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In this football language podcast we look ahead to the 2023 Women’s World Cup which starts next week by looking at some of the numbers involved in this year’s tournament. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: 2023 Women’s World Cup In Numbers
DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners and teachers of English. I’m Damian and I’m here in a rather grey London – a big difference from earlier in the week when I was in a very, very hot Madrid. I wonder what the weather is like in Tokyo where the other member of the Languagecaster team Damon is based? And Damon has been busy over the past couple of weeks with podcasts around the the phrases ‘nosebleed‘ and ‘to pen in‘. Come along to the site to hear those and of course don’t forget to access all of our other football-language podcasts – we have hundreds of them that date back over 15 years by simply coming along to Languagecaster.com.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from a Zambia fan)
Yes, that message was from one of our Zambian fans and and yes, you are listening to Languagecaster.com. Of course, Zambia will be playing in the upcoming Women’s World Cup for the first time in their history and so on today’s football-language podcast we will be looking ahead to the tournament that is taking place in… Well, do you know where? Yes, it will be held in Australia and New Zealand and this is the first time that a Women’s World Cup will be co-hosted by two countries – we can also say that this World Cup has joint hosts.
OK, so here are a few more questions about the Women’s World Cup. Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers as we will be revealing them throughout our podcast which today will mainly be looking at some of the key numbers from the upcoming tournament.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from Vietnamese fans)
Pre-listening quiz
- OK, here’s question 1: How many Women’s World Cups have there been? How many times has the Women’s Word Cup taken place?
- Question 2: How many teams will play in this year’s World Cup? How many countries will play in the 2023 tournament?
- Question 3: How many different venues are there in the tournament? How many different stadiums will host World Cup games?
- Question 4: How many teams are playing in the World Cup for the first time? How many sides will be making their World Cup debuts? Now remember that we’ve already told you one of them and that’s Zambia!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from a West Ham fan)
9
This is the ninth time the Women’s World Cup will take place – the first edition took place in 1991 in China when the US team beat Norway. The USA side has won the trophy on four occasions and Germany have won it twice, while Norway and Japan have each won it once. I wonder if there’ll be a new name on the trophy this year?
32
This is the number of sides that are taking part in this year’s tournament and this is an increase of eight from the last tournament in France which had 24 teams. Now, these 32 sides are divided into eight different groups and the top two teams will progress or go through to the knock-out stages; that’s the last 16.
9
Now, we have already mentioned that the tournament will be co-hosted between New Zealand and Australia. Indeed, this will be the first time that a World Cup has taken place in two different confederations: Australia are in the Asian Football Federation, while New Zealand are in Oceania. There will be nine venues – in eight different cities – five in Australia and four in New Zealand.
8
So, we have already mentioned that Zambia are making their World Cup debuts and there are seven other countries that are also playing in their first ever World Cup: Ireland, Haiti, Morocco, Panama, the Philippines, Vietnam and Portugal.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Korean)
So, in that short explanation about some of the numbers involved in the upcoming Women’s World Cup, we mentioned some interesting language. Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases:
- Venue: This is a word to describe the place where the game happens; where the game is played. It can refer to the stadium where the game is played or sometimes also the area around the ground or stadium. For example, the opening game will take place in New Zealand at Eden Park; so we can say that the venue is Eden Park.
- Debut: This word can be used as a noun or a verb. If a player plays a game for the first time we can say that they have made their debut or that they have debuted in the competition. Earlier we said that there were eight teams that will debut in this year’s competition; they will make their World Cup debuts which means that these sides are playing at a World Cup for the very first time.
- OK, one more and this time it’s Progress or To progress: So, another interesting phrase we used was ‘to progress‘ (or sometimes ‘to make progress‘). Can you hear the slight difference in stress? To progress is the verb and to make progress is the noun. So in tournament football this describes when a team moves into the next round of the competition. So, a team can progress from the group stage to the knock-out rounds or a team can progress to the final after defeating an opponent in the semi-final. Other words for progress include ‘to qualify‘ or ‘to go through’.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Dutch).
Contact
DF: OK, if you have any questions or comments then drop us an email at admin@languagecaster.com and you can also look out for us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – and on the new platform Threads so come along and say hello! We also have a football-language forum where you can ask and answer any questions you have on the language of football and recently, we’ve had some questions on the phrases, ‘mauling‘ (that’s to maul – M-A-U-L) and ‘to commit players forward‘. Take a look, add a comment or a question or simply say hello!
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French).
Goodbye
DF: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was from a French football fan. Don’t forget there’s a transcript for this short podcast and there’s lots of vocabulary support – we explain lots of the meanings of these words in the transcript, which you can access by coming along to our site.
OK, that’s it for this podcast in which we looked ahead to the 2023 Women’s World Cup which is now only a week away. We looked at some of the key numbers around the tournament. And do you remember the answers to our questions at the start of the show?
Answers: Pre-listening quiz
- OK, here’s question 1: How many Women’s World cups have there been? How many times has the Women’s Word Cup taken place? Well, this will be the ninth tournament.
- Question 2: How many teams will play in this year’s World Cup? How many countries will play in the 2023 tournament? And the answer? There will be 32 sides in this year’s competition – eight more than the last World Cup and the same as the men’s version.
- Number 3: How many different venues are there in the tournament? Well, there are nine different venues – five in Australia and four in New Zealand.
- Question 4: How many teams are playing in the World Cup for the first time? How many sides will be making their World Cup debuts? Eight sides will be playing in their first ever World Cup, including my team Ireland.
We also looked a little more closely at some words and phrases including venue and to progress. I wonder will the Republic of Ireland progress from their group into the knock-out stages? I am looking forward to watching their opening game against hosts Australia in Stadium Australia in Sydney which is the largest venue at the tournament – it can hold over 80.000 fans!
Let us know if you hear any of the phrases that we’ve used on today’s show – in any language of course. And enjoy all the football and we’ll see you again soon when we will be trying to make some predictions for this Women’s World Cup. Bye bye!
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Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
