Learners’ Podcast – Week 34 – World Cup Qualifiers

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While most of the world were playing friendly matches, there were also some World Cup qualifiers taking place – especially in Asia. On this week’s show we also look at another new expression in English for Football

For learners of English there are also:

• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists
• Online quizzes and crossword puzzles
• Weekly blogs from our football-crazy writers in fansa€™ forum

Transcripts

There may have been a host of meaningless international friendlies this week, sorry Mr Beckham, but there was plenty of football around the world that actually counted for something. Like qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Three teams that are ranked 202 and bottom of the FIFA rankings were all in action in the CONCACAF region qualifiers this week. It does not look as if they will be moving up either after Aruba lost 0-1 to 8-man Antigua, Montserrat lost 1-7 to Suriname and the US Virgin Islands were thrashed 0-10 by Grenada. Well, that’s that for another four years then, I suppose.

There were also ten games in the five Asian groups with goals, cards and shocks a plenty. The three powerhouses of the region, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Korea were not able to muster a win between them, though at least South Korea managed to pick up a point, after a scoreless draw against their neighbours, North Korea, in a match played in Shanghai due to a dispute over flags and anthems. Saudi Arabia were thrashed 0-3 by Uzbekistan but the biggest shock was three-time Asian Champions Japan’s 0-1 defeat away in Bahrain. They will surely qualify for the next round as the top two make it but the poor performance has put the coach Okada under intense pressure. At least he was not forced to resign unlike the Thai manager who quit after his team, albeit unluckily, lost 0-1 at home to an extremely cynical Omani team.

How about the group of death? Well, Asian champions Iraq are bottom with no points after another defeat, this time away at Qatar, while an under-strength Australia ground out a scoreless draw with China thanks mainly to Mark Schwarzer’s last-minute penalty save. So, with the top two in each group to qualify and four matches to be played in June there is still lots to play for, though teams like Japan, Thailand, Iran, Iraq and China can ill-afford another slip up or else they will be joining the likes of Montserrat and Aruba in preparing for the Brazil World Cup of 2014.