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Learn English Through Football Podcast – 2019 Women’s World Cup: On this week’s football-language podcast we look back at some of the main football news and language from the week and of course we’ll discuss the 2019 Women’s World Cup that is currently taking place in France. We’ll look at the format of the tournament, discuss who are the favourites, the dark horses and minnows, while we will also look at some of the players to watch out for over the next four weeks. We also report on our World Cup predictions competition and ask another football-language question.
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).
2019 Women’s World Cup – Introduction
DF: You are listening to languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast. Welcome everyone to the Learn English Through Football podcast for all those who love the beautiful game of football and who wish to improve their English language skills. My name’s Damian and I’m in London where the weather today has been rather mixed – strange weather indeed for June. Now as we know, all of the European seasons have finished but there is still a lot of football being played around the world.
There are qualifiers currently being played for next summer’s European Championships, while the 2019 Copa America starts next week; with the African Cup of Nations beginning the week after that. But the big football action currently taking place is the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France and we’ll be heavily featuring that tournament in today’s podcast.
You are listening to languagecaster.com (Vancouver Whitecaps fan)
Line-up
DB: Hello Damian, everyone, OK, what’s on the show this week – well, we’ll take a look at some football stories next in the review section; we’ve got football language and a football language question, both connected with penalties. After that, we take a quick look at the Women’s World Cup and focus on the format, the favourites, dark horses, and players to watch.
Right, what was good in the footballing news?
The Good
DF: Well Damon, congratulations to Liverpool who won their sixth European Cup/Champions League last weekend in Madrid after defeating my team, Tottenham, 2-0. An early penalty from Salah and a late Origi goal won the day for the Reds as Tottenham’s lack of European finals experience proved their undoing. Anything else Damon that was good for you?
DB: Of course, that victory was absolutely fantastic for me, but it was also great that the thousands of Tottenham and Liverpool fans who went to Madrid, some people say there were about 100,000, these fans didn’t cause trouble and basically just had a good time. Unfortunately, as we’ll hear later, England fans abroad are not always so well behaved. Other good news is that, of course, the Women’s World Cup has kicked off and it seems to be getting much more TV time as well as column inches in the news.
The Bad
DB: Now for bad, unfortunately it is to do with the Women’s World cup and ticketing. FIFA has already been criticised for selling groups of tickets but not putting seats together, meaning friends and family who buy tickets together may not be able to sit together. Now it seems fans have been confused by new emails from FIFA with ‘new’ e-tickets for download. Fans were confused as they had already printed tickets weeks before and didn’t know which tickets were valid. This caused lengthy delays at the opening match. Not a good start for the organisers. What about ugly?
The Ugly
DF: Well, the Nations League semi-finals took place earlier this week and both games were very exciting indeed with the Dutch defeating England after extra time and the hosts Portugal saw off a spirited Swiss side to set up an intriguing final on Sunday. However, England fans caused lots of trouble in the Portuguese cities of Porto and Guimaraes over two nights with the BBC calling their behaviour an ’embarrassment‘. Ugly scenes indeed.
Contact/Social Media
DB: OK, here’s a reminder on how to contact us. You can do so directly via email at admin@languagecaster.com, or via twitter, @languagecaster, and Facebook – Learn English Through Football. All likes and re-tweets are greatly appreciated.
We also appreciate all of you who come along to our site and download our podcasts, which you can do via all 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 us access to our massive football glossary free. Next up some football language.
Football Language: Convert a penalty
DF: Now, I’m going to explain some language that was used in today’s Women’s World Cup clash between Spain and South Africa in Group B. After going a goal down, the Spanish needed two late penalties to win in another hard-fought victory. Their top striker Jenni Hermoso converted two spot kicks – she scored both penalties late in the second half to seal a come-from-behind win. To convert here means to successfully score a goal – the player scored from the (penalty) spot would be another way of saying this. Other words and phrases related to this expression include:
- Spot kick – which is the penalty
- Convert
- Penalty shout – when you ask the referee if you can have a penalty.
- (to) Award a penalty – the referee gives the penalty decision.
Football-Language Quiz
DF: Right next up here’s Damon with this week’s quiz question.
DB: Yes, and this football language quiz question is connected to the football language Damian has just explained. He used the verb ‘convert’ with the noun ‘penalty’ to give ‘convert a penalty.’ Convert is also used with prepositions of place. We want to know what phrase, using ‘convert’ is correct to mean score the penalty. Is it
- Convert from the spot
- Convert from the penalty
- Convert through the kick
- Convert at the goal
And we’ll have the answer at the end of the show.
2019 Women’s World Cup
DF: Now, as we mentioned at the start of the show the main focus of this week’s podcast is the 2019 Women’s World Cup that is taking place in France. This is the eighth version of the competition and the hosts are one of the favourites for the tournament. We will be looking at the French and some of the other favourites in the next section of the podcast but before that we’d like to remind you that we have a daily post with football language and news from the Women’s World Cup where you’ll also be able to keep up with our predictions competition. And, of course, don’t forget to sign up for the predictions competition!
