to read more.

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PREDICTION

This week’s featured match is Aston Villa v Manchester United in the Carling Cup final

________________________________________

FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

This week’s phrase for football is to run riot. This expression is used when one team completely dominates another team and scores lots of goals. Before this week’s Champions League game between holders Barcelona and Stuttgart the experts were suggesting that Barca would run riot . Another example was when Premier League side, Tottenham ran riot against Wigan earlier on in the season when they won 9-0. The expression can also be used to describe a player’s performance against an opponent as in, Wayne Rooney ran riot against the West Ham defence. To run riot.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

When was the last time Aston Villa won the Carling Cup?

a. 2000
b. 1998
c. 1996
d. 1994

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘How many different countries are represented in the last 16 of the Champions League this year?’ The answer is 8 – Portugal, Greece, Russia, Spain, Italy, England, Germany and France.
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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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A big game in the Premier League, derbies from Portugal, Scotland and Germany, as well as the Carling Cup final all feature along with some interesting international friendly games in this week’s predictions. Our guest this week is Maki who is a fan of AC Milan. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Current Scores: DB 114 | DF 112 | Guest 100

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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 cliché page here.

Listen here to the football phrase

This week’s English for football expression is the phrase to be a handful which means that something or someone is difficult to handle or control. In football this is used when one team has difficulty controlling or defending against a player from the opposing team. The phrase often collocates with the verb to prove as in ‘… Chris Maguire proved to be a handful for Celtic with his vigour‘ which means that the Scottish side Celtic were unable to control Chris Maguire because of his power or pace. The phrase can also be used without the verb to be in it. So, recently, Wayne Rooney has been playing very well for his club Manchester United and in this week’s Champions League game against AC Milan he scored twice and proved a real handful for the Rossoneri defence. To prove to be a real handful.

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