In this week’s review section, we look at stories from the Asian Champions League, pressure at Sunderland and Carlos Tevez embroiled in more controversy. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below, or highlighted in blue.
Good
They were in our bad section not so long ago, but the Korean clubs in the Asian Champions League came good. Two of the three teams progress to the semi finals when it looked as though none would. Jeonbuk and Suwan booked their places with second leg wins against Japan’s Osaka and Iran’s Zob Ahan respectively. Jeonbuk demolished Osaka 6-1 in the second leg, going through 9-5 on aggregate, while Suwan won a difficult away tie 2-1 after extra time. In the semis Jeonbuk will face the Qatari outfit Al-Sadd while Suwan take on Al-Ittihad from Saudi Arabia. An all Korean final?
Bad
It has been a very bad week for English Premier League side Sunderland as they slumped to defeat against Norwich City. This latest loss has left boss Steve Bruce facing real pressure from the Sunderland fans with many suggesting he is a dead man walking – about to be fired – particularly as the club have spent a lot of money on new players. To add to Bruce’s trouble his defender Titus Bramble has been suspended by the club after being arrested by Wearside police on suspicion of sexual assault and drug possession. A bad week indeed for Sunderland.
Ugly
Man City striker Carlos Tevez is no stranger to controversy but even for him his actions this week during the Champions League game against Bayern Munich was a low point as the Argentinian star refused to come off the bench for manager Roberto Mancini. Though Tevez claims he misunderstood his manager’s request the general feeling is that the Argentinian striker has played his last game for the club.
Vocabulary
book a place: progress to the next round in a competition, win a game in a tournament and go to the next round of games
a leg: a game in a two game set, one partA of home and away fixtures
demolished: easily beat, hammered, won a game with a lot of goals
aggregate: the total number of goals for an against after both legs have finished
outfit: team
slumped to defeat: Lost badly, not only did they lose but they played badly
Wearside: The River Wear runs through Sunderland so the area is often used to descrbe the team – The Wearsiders is often used to describe the Sunderland team.
is no stranger to controversy: He is often involved in trouble or controversy
to come off the bench: When a substitute comes into the game they come of the bench
