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The Champions League draw has been made and the Italian and Spanish leagues kick off this weekend so football in Europe is very much up and running. We feature many of these stories on languagecaster.com’s weekly football podcast. For more football news come to our site, read the posts, listen to our main reports and check out our links section. continue

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This week we feature the champions from the top 4 leagues in Europe: Barcelona; Bayern Munich; Chelsea and Inter Milan. Our guest this week is Marco an AC Milan fan.

Current Score: DB 1 | DF 3 | Guest 1

	DB	DF	Guest	Result
Kaiserslautern - B Munich	0-2	1-2	0-3	2-0
Chelsea - Stoke C	4-0 (1)	1-0 (1)	6-0 (1)	2-0
R Santander - Barcelona	0-2 (1)	1-2 (1)	0-3 (3)	0-3
Bologna - Inter Milan	0-1	0-0 (3)	1-1	0-0

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 Print This Post | Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase

Every week during the 2010-11 season, the languagecaster team will be explaining a football phrase or cliché connected to football. Below is the complete list which will be updated weekly and by clicking on the phrase you will be taken to a post with a transcript and an audio file. You can find many more examples by going to our previous season football phrase page here football clichés here and our huge football glossary here and of course by listening to our Weekly football podcast for all learners of English

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Every week during the 2010-11 season, the languagecaster team produces a weekly podcast. Below is the complete list of the podcasts which if you click you will be taken to the individual post.

Week	Podcast	Week	Podcast
1	Tottenham and Liverpool: Predictions	2	La Liga: Promoted Teams

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking here

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The World Cup is over and already football fans around the world are looking forward to the new club season in Europe. Languagecaster.com will be back for the start of the new English Premier League season in mid-August with a new series of podcasts and English-learning materials for football fans everywhere.

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Current Score: DB 35 | DF 65

Holland take on Spain  in the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa. The match will be played on Sunday the 11th of July at Soccer City, Johannesburg. Neither of these teams has won a World Cup before, and Spain has never been to a final, and no European team has ever won the title outside Europe, so there will be at least two firsts after the game this weekend. David Villa and Wesley Sneijder are leading the Golden Boot rankings with five goals apiece, so that is up for grabs too – although Forlan and Klose in the third place game may still win. . Join our predictions competition here, where there’s a chance to win an original languagecaster.com T-shirt!

	DB	DF	Result
Spain v Holland	1-2	1-0

Join our predictions competition by clicking here

This is your chance to to win a Brazil World Cup football top (see left). To enter the free draw simply tell us which team you think is going to win the World Cup. Do you think Brazil will win their sixth title or will the Dutch or the Spanish win their first? Can Ghana do the unthinkable and become the first ever African side to win the competition? Post your comment below and we will enter you into the draw that will take place the day before the World Cup final takes place – July 10th.

Listen to languagecaster’s podcast here

i-tunes Feed | Podcast Feed

The second round of the World Cup is now over and what an amazing four days it has been. On today’s podcast we take a look back at those 8 games, which had a little bit of everything from penalty shootouts to disputed goals, red cards and some wonder strikes. Vocabulary in bold is explained in the transcript below.

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 World Cup Language Resources page with:

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

Transcripts from previous podcasts and much more.

Transcript

The second round of the World Cup is now over and what an amazing four days it has been. On today’s podcast we take a look back at those 8 games, which had a little bit of everything from penalty shootouts to disputed goals, red cards, wonder strikes, as well as lots of tears of joy and sadness.

Uruguay 2- 1 South Korea

In a rain-drenched Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Uruguay beat South Korea 2-1 thanks to two well-taken goals by top striker Luis Suarez, his second in particular a real beauty which means Uruguay continue their successful run and sees them reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time since 1970. The Koreans had their chances but failed to find a way past the impressive Uruguayan defence – one that had not conceded a goal in this tournament – until Lee Chung-Yong’s equaliser half way through the second half. The Asian side pressed for a winner but it was Suarez who sealed the victory with a delightful curling shot in the 80th minute.

Ghana 2- 1 (aet) USA

A real topsy-turvy game saw Ghana make it to the quarter-finals for the first time in their history and to become only the third side from Africa to make it that far. The Black Stars deserved it for their extra-time performance when they took the game to the States who had seemed favourites to win after their strong second-half showing had earned them an equaliser from their captain Landon Donovan. This goal had cancelled out Boateng’s early strike for Ghana but rather than going on to win the game, it was the Africans who finished stronger with their top scorer Asamoah Gyan getting the winner in extra time. continue

With three hours to go before Japan kick off against Paraguay, hoping to get through to the last eight for the first time in their history, fans in Japan are a) going football nuts, b) confident and c) sorry.

a) Let’s take the going crazy bit: it’s natural for a country whose team is doing well in the World Cup to get World Cup fever. Last night’s match becomes the main topic of conversation between colleagues at work, students at school and even strangers commuting to work. This is especially true of teams that don’t have much history of success in the World Cup (Japan – appeared in the last 4 World Cups, played 13, won 7, lost, drawn 2, best = last 16). b) Japan is confident! Everyone… continue

FIFA claim that technology in football would take away the human element and prevent discussions taking place about interesting decisions. After yesterday’s farcical non-goal in the Germany-England game, the organising body of world football should really re-evaluate their position. They won’t of course, they promised to review it after the France-Ireland debacle in Paris in November but they did nothing then and will no doubt continue to do nothing. What do you think about goal-line technology, should it be introduced?

 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

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?

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.

Listen to languagecaster’s podcast here

How much do you know about the teams taking part in the World Cup ? Do you know what groups they are in? What colour is each team’s kit? Who is the star player? What language best describes their style of play? And… er, who is their cutest player? Click on the links below to find out more about each of the countries taking part in South Africa 2010.

Group A	Group B
Group C	Group D
Group E	Group F
Group G	Group H

In World Cup Podcast 1 Damon and Damian predict who they think will be the winners, the dark horses, the flops and the Golden Boot winner. You can see their answers in the table below. How about you, what do you think is going to happen during this summer’s World Cup? Post a comment below with your choices and we’ll add you to the table.

	Winners	Dark Horse	Flop	Golden Boot
Damian	Spain	Holland / Chile	France	Robin Van Persie
Damon	Holland	South Korea / Paraguay	Portugal	Robin Van Persie
Brendan	Argentina	Holland	Ronaldo	Fabiano
HP Sauce	Brazil	Serbia	Italy	David Villa
Niall	England	USA	France	Wayne Rooney
James	Argentina	Holland	Spain	Lionel Messi
Flamel	Brazil	Holland	England	Arjen Robben
Siobhan	Brazil	Holland	England	Fabiano

 Print This Post | Subscribe: World Cup Football Phrase

Every day during the World Cup, the languagecaster team will be explaining a football phrase or cliché connected to this summer’s tournament. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and read the transcript below. 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

The World Cup finally kicks off in South Africa tomorrow and already there is controversy over our first word of the day, the vuvuzela. You may never have heard of this word before but by the end of the World Cup you will be very aware of it and may well be even sick of it. It is of course the long, plastic horn blown by football supporters in South Africa, which makes such a noise that many players and managers have complained that they are unable to hear instructions. For example, the Thai manager Bryan Robson and Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso are two vociferous opponents of the vuvuzela. Personally I do not think it will be that bad and will even enhance the atmosphere of the games. The World Cup is taking place in South Africa and we should respect the culture of the local fans rather than forcing them to change. I wonder, however, how long it might take the all-powerful TV companies to complain? The vuvuzela.

Listen to languagecaster’s podcast here