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It’s international break and World Cup qualifiers this week. The season has only just started in most of Europe but September brings international matches. The whole world looks towards the World Cup in Russia in 2018, hoping their country will make it to the finals. The transfer window has also closed this week in Europe with some big deals being done and lots of disappointment too. We’ll be looking at the qualifiers and transfers in our review section on this week’s podcast. There is a transcript for those who wish to practise their English reading and listening skills (Damian = DF, Damon = DB).
Learning English Through Football Podcast: The International Break
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Transcript of the show
DB: You are listening to Languagecaster’s football-language podcast. Hello everyone. My name is Damon and I’m based in Tokyo, which at the moment is basking in beautiful sun and most importantly isn’t too hot. This week, it’s just me as Damian is on his travels, but he will be back next week.
Now, it’s World Cup qualifiers and a few days ago I watched the match between Japan and Australia. It was a surprisingly routine victory for Japan. Australia are seen as big rivals and most Japanese fans were nervous before the game, but Australia rarely threatened and two clinical goals, the first after striker Asano sprung the offside trap put the game to bed. Everyone very happy here as Japan have now qualified for Russia 2018.
Line up
And I’ll be talking a bit more about World Cup qualifiers and also the transfer window in the good, the bad and the ugly, the review section of the footballing news this week. On the show, we also have some English for football phrases, including one I have just used, ‘to spring the offside trap‘ and one more, ‘a high line‘.
We’ll also have a quiz question and some predictions from the World Cup qualifiers – England versus Slovakia, Honduras against the USA and Argentina taking on Venezuela.
You are listening to Languagecaster.com (in Hungarian)
DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that was in Hungarian. Remember, if you want to contact us just come along to languagecaster.com, or contact us through Facebook, Twitter, and we’ve also got a forum on the site where you can post any questions or comments.
OK, now what was good in the football world last week?
Good
DB: As I’ve mentioned, it was good for Japan who qualified for the World Cup in Russia with their 2-0 victory over Australia, but it was also good for Spain, who beat their closest group rivals Italy emphatically 3-0 on Friday. That puts them three points ahead and in command of the automatic qualifying spot. Good as well for clubs holding on to their star players during the transfer window – Southampton wouldn’t budge on Virgil van Dyke, Liverpool held on to Coutinho, and Arsenal kept Sanchez – but how happy the players will be, they all wanted to move, remains to be seen. Finally a fantastic debut for 17-year old ben Woodburn for Wales, who scored a screamer from outside the penalty area to win the game for Wales against Austria – a vital victory and a great goal.
Bad
DB: Now bad: Well it was pretty bad for the USA, who lost 2-0 to Costa Rica and now drop down to fourth place in the CONCACAF qualifying group, which would mean a play off against the winners of the Asian qualifier’s play off. This puts them equal on points with Honduras, who they face next week in a crucial tie. Lose that, and they may struggle to qualify. Perhaps worse though for Holland, who look as though they are going to miss another major tournament, remember they failed to qualify for the Euro 2016 finals, after a 4-0 defeat to France. The Dutch are in fourth place in their group, 2 points behind Bulgaria, who they face next. They also finish the qualifiers with a big game against Sweden, who are second and hoping to keep hold of the play off position.
Ugly
DB: For ugly, I’m just going to say the crazy amounts of money spent in the transfer window in Europe. Basically, for some clubs it seems money is not a problem and they are willing to pay any amount for a player. The Premier League led the way with 1.4 billion ponds but Serie A wasn’t far behind with 1 billion pounds. Insane!
Quiz question
DB: OK, now for this week’s quiz question, which has a World Cup flavour. Which players won the Golden Glove and Golden Boot awards at the last World Cup – that’s the award for the best goalkeeper and for the player who scored the most goals. Answer at the end of the show.
You are listening to Languagecaster.com (in Dutch)
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DB: Right, next up we have some football phrases.
Football Language: Spring the offside trap
DB: OK, now, the offside trap refers to the tactic defenders use to catch attacking players offside. The defenders work together to keep the defensive line in a straight line and move up the pitch together to leave the attacker in an offside position. Now, to spring a trap, means to trigger the trap, make the trap close shut – in this case we are talking about a trap to catch animals, a metal trap with a spring holding it open. To spring it means to trigger it and make it close. After a trap has been closed or sprung, it is no longer effective. It needs to be reset. So to spring the offside trap in football means to beat the trap, to make it ineffective. So for example, we found this on FIFA’s homepage – Japan “seized the initiative just before half-time when Takuma Asano sprung the Australian offside trap to volley home from close range.” You will see both sprang the offside trap and sprung the offside trap, the former is grammatically correct, it is the past form of the verb spring, but many people use the past participle, sprung.
Football Language: High line
DB: for the second English football phrase, I’m going to stick to the theme of offside and talk about ‘a high line‘. This phrase refers to a style of play which pushes the defenders high up the pitch, near the halfway line. It is usually used to press the opposition, to put pressure on their players when they have the ball. This is particularly effective against teams that like to keep possession and pass the ball a lot. The negative side of playing a high line is that there is a lot of space behind the defenders, meaning the team is vulnerable to the counter attack. here is an example from zonalmarking.com in 2013 – “Villas-Boas enjoyed great success with a high line at Porto – although even there, the high defensive line seemed very risky at times.”
(Hull fan)
DB: OK, next up it’s predictions. This week, there are no Premier League games so our predictions competition is also taking a week off, but if you want to try your luck, come along to languagecaster.com and follow the links at the top of the page. You’ll need to register, which is free and then log in to add your predictions each week. Now, let’s take a look at some big World Cup qualifying games over the next few days.
Predictions: England v Slovakia
DB: Our first game is England versus Slovakia, which takes place on Monday. Now, England were criticised for making hard work of beating Malta, but they did win eventually 4-0 and are top of the table undefeated. A win against second place Slovakia will pretty much secure qualification, but i think this will be a 1-1 draw and the group will go down to the wire.
Honduras v USA
Next is Honduras versus the USA and as I mentioned earlier this is a crunch match with the winner getting a big advantage in the group. It’s a tricky one to call but I’m going to go for a 1-0 home win and more woes for the States.
Argentina v Venezuela
DB:Finally Argentina host Venezuela and they will be desperate for a win against the bottom side in the qualifying group. I think they’ll get it, 2-0, but it is still going to depend on results elsewhere over the final games before Argentina will know if they can qualify. At the moment they re on equal points with Chile and 5th, the play off position, but Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru can all catch Argentina. It’s going to be tight.
Quiz question answer
DB: Just before we go, here’s the answer t the quiz question. We wanted to know who was awarded the Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeping and the Golden Boot award for top scorer at the last World Cup in Brazil. The answers are Manuel Neuer of Germany received the Golden Glove award and James Rodríguez won the Golden Boot with 8 goals. Well done if you got both of those correct.
Good bye
DB: OK, thanks everybody for listening. Enjoy all of the football, ta-ra!
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here
If you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
Free football language podcast for learners of English brought to you by Damian and Damon. Interviews, match reviews, predictions all with full language support for football fans around the world who wish to improve their English language skills.
