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

Lyon shock Madrid, Portsmouth make it to Wembley, FIFA turn down technology and Wayne Rooney keeps on scoring goals. These stories and more feature in this week’s good, the bad and the ugly section of the podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

A good week for Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Lyon and Arsenal as they all made it through to the last 8 of the Champions League. The two English clubs won easily – United thrashed AC Milan 4-0, while Arsenal hammered Porto 5-0. Bayern lost 3-2 at Fiorentina but won through on away goals while Lyon caused the shock of the round with their 1-1 draw in the Bernabeu to knock out Real Madrid. continue

 Print This Post | Subscribe: English Football Phrase

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.

Click here for the audio

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 remained cagey and would 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.’

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A London derby, a huge game in France, and our first look at a game from Mexico this season – two of the top teams go head to head there, as well as an important match in La Liga. And there’s still room for some Champions League action, too. This week, Greg, an LA Galaxy fan is our guest predictor.

Current Scores: DB 122 | DF 117 | Guest 105

We are in the run-in to many of the European league’s title races. If we look at the Premier League, it is Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham in the top four, while in La Liga Real Madrid are first, followed by Barcelona, Valencia and Mallorca.

Most league tables are based on how many points a team has. How about these top fours? How are they decided?

Last week was International Friendly week, with some of the big guns getting good wins – Spain were particularly impressive with their 2-0 win over France. Crouch also shined for England in their 3-1 win over Egypt. The feud between John Terry and Wayne Bridge continues with all eyes on a handshake. In South America there were good wins for Lanus and Cruzerio, but a shock loss for Estudiantes in the Copa Libertadores. The debate about the ‘English’ style of play resurfaces after a terrible tackle left Arsenal’s  Aaron Lennon’s leg broken in two places. Chester City FC were thrown out of the Football League in England and now have to hope they can rebuild a new team – all because of debts £26,000 – compare that to the £700,000,000 owed on loans by Manchester United and you can see the gap between the haves and have nots.  And of course there was lots lots more. 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 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.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

How many times has India qualified for the World Cup?

a. never
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘When was the last time Aston Villa won the Carling Cup?’ The answer is c – 1996. Villa are second in the ranking with 5 wins behind Liverpool on 7.
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For all students of the beautiful game

 

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On this week’s show we ask, ‘why hasn’t football taken off in India, the second most populous nation on Earth?’. Remember you can also:

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

More trophies for Alex Fergeson as Man United pick up some silverware in England, good results for some of the big teams in last week’s international friendlies, a horror tackle and injuries put players out for the season 8and the World Cup), and some strange motivational tactics in the Bundesliga all feature in this week’s the Good the bad and the Ugly.

The Good

Good for Manchester United as they get the first silverware of the season in England – that’s if you don’t count the Community Shield, the season opener won by Chelsea. They beat Aston Villa 2-1 and lifted the Carling Cup trophy for the fifth time, equal second in the all time ranking with the team they beat, Villa but still behind Liverpool’s seven wins. The game was not without incident as Nemanja Vidic, as last man, should have been sent off for a blatant tackle in the penalty box in the fourth minute. Phil Dowd the referee decided simply to award a penalty. After escaping going a man down, Manchester United slowly took hold of the midfield and the game, and Owen and Rooney were on target to win the game. And with league leaders Chelsea also losing to Manchester city, it was a good weekend for the Red Devils. continue

 

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Last week, I visited Mumbai, India. Mumbai is arguably the most cosmopolitan city in India, the business centre, and home to 12 million Mumbaikers. While I was there I saw people walking around sporting Manchester United and AC Milan fake tops, Beckham T-shirts, and in the shop windows there are Chelsea, Man United, and Real Madrid school bags. Despite this, I hardly saw anybody playing football in the streets or in the many parks and beaches in the city. And there was nothing about local football in the newspapers. Why don’t most Indians play or follow football?

