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Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2024 Olympic Finals
In this football language podcast we look back at some of the good, the bad and the ugly from the 2024 Olympics. We also explain the phrases ‘to take on‘ and ‘to take place‘ and give some predictions. 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.
Introduction
DF: You’re listening to Languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast.
DF: Hello and welcome to the show for everyone who wants to practise their English and who loves the beautiful game of football. My name is Damian and I am in London where the weather is actually quite nice – not too hot but we also have some blue skies. How is the weather where you are at the moment? I have been watching the Olympics from Paris and seen some really, very hot days there. And I wonder what the temperature in Tokyo, Japan is at the moment where of course the other member of the Learn English Through Football team Damon is living?
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from a Brazilian fan)
DF: It’s good to be back after our short break; the pre-season seems to be getting shorter each year. It seems like only yesterday that Spain were winning their fourth European Championship title. What was your favourite moment from that tournament? Can you remember who scored the best goal? Or which team had the best defensive record? Or what was the dirtiest game at the finals? We discussed some of these in our last podcast which was a review of the Euro 2024 competition.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Chinese)
DF: Now, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the Olympics – what sports are you watching where you are? What new sports language have you learned? I have been watching the BMX and have learned what a ‘double tailwhip’ is – check it out online, I can’t explain it – it’s amazing! Now on today’s show we are going to look at some language from the Olympic football tournament and we are also going to have some predictions for some of the big games that took place at the weekend, including the Olympic finals and the Community Shield.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French)
DF: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster’s Learn English Through Football Podcast and that message was in French. Now, I have been watching lots of the football at the Olympics which has been thrilling and at times rather controversial. The France versus Argentina men’s quarter-final match was a real grudge game (we’ve explained this phrase in a recent post), while there was controversy after a pitch invasion and a disallowed goal in the group stage game between Morocco and Argentina. Both the men’s and women’s finals took place this weekend: the men’s final between France and Spain took place on Friday with Spain taking the gold and the women’s gold medal match took place on Saturday – the US side winning the gold there.
Take place/Take on
DF: Let’s have a look at the phrase ‘to take place‘. To take place means that something is going to happen or to occur so we can say that the women’s final took place on Saturday. There are lots of other phrases that use the verb ‘take’ in football including ‘take on‘, which has many different meanings, but one of these means to play against another team (the same as to face). So, Brazil took on the USA in the women’s final and France took on Spain in the men’s final and this gold medal match took place on Friday.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Spanish)
Glossary
2024 Olympic Football Review
Yes, you are listening to the Learn English through Football Podcast from the Languagecaster team and that message or stinger was in Spanish. What an amazing summer of football the Spanish men’s teams have had! They won the Euros in July and then followed it up with a gold at the Olympics. Let’s take a look back at some of the good, the bad and the ugly from the Olympic football tournaments but before we do, here’s some vocabulary that will help you with your listening.
- To be a big story: This means that the team have made the news.
- Their opening match: The first game that a team plays in a competition or tournament
- Pitch invasion: When people other than the players and referee come onto the pitch and sometimes this is dangerous and the referee has to take the players off and stop the game.
- To rout (a team): This means to easily defeat another team by a big score (or thrash them)
- Bronze-medal game: The third and fourth place play-off match between the two losing semi-finalists.
- To boil over: This means that a game was full of tension and eventually, or finally, the players end up fighting
- To be banned: To not be allowed to play or manage in football
- To spy (on): This means too illegally try and find information from an opponent
- To be docked six points: To lose 6 points as a penalty (Another phrase here is points deduction)
- To be fined: To have to pay money as a punishment for bad behaviour
OK, listen out for some of these phrases as we look at the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good: Spanish and Moroccan Men’s Teams
Embed from Getty ImagesAs I have just said, it’s been a great summer for Spain’s men’s teams after they won both the Euros and the Olympics – fantastic wins for the Spanish. It’s also been a great tournament for the new USWNT manager Emma Hayes whose US side defeated Brazil in the final to win gold. But in the men’s competition Morocco have also been a big story. They defeated Argentina in their opening match – a game in which the players left the pitch for two hours after a pitch invasion – before then defeating Iraq to finish top of their group. They then routed the USA 4-0 before unluckily losing out to Spain in the semi-final. They then thrashed Egypt 6-0 in the bronze-medal game to take their first ever football Olympic medal.
The Bad: Spain’s Women’s Team
Embed from Getty ImagesIt has not been a good Olympic Games for the Spanish Women’s team who were thrashed 5-2 in the semi-final against Brazil. This was a big shock as the 2023 World Cup winners were expected to also win Olympic gold. They then lost the bronze-medal match against Germany and even missed a penalty in the last minute of injury time which would have sent the game into extra time.
