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With fewer than 100 days until the World Cup in Brazil begins this week’s listening report looks at some of the build up to the competition. This report is a shortened version of the regular weekly podcast. You can listen to the report by clicking on the link above and you can read the transcript below with key vocabulary explained at the bottom of the post
32
This is the number of teams that will be participating in the 20th edition of the World Cup. There are five teams from Africa, four from both Asia and the CONCACAF region, 13 from Europe and six more from South America which of course includes the hosts Brazil. The top seeds are holders Spain while the lowest-ranked side is Australia who are currently 57th in the world.
8
There are 8 groups each of which contain 4 teams. The hosts Brazil will play in Group A along with Croatia, Mexico and Cameroon. Perhaps the most difficult group – the Group of Death – is Group B with Spain and Holland (the finalists from four years ago) battling Chile and Australia to make it out of the group. Other interesting match-ups include Group D which sees three former winners fighting it out that’s Italy, Uruguay and England and Group C where all four countries will fancy their chances – Japan, Ivory Coast, Colombia and Greece.
12
The number of cities that will host matches this summer. Four of them are in the north east of the country: Salvador, Natal, Recife and Fortaleza. Manaus is in the Amazon region in the north west, while Cuiaba – the central point of the continent of South America – is situated to the west of another host city – the country’s capital: Brasilia. Moving eastwards out of Brasilia is Belo Horizonte and to the south of this city are Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.
64
The number of games that are scheduled to take place. 48 of these will decide the group winners and runners up and then there are 8 second round knock-out matches, 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals, a third-place play-off and of course game 64 is the final. The matches start on June 12th with Brazil taking on Croatia in Sao Paolo and the final will be held one month later on the 13th July in the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
Vocabulary
the CONCACAF: The North and Central American football organisation.
top seeds: The highest ranked side.
Group of Death: Seen by many as being the most difficult groups as it contains very strong teams.
match-ups: Games; battles
to make it out of the group: To qualify
will fancy their chances: Think they have a good chance of qualifying
runners up : The team finishing second
taking on: Playing against
