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On this week’s show we look back at the Champions League final, look forward to the FA Cup final and ask some fans what they really thought of their teams’ performances this season.
In addition we:
- Review the football news in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Introduce a new football expression in English for Football
- And continue the predictions battle in the Predictions competition
For learners of English check out our new Football Language Resources page with:
- Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
- Worksheets and transcripts
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Transcript
The football season in Europe is almost over and so on this week’s main report for languagecaster we have three fans talking about how their teams performed during the season just gone by. First up Damon interviews Liverpool fan, Tim which is followed by an interview with Chelsea supporter Simon and finally Ill be talking about the topsy-turvey season that my team Tottenham have just had.
Two points from the first eight games of the season saw Tottenham’s worst start to a league campaign in almost a century. This came despite the fact that many had tipped them to do well, but yet again the club imploded and we failed to turn expectation into reality.
The acrimonious departure of Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United and Robbie Keane’s shock move to Liverpool meant that we were short of striking options at the start of the season, which meant that a lot of pressure was placed on the new players to perform well. Unfortunately, one of those high-profile signings, David Bentley from Blackburn, proved to be a huge disappointment despite a wonder-goal against Arsenal early in the season.
Manager Juande Ramos was sacked in October without recording a win and in his place came Harry Rednapp from Portsmouth to a sceptical but desperate set of fans. Despite some poor away performances around the turn of the year, he generally did well, helping the club to move away from the relegation zone and reaching the Carling Cup final, losing only on penalties to Manchester United. He also strengthened the side by bringing back Jermaine Defoe and Robbie Keane but perhaps his most important signing was Wilson Palacios from Wigan – the type of player that Spurs have been crying out for for years and one who allowed Croatian midfielder, Luka Modric to finally start showing what he can do. Modric only scored once for the club – the winner against Chelsea in our best performance of the season – but his ability, skill, technique and bravery were there for all to see – our player of the season without a doubt. Harry wants to build the team around him next season and there are hopes and rumours that yet again we might be the team to challenge the ‘big four’ next year. But as Spurs fans know more than most, it’s the hope that kills us…