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A big game from the Indian Professional League, some relegation battles from the Premier League in England and the second leg matches from the Champions League all feature in this week’s predictions, which of course can be heard on our podcast. Our guest this week is Marc who is a fan of Spurs. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Current Scores: DB 122 | DF 112 | Guest 102

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

French clubs in Europe, John Terry vs Wayne Bridge, Portsmouth’s troubles and Thai politicians lose out to female footballers. These stories and more feature in this week’s good, the bad and the ugly section of the podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

It’s been a good 10 days for French clubs in European competition as Lyon and Bordeaux scored impressive wins in the Champions League and Lille and Marseille made progress to the last 16 of the Europa League. We spoke about Lyon’s 1-0 defeat of Real Madrid in last week’s show and in this week’s set of Champions League games, top of the table Bordeaux won in Greece at Olympiakos. Laurent Blanc’s side look as if they will retain the French title this season so they can focus their efforts on a possible surprise Champions League cup run. Good for French clubs in Europe. continue

 

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Our fourth spotlight on World Cup Stars looks at one of Germany’s finest – der bomber! Check out previous posts on World Cup Stars here.

“(He) was short , squat, awkward-looking and not notably fast”, wrote David Winner in Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football. This description does not sound like one you would expect of a World Cup great, but the player described won a European Championship, a World Cup, is second all time top scorer in the competition and has one of the best goal to match ratios of any player – ever! 489 goals in 565 games. Gerd Müller, born in 1945 in Bavaria, was a deadly finisher, a fox in the box, and was simply know as der bomber – the bomber!

He has already established his fearsome reputation as a goalscorer at Bayern Munich, the team that dominated German club football in the late sixties and early 70s. Playing alongside Sepp Maier and Franz Beckenbauer it wasn’t long before Muller, initially believed to be too short and stocky to be successful, was called up to the national side, and in his first international competition, the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, he scored 10 goals and won the Golden Shoe. His haul included hatricks against Bulgaria and Peru, a winner in extra time against rivals England, and two against Italy in a match the Germans lost 4-3. Müller himself believed this competition was the most important in his career and it certainly propelled him into the international spotlight.

A European Championship title in 1972, culminating in a 3-0 win over Russia – two goals for der bomber and the top-scorer award – was followed two years later with West Germany’s successful campaign in the 1974 World Cup in front of their own fans. Müller’s West German side were up against most neutrals favourites, Holland. The Dutch, led by legend Johan Cruyff, were playing what became known as ‘total football’ a fluid approach to the game freeing players to change position in combinations that defied traditional thinking about line-ups and tactics. The West Germans had been solid in the tournament but not outstanding, unlike the Dutch who most pundits thought claim the trophy. The game became a tight, tense affair and the difference between the sides was  der bomber and his goal that put the Germans up 2-1 and ended up being the winning goal, and Müller’s last for his nation. This is how he described it, “I ran forward with two Dutch players then checked back because the pass was behind me. The ball jumped off my left foot, I turned a little and suddenly it was in.” ‘Suddenly it was in’, if any phrase describes the short, squat, stocky, slow striker from the south of Germany, ’suddenly it was in’ is perhaps it.

David Miller goes on to say about Gerhard Müller, “he had lethal acceleration over short distances, a remarkable aerial game, and uncanny goalscoring instincts.” Der bomber, goal-scoring machine and World Cup great. continue

The Champions League knock out stage is underway, with Rooney starring for Manchester United, and if the knockout phase has started in Europe that means in South America the Copa Libertadores’ group stages are underway. The holders, Argentinian outfit Estudiantes, suffered a shock 4-1 defeat to Peru’s Alianza Lima. Elsewhere, Barcelona are beaten, Montpellier win again and extend their extraordinary form in Ligue 1, and Patrick Viera is handed a three match ban in his second game.And on languagecaster we talk about more football news and spotlight another World Cup great – Gerd Müller.

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PREDICTION

This week’s featured match is the Champions League match between Inter Milan & Chelsea

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FOOTBALL EXPRESSION

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.

Click here for more football cliches and football phrases.

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

How many clubs did Gerd Müller play for in his career?

a. 1
b. 3
c. 4
d. 6

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?’ was d.8.
________________________________________

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