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The season in England traditionally ends with the FA Cup final at Wembley. That’s the game we focus on in this end-of-season podcast. Read the transcript for the show in our post below (Damian = DF, Damon = DB).
Learn English Through Football Podcast:A The FA Cup 2017
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Transcript of the show
DB: You’re listening to Languagecaster’s football-language podcast.A Hi everyone. Welcome to theA podcast for all those who love the beautiful game and want to improve their English skills. My name’s Damon and I’m in a sunny Tokyo, but unfortunately I will not be able to watch the big game of the weekend, the FA Cup final, I can’t find any TV channel here showing it!
Although it has changed over recent decades, yes I am that old, the FA Cup used to be an all day affair. As a kid, you would wake up in the morning and watch interviews with the players in their hotel, watch them playing golf, find out interesting things about the team and players; then you’d get coverage of the fans walking to Wembley and then the stadium gradually filling up; the game itself then took place – and the result REALLY meant something. It was a big piece of silverware to win! After the game, what then? Well, you’d run down to the school playing field, meet your mates and replay the game! Great stuff.
Not quite the same now, with the Premier League and Champions League taking most of the glory, but the FA Cup Final is still part of the English football season.
Line up
Now, we haven’t got Damian on the show today, but we will have a quick look at some football news from last week, a quiz question and a bit of English for football language – oh yes, and a look at the FA Cup final teams.
Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that message was in Welsh. We’re always looking for otherA languages, so if you could say ‘you are listening to languagecaster.com’ in your languageA just send it on to us here at admin@languagecaster.comA and we’ll add it to the show!
OK, let’s start the good, the bad and the ugly section with some good news.
Good
DB: Congratulations toA Manchester United who became Europa League champions after beating Ajax 2-0 in Stockholm. Ajax could find no way past a well organised Manchester side, and an earlyA goal helped the Red Devils take control. The final was somewhat overshadowed at home by the suicide bombing at a concert venue in Manchester, and it must have been difficult for both teams to play this game. Manchester United have now added this title to their trophy cabinet, it’s the first time they’ve won it, and with the League Cup next to it from this season, that’s some nice silverware for Mourinho and his team.
Bad
DB:A We talked about the English FA’s decision to use retrospective punishment for conning, cheating, the ref last week, and diving features in this bad as well. Dundee United had Simon Murray sent off for two dives, so two yellow cards. Fair enough you might think, except that the second decision was a pretty poor one by the assistant and the referee. Murray was clearly kicked by Hamilton Academical’s Scott McKann; Murray went down in the box but when he got up he received his second yellow and his marching orders! Bad decision, but maybe Murray shouldn’t have dived for the first yellow!
Ugly
DB:A Not ugly but kind of funny. It seems that all footballers these days are covered with tattoos. I don’t know when this all started but one minute they were a rarity and the next it is almost impossible to find a footballer without ink all up and down their arms – do I sound old again? Probably! Never mind. Anyway, this story is of Frankfurt’s Guillermo Varela, a defender, whose new tattoo, inked 4 days before the DFB Pokal Final in Germany against Dortmund, became inflamed. The club have suspended the player for disobeying club orders not to get the tattoo done before the high profile game, and the Uruguayan will miss the final! Ouch!
Follow us
DB: OK, we’d just likeA to remind people to get in touch with us and spread the word if you like our show and our site. You can of course email us directly atA admin@languagecaster.com and you can follow us on all the usual places, twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Right and now a little bit of football language – silverware.
Football Language: Silverware
DB:A It is FA Cup final weekend and fans of the two finalists are dreaming about winning a major domestic trophy – they want to win some silverware. The famous FA Cup trophy is made from silver -A sterling 925 silver to be exact – and so when players and fans talk about winning a trophy they often refer to this as winning silverware. For example, ESPN quotesA Chelsea player Willian as beingA ‘desperate for more silverware‘.
Quiz question
DB: Now for a quick quiz question; there is no silverware for a correct answer, but there’s the glory! The question is, which team has won the FA Cup and been relegated in the same season? Answer at the end of the show!
Predictions
DB:A OK, it’s predictions time and we only haveA one game to talk about – the FA Cup final of course. it isn’t in our predictions competition, that was won last week by Damian. We’ll be starting that up again in August with the new season – remember you can join monthly leagues or the season competition. Just come along to the site at languagecaster.com and register for free or log in and then click through the predictions pages at the top of the site.
Right, two big teams in the final, Chelsea, already crowned Champions, and Arsenal, who dropped out of the top four spots for the first time in 20 years.A So, we have the Blues going for a domestic double. This isn’t an easy thing to do, although Arsenal and Manchester United have managed it three times. If Chelsea do it, that will be twice for them. It would be a massive achievement for Conte to win it in his first season.
But Arsenal also really need this silverware. If they don’t get it, their season will be seen as a failure, despite having scored more goalsA and got more points than last year. So, a double for Chelsea or solace for Arsenal? Well, for the 137th FA Cup, the bookies have Chelsea as heavy favourites and I can’t disagree. I think this could be a 2-0 win for Chelsea! Damian has a bit of a dilemma with this one – both teams are big London rivals. He’s not going to want either to win – but one will be lifting the silverware tomorrow afternoon at Wembley!
Quiz Answer
DB: Now before we go, here’sA the answer to the quiz question we asked earlier in the show. Which team has won the FA Cup and been relegated in the same season? The answer is Wigan, who beat Manchester CityA 1-0 in a A massive upset and then were relegated four days later – and that was in 2013.
Good bye
DB: Right. That’s it for this week’s podcast – drop us a line and let us know what you think of the show. Enjoy all of the football this week andA while we are taking a break from weekly podcasts until the new season, we will be posting and doing a few specials over the next couple of months! Ta-rah!
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here
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