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Learn English Through Football Podcast – 2019 Copa America and Women’s World Cup Semi-finals: Another busy week of football with international matches being played in France, the USA and Brazil and we’ll be looking at some of the language that has emerged from those three tournaments. We also have a football-language question, explain some football phrases and offer one or two predictions from the Copa America and Women’s World Cup semi-finals. If you’d like the transcript to the show please show your support by becoming a patron (through Patreon). With the transcript you can improve your English by reading as you listen, or if you are a teacher of English you can use the transcript to make several activities for your learners. If you have questions or comments, email us at: admin@languagecaster.com (Damian=DF, Damon=DB).
Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2019 Copa America and Women’s World Cup Semi-finals
Introduction
DF: You are listening to languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to the Learn English Through Football podcast for all those who love the beautiful game of football and for those who are aiming to improve their English language skills. My name’s Damian and I’m based in London where the sun is shining and the skies are clear – it’s very much summertime here. It’s only me this week as Damon, who regular listeners will know lives in Tokyo, is away but he’ll be back on the podcast next week.
Now I wonder if Damon has managed to see the new film on Diego Maradonaa’s life which was made by Asif Kapadia and I was lucky enough to see it yesterday and would strongly recommend it to all our football fans – some fantastic stories and of course some wonderful football action from Diego. Brilliant stuff.
Now, there has been so much football going on over the past few days that it’s hard to imagine that we are supposed to be in the close season – that’s the time between one season and another. The 2019 Women’s World Cup in France and the Copa America in Brazil have both reached the semi-final stage, while the Africa Cup of Nations is moving into the knock-out stage – the last-16 games start later this week. The Women’s World Cup has dominated TV here in the UK, especially as the Lionesses – that’s the English national side – has been doing so well and has now reached the last four. I saw their win over Norway as well as the France versus USA game in the quarter-finals which although at times was rather short on quality did provide one of the biggest events in women’s football with the American side eventually defeating the hosts by two goals to one. I also managed to see a couple of the Copa America quarter-finals, including the Uruguay versus Peru game and I’ll be talking more about that competition in the good, the bad and the ugly section coming up later.
Line Up
Yes, and after that review of the football week, we’ll have our weekly football-language quiz question followed by an explanation of a new football expression. We then finish up with some predictions when we look ahead to the semi-finals of both the Women’s World Cup and the Copa America.
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Contact Us
DF: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster.com and that message was in Dutch. Remember that you can contact us via our email at admin@languagecaster.com, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, while we also have a football-language forum where you can ask any questions about the beautiful game. We also appreciate all of you who come along to our site and download our podcasts, which you can do via the usual podcast providers, such as i-tunes, tunedin, podbean and stitcher.
And finally, please think about supporting us for as little as $2 a month via Patreon, that’s patreon.com/languagecaster. This support helps us pay for our site and keeps the audio of all our podcasts as well as access to our huge football glossary free. Now, this week we have added a football-language quiz worksheet – all about the Women’s World Cup – as well as the transcript for the word ‘ghost’ and how it is used in football; ‘to ghost in at the far post’, for example. And of course you can access the transcript for this week’s podcast.
OK, let’s kick off with a review of the football this week in the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good
DF: Well, it’s been a good week for both the Netherlands and Peru as they both reached the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup and the Copa America respectively. This is the first time that the Dutch women have made it to the last fourand the current European champions will fancy their chances of defeating Sweden on Wednesday and maybe even dream of winning their first ever World Cup title. The Peruvian side has won a Copa America before – the last time was in 1975 – and the team has reached the semi-finals in both 2011 and 2015 but incredibly the team finished third in their group after only one win (against Bolivia) and has not scored in three games and been thrashed 5-0 by hosts Brazil. They did beat Uruguay on penalties in the quarter-finals and will be hoping to do the same to holders Chile in their semi-final on Thursday.
Bad
DF: Well, it was not such a good day for Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez who missed his spot-kick in that penalty shoot-out against Peru and which meant that the Uruguayans could not add to their record of most Copa America titles – 15 wins. It was also a bad week for the German Women’s team as they were surprisingly beaten by Sweden in the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup despite going a goal up in the first half.
Ugly
DF: Premier League side Newcastle United have parted ways with their manager Rafael Benitez after three years in charge. He won promotion with the club and then kept them in the top flight for two seasons but he felt he did not receive the backing from the chairman and left the club. A really strange decision from the club and one that might come back to haunt them.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French).
Football-Language Quiz Question:
The Spain Under-21 side defeated Germany 2-1 in the final of the European Championship in Italy at the weekend and their winning goal was scored by their midfielder Oyarzabal who ‘picked his (something) to hit the winner’. Which of the following words can be used in this expression?
- picked his goal
- picked his shot
- picked his spot
- picked his area
And we’ll have the answer at the end of the show.
You are listening to languagecaster.com (Greek fan).
Football Language: Scrappy
DF: OK, next up is our football language section and we’d like to remind everyone that we have been discussing lots of language that has come from the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France with daily posts that have featured some key phrases from the day’s action. We have also used this language to make a huge football-language quiz which you can do online or by coming along to our Patreon site where you can get lots of feedback and answers.
Right, today’s football phrase has come from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and in particular from the game between Cameroon and Benin which the Guardian newspaper described as ‘scrappy‘. This adjective suggests that the game has no flow or rhythm – there are many stops and starts – because it is a battle, a hard-fought game. The game finished 0-0as both sides battled hard with many stoppages throughout the game – a real scrappy match.
We’ll have more football language in our next podcast and remember to look out for more football-language posts on our site here at languagecaster.com. Right, next up it’s predictions time.
Predictions: 2019 Women’s World Cup Semi-finals – England vs USA
DF: OK, the excitement here in England at the moment is huge as the Lionesses attempt to go one step further than four years ago but they will have to defeat the holders and favourites the USA. I’m going for a 1-1 draw with the USA side to win 2-1 after extra time.
2019 Women’s World Cup Semi-finals – Netherlands vs Sweden
DF: The second semi-final on Wednesday evening features the Dutch and the Swedes and I think the Dutch side will come out on top – I reckon they’ll win 2-0.
2019 Copa America Semi-finals – Brazil vs Argentina
DF: Now on Tuesday evening the first of the Copa America semi-finals takes place beween hosts Brazil and their fierce rivals Argentina. Neither side has played well in the tournament so far though the hosts will be favourites… I think a surprise, maybe 2-1 to Argentina to give Brazil more semi-final heartache.
Answer – Football-Language Quiz Question:
DF: OK, before we go let’s get the answer to the football quiz question. We wanted to know which word could fit in the following phrase: The Spanish midfielder Oyarzabal ‘picked his _____ to hit the winner’.
- picked his goal
- picked his shot
- picked his spot
- picked his area
Well, the answer is – he picked his spot which means that he carefully chose the direction of where he wanted to place the ball – probably because the defence gave him too much time and space. Well done if you got that right and we’ll have another football-language quiz question next week.
Goodbye
DF: OK, that brings us to the end of the show – we’ll be back next week when we’ll be looking at language that has emerged from the week and look ahead to the finals of the Copa America and the Women’s World Cup. Enjoy all the football. Bye bye.
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here If you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
