On this week’s review section we salute the champions of the Bundesliga, wonder how Barcelona will react after two soul-destroying defeats, and feature Italy and fan power gone crazy. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.You can also read the transcript for this post below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Good
Good news for Dortmund fans as their club were crowned champions last week after defeating Borussia Munchengladbach 2-0 in front of 80,000 supporters. That makes it back-to-back titles for the team from the North-Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. After a shaky start to the season, Dortmund were unstoppable with players such as Japanese star, Kagawa, and the Polish right winger, Kuba, and his compatriot Lewandowski up front driving them on. Winning the national title is a huge achievement, but more and more it is the Champions League that the big European teams are coveting. So, good for Chelsea and Bayern Munich after their dramatic semi-final wins over pre-tournament favourites Real Madrid and Barcelona. Chelsea won a backs to the wall victory in the Nou Camp while Bayern Munich beat Real on penalties in two wonderful Champions League semi-finals.
Bad
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What a bad week it has been for Barcelona as they were dumped out of the Champions League by Chelsea and also lost at home to Real Madrid at the weekend to hand La Liga title to the their rivals in the clásico. Despite dominating possession and shots on target in both games the Catalan club were unable to break down their opponents’ defences. Questions will now be asked of their coach Pep Guardiola, who has crafted what most pundits agree is the best footballing side in Europe. But when the crunch came in the clasico and the semi final Barca were unable to find a plan B to beat their opponents.
Ugly
Ugly scenes in Serie A last weekend as Genoa ultras stormed the pitch during a game their side were losing 4-0 at home. The fans then blocked the tunnel to the changing rooms and demanded that the Genoa players hand in their shirts as they were not fit to wear them. Of course, fans get angry and disappointed when their team performs badly, and Genoa are facing relegation and losing by four goals is embarrassing at home, but to force a game to stop and then make the players take off their shirts before the game is allowed, by the fans, to be continued is disgraceful. Where were the police, where were the stewards, what does this mean for those who run football in Italy? Ugly indeed.
Vocabulary
- crowned champions: Became champions, won the league title
- back-to-back: Consecutive, one after another
- shaky: Not so secure, not so good
- are coveting: Desiring, really want something
- compatriot: Someone from the same country
- driving them on: Encouraging them, inspiring
- dumped out of: beaten and knocked out of a competition
- to hand: to give
- ultras: extreme, often violent, fans of football teams in Italy (and elsewhere) are called ultras
- stormed: invaded: ran onto
- not fit to: not deserving
- the crunch: the most important time; the time when everything counts
- a plan B: a different tactic; an alternative way of playing
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