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[print_link] | Subscribe: Main Listening ReportEvery season, most eyes are turned towards the favourites for the title: last year’s winners and this season’s contenders. But another point of interest is the new teams in the league, the newly promoted sides. this week’s main listening report takes a look at the three new teams in the Premier League. You can listen to the report by clicking on the link above, while there is also a worksheet to practice your listening skills here. You can also listen to the full podcast here.
Introduction
The three teams coming up this season will all be hoping to stay up and survive the first season, and then hope they can build on that and become a fixture in the Premier League. Languagecaster takes a look at some basic facts about these hopefuls.
Cardiff City
Location: The south of Wales. While Wales has a separate football association, Welsh teams are allowed to take part in the English league system, and Cardiff will be joining fellow Welsh side Swansea in the ‘English’ game’s top tier.
Strip: Red shirt, black shorts and red socks Controversially, Cardiff city’s new Malaysian owners changed the team’s kit from the traditional blue to red last season, as they considered red to be a ‘lucky colour. The fans weren’t impressed, but because they have won promotion in the new red kit, criticism has quietened down.
Nickname: The Bluebirds – after their previous blue kit.
Rivals: Swansea City located 60 km west up the coast are Cardiff’s biggest rivals. Expect an explosive atmosphere when these teams meet.
Stadium: Cardiff City Stadium: newly built in 2009, the ground holds 26,800.
Hull City
Location: The east of Yorkshire. Hull City are isolated from other Premier League sides. The power bases of London and the North West both have several teams, and the North East and the Midlands also have neighbouring teams. The nearest team to Hull are Manchester City, 125 km away as the crow flies.
Strip: Amber and black vertical striped shirt, black shorts and black socks.
Nickname: The Tigers – after their striped kit.
Rivals: Hull City consider their Yorkshire neighbours Leeds United to be their biggest rivals, and staying in Yorkshire, Sheffield United are a team Hull always want to beat.
Stadium: The K. C. Stadium: Built in 2002 and shared with a rugby league side, the K.C. holds 25,500.
Crystal Palace
Location: South London. The team originally played and took their name from the Crystal Palace, a massive glass and iron building built for the 1851 Great Exhibition. A picture of the building remains on the club’s crest.
Strip: Red and blue halved shirt, blue shorts and blue socks. At the start of their history, Crystal Palace based their kit on Aston Villa’s claret and blue stripes, and in the 1970s they looked to another club for inspiration – Barcelona.
Nickname: The Glaziers – after the glass building, the Crystal Palace, and more recently, the Eagles (a previous manager, Malcolm Allison, was inspired by Portuguese side Benfica, also knows as the Eagles).
Rivals: Their biggest rivalry is called the M23 derby with Brighton and Hove Albion, who are based on the south coast of England. The M23 is a motorway running between south London and the south coast. To gain promotion last season, Palace knocked out Brighton in a two-leg play off 2-0.
Stadium: Selhurst Park: holds 26,300.
Vocabulary
(to) come up: be promoted; gain promotion; move up a division
(a) fixture: a permanent presence; a team that stays in the league; a mid-table side (also, a game, a match)
tier: level; division; rank
explosive: potentially violent; loud; dangerous
as the crow flies: an idiom that means drawing a straight line between two places; directly from A to B
glazier: glass maker; glass fitter