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On this week’s main listening report we take a look at the FA Cup: the format, its history and the giant killing. There is a worksheet with this report and you can listen to the report by clicking on the link below, while vocabulary support appears at the foot of the report.

The FA Cup

The oldest football competition in the world is the English FA Cup, the Football Association Cup, which first started in 1872. The format of the tournament is very simple – it is a knock-out competition which means that the winner of each tie, or game, passes through to the next round while the loser is knocked-out and does not play again until the following season: it is a winner-takes-all format. To add to the excitement there is no form of seeding, which means that games are decided by an open draw and that one team can be drawn to play against any other side in the tournament. continue

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On this week’s predictions we feature the big derby matches in the FA Cup 4th Round, as well as some more games from the Africa Cup of Nations. You can listen to Damon and Damian discussing their predictions on this week’s show. Check out some language used in making predictions here. This week’s guest predictor is Mick who is a Chelsea fan.

Current Score: DB 108 | DF 91 | Guests 74

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In this week’s review of the footballing action we focus on the start of the African Cup of Nations and we wonder why stamps in Manchester and Madrid go unpunished. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.

Good

A real feel good factor now surrounds the African Cup of Nations as both of the hosts won their opening matches. First up was Equatorial Guinea who defeated Libya 1-0 in their home stadium to earn a one million dollar bonus that had been promised them by the country’s president. Then on Monday Gabon opened their tournament by defeating competition debutants Niger 2-0 in Libraville. A perfect start to the tournament for the co-hosts.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

On this week’s podcast we look ahead to the African Cup of Nations that is taking place in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Remember, you can also:

• Listen only to the main report here – complete with transcript and vocabulary
• Learners of English can review the footballing news from around the world in our good, the bad and the ugly section of the show
• Check out a new football expression in English for Football
• For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources page with:
• A page with all our Football vocabulary posts
• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts

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On this week’s main listening report we preview the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations Tournament being co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea that continues until 12 February. You can listen to the report by clicking on the link below, while vocabulary support appears at the foot of the report.

Group A

Co-hosts Equatorial Guinea are the lowest-ranked side in the tournament FIFA have placed them at 151 and though the debutants have lots of naturalised players they are seen as having little or no chance of making it through to the quarter-finals. Senegal, on the other hand, are favoured to make it through and are also seen as dark horses for the tournament. The Teranga Lions boast Newcastle striker Demba Ba in their ranks but such is the strength in depth of the squad that he may not even get a starting role in the side. It is simply remarkable that Libya have even made it to the finals after the Civil War that raged through the country last year. The fact that most of the players are semi-professional suggest that the Mediterranean Knights may not pose too much of a challenge for the other sides in the group. Zambia will be favoured to make it through and they will be hoping to equal or even better their 1974 and 1994 performances when they finished runners-up in the tournament. Predictions: Zambia and Senegal.
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Each week the languagecaster team will explain a football phrase or cliche for learners of English who love the sport. On this week’s show we feature the phrase ‘to be booked for dissent’. Click on the link below to learn about the word or phrase, while you can also read the transcript. You can also find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football cliches here and our huge football glossary here.

Listen here: To be booked for dissent

This week’s football phrase is ‘to be booked for dissent’ which means that a player receives a yellow card for using bad or rude language to the referee. It can also occur when a player questions a referee’s decision or disrespects the officials. In yesterday’s clasico game between Real Madrid and Barcelona Carlos Pujol was booked for dissent when complaining about an earlier decision. to be booked for dissent.

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In this week’s review of the footballing action we focus on Swansea’s rise, Inter Milan’s unbeaten run and a bad week for Real Madrid’s Pepe. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.

Good

Nine years ago this week, Welsh side Swansea City were bottom of the fourth tier in English football; bottom of the whole league – that’s 92nd out of 92 teams, while Arsenal were top of the Premier League. Yet last weekend Swansea came from behind to beat The Gunners 3-2 to move into tenth place in the Premier League. It was also good news for Italian side Inter Milan as they defeated their rivals AC Milan – a 6th consecutive win that sends them up into fifth place – six points behind leaders Juventus.
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Each week the languagecaster team will explain a football phrase or cliche for learners of English who love the sport. On this week’s show we feature the phrase ‘to make a comeback’. Click on the link below to learn about the word or phrase, while you can also read the transcript. You can also find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football cliches here and our huge football glossary here.

Listen here: Make a Comeback.mp3

This week’s football phrase is ‘to make a comeback’ which is not normally connected to football but last weekend saw two former Premier League stars return to play for their old clubs: they have made a comeback. On Sunday in the Manchester derby Paul Scholes surprised everybody when he was named on the Manchester United bench in the FA Cup tie against rivals Manchester City. The following day, in the same competition, former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry came off the bench to score the winning goal for Arsenal on his return to the club he had served so well. Indeed, both players made winning starts to their comebacks. To make a comeback.

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On this week’s predictions we feature the big Milan derby between AC and Inter as well as games involving Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. You can listen to Damon and Damian discussing their predictions on this week’s show. Check out some language used in making predictions here. This week’s guest predictor is Pedro who is a Barcelona fan.

Current Score: DB 101 | DF 84 | Guests 71

If you would like to be a guest predictor for a week, let us know here

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In this week’s review of the footballing action, we congratulate Lionel Messi for winning his third FIFA Ballon d’Or award, look back at a bad week for his club Barcelona and an ugly end for Neil Warnock as he is fired from QPR. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.

Good

He is only 24 years old but already the Argentinian Leo Messi is now being touted as the best ever. Messi has just been awarded his third successive Ballon d’Or trophy, the prize given to the best player in the world and few can doubt that Messi is clearly number one: winning the Spanish League, the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Champions League where he scored and was voted man of the match. continue