The Ugly: Canadian Women’s Team
Embed from Getty ImagesOne of the main ideas behind the Olympic Games is that of fair play but it seems that football sometimes forgets about this! We have already mentioned the pitch invasion in the Morocco versus Argentina game – two hours off the pitch – and then when the teams returned the referee ruled out (or disallowed) an Argentinian equaliser because of VAR. The ‘goal’ was the reason for the invasion so Argentina felt very upset! Then there was the grudge match between Argentina and hosts France when France won after a tension-filled game that eventually boiled over at the final whistle.
But perhaps the biggest scandal in the football tournaments involved the manager of the Canadian Women’s team Bev Priestman. She was removed from her post – she was fired – along with two other coaches after it was revealed that she had sent drones over the opposition’s training camp in order to spy on them. It then turned out that she had done this before which meant that not only was she suspended from football for a year but Canada were docked six points – they lost six points from the group stage – they had a six-point deduction – and they were heavily fined. Remarkably the Canadian team still managed to make it through to the knock-out stage but this story was an ugly one indeed.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (in Vietnamese)
Predictions
Now, as regular listeners will know we have often run predictions competitions here on the Learn English Through Football podcast – we should congratulate again Fugesi who won the recent European Championship tournament – well done. So, we are going to bring the predictions back again for this season but with a little difference. Both myself and Damon will continue to battle each other every week and we’ll be taking on a guest as well. So, if you’d like to participate as a guest predictor then drop us a line and let us know your scores. Of course you can play along at any time – simply add a comment at the end of this post or you can contact us on the forum. Remember, it’s three points for a win and one point for the right result.
Now we are going to start the competition next week but we thought it might be fun to do some predictions this week and so we have five games from five different competitions. First up we look at the two Olympic finals. Our guest this week is Tracey who is a Lowestoft Town FC supporter – this is a non-league team in the east of England – and she thought that Spain would win the men’s gold medal match 1-0, I also thought Spain would win (2-1) but although Spain did win gold after a dramatic 5-3 extra-time win, it’s Damon who scores a point as he said it would finish 1-1 after 90 minutes. However, both Tracey and myself scored a point as we both predicted that the USA would win the Women’s gold medal match. They won 1-0 and we both scored a point each. The Championship – the second tier in English football – also started this week and we picked a game between newly-promoted Portsmouth and favourites to go up to the Premier league Leeds. The game finished in a 3-3 draw which gave me a point as I had gone for a 1-1 draw. No points for anyone though in the next game which was the Community Shield match between last season’s FA Cup winners Manchester United and Premier league winners Manchester City. No one predicted a 1-1 draw – of course Man City won the trophy on penalties. There is one game left and this is the UEFA Super Cup match between Champions League winners Real Madrid and Europa League winners Atalanta. I’ve gone for a 2-0 Madrid win while Damon has predicted a 1-0 win to the Spanish side but Tracey is predicting a 2-1 win for Atalanta. Let’s see how those games go and of course let us know what you think the score will be. We’ll start our predictions competition next week and you can see the upcoming games in our forum.
| Competition | Matches | Damon | Damian | Guest | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men’s Olympic Final | France v Spain | 1-1 (1) | 1-2 | 0-1 | 3-3 |
| Women’s Olympic Final | Brazil v USA | 2-0 | 0-2 (1) | 1-2 (1) | 0-1 |
| Championship | Leeds United v Portsmouth | 1-0 | 1-1 (1) | 1-0 | 3-3 |
| Community Shield | Manchester City v Manchester United | 0-1 | 2-0 | 2-0 | 1-1 |
| UEFA Super Cup | Real Madrid v Atalanta | 1-0 (1) | 2-0 (3) | 1-2 | 2-0 |
| Total Points | 2 | 5 | 1 |
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (in Turkish)
Contact
DF: OK, if you have any questions or comments about any of the words and phrases from today or indeed any other football language then drop us an email at admin@languagecaster.com. You can also find us on social media – come along to our YouTube page. We also have a football-language forum where you can ask and answer any questions you have on the language of football and remember that you can find our predictions there too. And of course, don’t forget to subscribe to our football-language podcasts.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (in Polish)
DF: Right, that message was in Polish and if you’d like to add your language to our show then send on an audio to admin@languagecaster.com.
Goodbye
OK, that’s it for this podcast in which we looked back at some of the good, the bad and the ugly stories from the Olympic football tournaments. We also looked at the phrases ‘to take on’ and ‘to take place’ -let us know if you hear any of the phrases from today’s show of course in any language. Enjoy all the football this week – don’t forget the UEFA Super Cup – and we’ll be back on Thursday with some more football language. Bye bye!
