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After 50 matches the European Championships taking place in France has now reached the final game which will see Ronaldoa€™s Portugal taking on hosts France. And so on todaya€™s learning English through football podcast we will be looking ahead to that game and also looking back at some of the words and phrases from the tournament. First up we will be reviewing some of the good, the bad and the ugly from the tournament including Iceland, England and Russia and after that we will be talking about our Euro 2016 prediction competition, before looking at some of the phrases from the tournament: penalty shoot-out, Cruyff turn, to root for and to win ugly and then wea€™ll be finishing off the show with a prediction for the final.
Learning English Through football Podcast: Euro 2016 Final France vs Portugal
Transcript of the show
Damian (DF): You’re listening to languagecaster’s football podcast
Damon (DB): Hello everyone and welcome to the show for all football fans who wish to improve their English language skills. My name is Damon and I am in Tokyo – it’s hot and humid here, I wonder what it’s like where Damian is.
DF: Hi Damon, I’m here in a breezy and very, very wet and miserable London where the talk about Europe both on and off the football pitch has dominated here for the past couple of weeks!
So after 50 matches the European Championships taking place in France has now reached the final game which will see Ronaldoa€™s Portugal taking on hosts France. And on todaya€™s football podcast we will be looking ahead to that game and also looking back at some of the words and language from the tournament.
DB: I’m sorry to hear that it’s a bit rainy and dark over there in London. I hope our show can brighten up your day. Now, first up we will be reviewing some of the good, the bad and the ugly from the tournament and after that we will be talking about our Euro 2016 prediction competition – very exciting – and then we’ll be looking at some of the phrases from the tournament: penalty shoot-out, Cruyff turn, to root for and to win ugly and wea€™ll be finishing off the show with a prediction, of course, for the ‘big’ final.
Good
DF: Now Damon before we take a look back at the Euros we must not forget the fact that Chile are Copa America winners for the second year in a row after defeating Argentina on penalties again. How about some other good moments from the Euros?
DB: Wales and Iceland – two outsiders who have outperformed all expectations reaching the semi-final and quarter-final respectively while we should also mention Hungary, Northern Ireland and Ireland who all made it through to the last 16.
DF: France – organised the tournament well / the hosts have reached the final / Griezmann 6 goals so favourite for Golden Boot
DB: Cristiano Ronaldo – started badly but has grown in importance (3 goals, 3 assists)
Bad
DB: England – so much expectation but only one victory – a last-minute win against Wales – before the Three Lions were dumped out of the tournament by Iceland in the last 16 which saw their manager Roy Hodgson resigning.
DB: Many pundits had tipped Austria to be one of the dark horses but they failed at the first step and were eliminated at the group stage.
DF: The quarter-final penalty shoot-out between Italy and Germany saw 6 spot kicks missed including a really bad effort from Juventus player Zaza who blazed the ball over the bar after a crazy run up. Belgium flattered to deceive. The golden generation once again failed to live up to their potential – they undoubtedly have the players but can’t seem to play as a team and were well beaten by a Welsh side that showed all the things that Belgium did not – team work, work ethic and tactical knowledge.
Ugly
DB: The first weekend saw fighting taking place in Marseille between Russia and England while the following weekend saw more fighting – this time among Croatian fans that saw their match against the Czech Republic held up for 5 minutes.
DF: Damon, what was your favourite/stand-out moment so far?
Predictions
DB: We have been running a prediction competition here at Languagecaster.com and with only one game to go Tokyo Red is three points ahead of Firuzzi (46-43) followed by Umidjohn on 40, fitzpab on 39, Fugesi 38 and Man City on 36. Remember there will be prizes for the top three and wea€™ll also have a random draw prize for everyone who entered the competition.
DF: Yes, I didna€™t do that well in this years competition but thank you to every one for taking part. Next up on the show we are going to take a look at some of the words and phrases from Euro 2016.
Football Language: Win ugly
DB: Teams cannot always play in an attacking, stylish or beautiful way – often they have to defend a lot and maybe win on a counter attack or even with a bit of luck and so sometimes we use the phrase a€˜to win uglya€™ when describing this kind of victory. In the Euros, Wales beat Northern Ireland thanks to an own goal after a dull encounter, while on the same day Portugal snatched a winner against Croatia in the last minute after almost 120 minutes of boring football with few chances. Both victories can be described as a€˜winning uglya€™.
Penalty shoot-out
DF: When two teams draw a game in the knock-out stages of a tournament they play 30 minutes of extra time and if they are still drawing at the end of this then they use a penalty shoot-out to try and decide a winner. Each team takes five penalties and if they still cannot be separated they continue until one team has outscored the other and this is known as sudden death. In this yeara€™s European Championships Poland defeated Switzerland in the last 16 in a penalty shoot-out but then they lost in the quarter-final to Portugal on another shoot-out, while Italy were defeated by Germany in another quarter-final penalty shoot-out.
To root for
.
DB: Thank you to Enrique who contacted us from Chile about this phrase – To root for is an American phrase meaning to support, to cheer for. Many people were rooting for Wales in the European Championships.
Cruyff Turn
.
DF: The Cruyff turn is a move in football when a player turns and leaves the defender behind him or her. The turn first appeared at the 1974 World Cup when Holland’s Johann Cruyff turned a Swedish defender and left him for dead and this is what Welsh striker Robson-Kanu did to three Belgian defenders in their quarter-final match when he scored the second goal in their 3-1 win. Afterwards in a press conference the player said a€˜I had my back to goal and theya€™re thinking Ia€™m going to set the ball and Ia€™ve Cruyffed and put it in the neta€™ – an interesting way to use the phrase as a verb.
DB: If you come along to Languagecaster.com you can find a huge collection of more football terms, phrases, expressions, vocabulary and cliches in our football language glossary and we are always looking for more words and phrases so if you know of any football phrase then let us know by contacting us at admin@languagecaster.com.
DF: You can also follow us on Facebook – Learn English Through Football – or on twitter @languagecaster. Wea€™d like to say a big hello to all those who are now following us or liked or re-tweeted our recent posts.
DB: How about a prediction for the final? What do you think?
DF: Portugal
DB: France
DF: Thata€™s it for this season – we will be back in a month or so when the new 2016-17 season gets underway.
DB: Dona€™t forget to come along to our site for language support, ask a question on our forum, sign up to our newsletter or simply get in contact with us and let us know what you think of the show or our football language site and of course enjoy all the football and see you soon.
DF: Bye
Listen to our Euro 2016 preview shows here – the transcript and vocabulary will help you understand key phrases and improve your language skills. Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here. If you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
Nice article. Very useful. It was expected for yesterday’s game, Portugal’s national team against France in the final of Euro Championship 2016, to end in a draw as it did. António Lopes’s goal came as a nice surprise in the 109’th minute of the match. It is good to see Portugal scoring a victory in this match and adding another trophy to their palmares. I am sure Deschamps will have to review the team’s offensive and defensive strategy for the next season of Euro Championship.