Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A new coach for Japan, a glaring miss by Manchester City’s captain, and Ibra slams Pep. These stories and more feature in this week’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which can be heard on our weekly podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.
Good
Good news for Japanese football fans as Alberto Zaccheroni is named as the new coach of the national side. The 57 year old is the first ever Italian manager of the Asian powerhouses and he will be looking to try and maintain the progress that the side made during their recent successful World Cup campaign. The former Milan and Juventus coach will bring lots of experience to the team though this is his first ever post as a national team coach. He has stated that his main aim is to qualify for the Brazil 2014 World Cup but before that there is the not so small matter of the Asian Championships taking place in Qatar early next year.
Bad
Bad this week for Manchester City and their captain, Carlos Tevez. The Argentinian and City forward missed a sitter in their game against Sunderland. With the goal gaping, Tevez managed to slice his tap in over the bar. It was to prove a costly miss as Sunderland won the game late on with an injury time penalty. A very bad miss and a very bad day at the office for Tevez.
The Ugly
It’s understandable that players will have gripes against teams in which they struggled to make an impact. It’s only natural that they won’t get on with everyone and will have good and bad experiences – despite their extremely high wages and rock star lifestyles they are after all human. However, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s attack on former coach Pep Guardiola really smells of sour grapes. The Swedish and ex-Barcelona player slammed the Barcelona coach for his style and moaned about his time under him when he was on the Catalan squad. Keep it to yourself Zlatan, you only look like a footballer who couldn’t make it at one of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Vocabulary
powerhouses: Strong side
a sitter: an easy goal, a simple opportunity to score, almost impossible to miss
to gape: to be wide open (in football, to have no defenders or keeper between the attacking player and the goal)
to slice: to kick the ball so that it does not go in the direction you want, to kick the ball off to the side
a bad day at the office: a phrase meaning that you have not performed well at your job
gripes: complaints, winges, moans
sour grapes: pretending not to like something because you failed at it
to slam: to verbally attack, to crticise heavily