Format
DF: Right, here’s Damon talking about the format of the 2019 World Cup and then he’ll talk a little bit about the favourites.
DB: OK, 24 teams in six groups A-F take part in the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Most teams are from Europe, nine, and there are four from Asia, three each from Africa, South America, and North America and the Caribbean, and the final two are from Oceania.
The top two teams from each group automatically go through to the last 16, and they are joined by four more teams with the best third place record. From the last 16 round, it is a straight knockout tournament, with the winners going through to the quarter finals, and so on.
The final will be held on the 7th July at Lyon’s home ground, the Parc Olympique Lyonnais.
Favourites
DB: Now, most people’s favourites are France, USA, Germany and England. USA are looking for a repeat win, after being crowned the 2015 World Champions, but France, as hosts and also with a team packed with players from Lyon, the Women’s Champions League winners, will fancy their chances. Indeed, their 4-0 opening victory over South Korea was impressive.
Germany are always there or there abouts and have won the tournament twice. A tough win over China, though, shows they need to click into gear if they are to trouble the last four places. And England will also believe they can go deep in the competition. They won the SheBelievesCup in March, a warm up for the World Cup, although they could only draw with the US when they met.
Dark Horses
DF: Well, we can never write off Japan in the Women’s World Cup – their recent record is so impressive with a win in 2011 and then finishing runners-up behind the USA four years ago in Canada. Nadeshiko are ranked 7th in the world, and if they overcome England in their group could go all the way again to the final in Lyon. The 2017 European Champions Netherlands are ranked 8th in the world and with top goalscorer Vivianne Miedema in their team they can cause a few surprises.
Another team with a top goalscorer in their ranks is Australia with Sam Kerr and the Matildas may cause one or two surprises, particularly as they should come out of group C fairly easily. Norway have won the title once before – back in 1995 – but even though their FIFA ranking of 12 is high and they should easily qualify from Group A they are missing their best player Ada Hegerberg which means they may only make the last 16. Other teams that could spring surprises as dark horses include Brazil, Sweden, Spain and Canada who are ranked fifth in the world.
Players to watch
DF: Now, we have previously mentioned Ada Hegerberg many times on our podcast – she is the current holder of the Ballon d’Or and one of the greatest players currently playing in the world, but she will not be playing in this World Cup due to a disagreement with the Norwegian Federation. Here are a few of the other players to look out for in France.
The Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema is tipped to be a big star at these finals and the Dutch player is a good bet to win the Golden Boot award – this is given to the highest goalscorer of the tournament. Another forward heavily tipped to win that award is Australian striker Sam Kerr who is a huge star in her homeland, while French forward Eugénie Le Sommer will also be in with a chance, particularly as she has already scored in the opening match against Korea on Friday. Another French player that will catch the eye is their goalscoring centre-half, Wendie Renard, who bagged a brace in that opening victory over Korea. Other players to look out for include England star Lucy Bronze, Japanese captain Saki Kumagai – can she lead the Nadeshiko to another final? – and the USA players Megan Rapinoe and their star foward, Alex Morgan. And of course not forgetting Brazilian superstar Marta who is the all-time World Cup goalscorer with 15 goals.
Predictions
2019 Women’s World Cup: England vs Scotland
DF: This game has really captured the imagination of the British public and a huge television audience awaits on Sunday. England should have too much for their neighbours but Scotland have improved and have in Kim Little a player that can change a game. The Lionesses should win this… 3-1 to kick off their campaign.
DB: I agree, but it’s Scotland vs England, so a kind of international derby feel. Maybe 2-1 to England.
Nations League Final: Portugal vs The Netherlands
DF: Home advantage may well count for the Portuguese and they have in-form Ronaldo in their ranks but I have a feeling that the Dutch will win this one… 2-1 to Holland.
DB: Again, I agree. I think Holland seem to be maintaining some great form and their team is full of talent. But I think it’ll be tight with maybe extra time. 2-1 but after 90 minutes.
Football-Language Quiz – Answer
DB: Right, time for the answer to the football language quiz question. We wanted to know what phrase, using ‘convert’ is correct to mean score the penalty. was it
- Convert from the spot
- Convert from the penalty
- Convert through the kick
- Convert at the goal
And the answer is 1, to convert from the spot.
Goodbye
DF: That’s it for this week’s show. I’m off to Dublin where I’ll be at the Ireland vs Gibraltar European Championship qualifier on Monday evening – hopefully an easy home win to maintain Ireland’s good start. And we’ll be back next week with more from the 2019 Women’s World Cup, as well as a preview of the Copa America. Don’t forget get your predictions in! Bye bye!
DB: Yep, ta-ra!
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
