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Euro 2024 Review: The Best and Worst

In this football language podcast we look back at the 2024 Euros and review some of the best (and worst) by looking at some statistics from the tournament. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

 

Learn English Through Football Podcast: Euro 2024 Review – The Best and Worst

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DF: You’re listening to Languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast.

DF: Hello and welcome to the show for everyone who wants to practise their English and who loves the beautiful game of football. My name is Damian and I am in London where we finally have some summer weather: blue skies and sunshine. How is the weather where you are at the moment? I was chatting to Damon, who is of course the other member of the Learn English through Football team, and he told me that it is really hot in Tokyo in Japan where of course he is based.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (Besiktas fan)

DF: Now, we hope you are all well. It’s been a week since the two continental finals took place: Congratulations to Argentina who won their 16th Copa America after defeating Colombia 1-0 in the final in Miami. This win meant that Argentina have now won more Copa America titles than any other side – they have won the most South American titles; they are the most successful side in the region. And congratulations also to Spain who won their fourth European title – that’s the most titles that any European side has won. Most people think that their win was fully deserved, especially as Spain won all of their seven matches and defeated former World Cup winners Italy, Germany, France and England on the way to the title. They were definitely the best team in the competition.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Spanish)

DF: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster and that message or stinger was in Spanish. So, on today’s football-language podcast we are going to look at some examples of the best, the worst, as well as the least and the fewest in a look back at the Euro 2024 tournament. So, we’ll be looking at some examples of the superlative forms. For example, who scored the most goals? Which team scored the fewest goals? What was the best goal of the tournament and which keeper made the most saves? And what was the dirtiest game? As I said, we’ll be looking at these and many other similar examples of superlatives in today’s show.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French)

In this football language podcast we look ahead to the 2024 Euro final that’s taking place this weekend between Spain and England. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

 

Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2024 Euro Final Preview

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DF: You’re listening to Languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast.

Hello and welcome to the show for everyone who wants to practise their English and who loves the beautiful game of football. My name is Damian and I am in a sunny London…this is a lovely surprise after so much rain here in the UK. And I am one half of the Languagecaster team, the other of course is Damon who is based in Tokyo, Japan. Now, I hope you are all doing well and looking forward to the big football matches this weekend: the Copa America final in the US between Argentina and Colombia and the European Championship final in Germany and this one sees Spain take on England.

And so, on today’s show we are going to take a look ahead – we are going to preview – that Euro final and look at some language to describe both Spain and England. We will also explain some of the words and phrases you might hear in the Euro 2024 final, we’ll look back at some of the phrases from the tournament and of course we’ll offer some predictions.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in German)

DF: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster and that message or stinger was in German. Germany of course have been the hosts of this tournament and their team did fairly well – they were beaten in the quarter final (the last eight) by Spain. So, Germany is the name of the country and German is the word (the adjective) we use to describe someone or something from that country and also the language that they speak there. You are going to hear some more messages or stingers in different languages throughout the show. Try and guess what languages they are and try to decide what the country is called as well. There are seven more of them and all of the languages are from teams that played in the 2024 European Championship. We will explain the countries and languages at the end of the show.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French).

OK, that was the second stinger of the show – what language do you think that was? I will give you a clue – this country’s football nickname is ‘Les Bleus‘, they won the World Cup in 2018 and they also lost in this year’s Euro semi final.

2024 Euro Final

Right, in the next section of the podcast we are going to look at the two finalists. Remember,

In this football language podcast we look back at the first week of the 2024 Euros and discuss some of the good, the bad and the ugly from the tournament. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

 

Learn English Through Football Podcast: Euro 2024 – Week 1

DF: You’re listening to Languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast. Hello and welcome to the show for everyone who wants to practice their English and who loves the beautiful game of football. My name is Damian and I am in a sunny London and I am one half of the Languagecaster team, the other of course is Damon who is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Czech)

The 2024 European Championship are a week old and we have seen some great games and some wonderful goals so far. And on today’s show we’ll be looking back at some of the language from a great first week from the tournament. We’ll be looking at some of the good, the bad and the ugly and also look at some superlative expressions: who has been the oldest player at the tournament? How about the youngest? Who has scored the quickest goal so far? Who are the lowest-ranked side in the competition?

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in German).

The Good

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Yes, that message was in German and the Euro 2024 hosts have been impressive in their first two matches; easily defeating Scotland and Hungary. Germany, Portugal and Spain all have 100% records after two games with Portugal and Spain both guaranteed to top their groups. The Spanish, in particular, have been very good with dominant attacking performances over Croatia and Italy.

It’s also been a good week for the tournament itself with some wonderful attacking football – at times it seems like an FA Cup replay as both teams just go for the win! There have also been lots of amazing goals: the Romanian opening goal by Stanciu against Ukraine was beautiful as his first-time shot went top bins. The Swiss striker Shaqiri scored a remarkable first-time strike from outside the box to equalise against Scotland. But maybe the best two goals have come from Turkish players in their win over Georgia: first their right back Mert Muldur scored with an amazing a href="https://languagecaster.

In this football language podcast we look ahead to the 2024 Euros and try and predict the winners. Which teams are favourites? Dark horses? Who will win the Golden Boot? Which team will be the biggest flops? You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

 



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Learn English Through Football Podcast: Euro 2024 – Preview and Predictions

DF: You’re listening to Languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to the show for everyone who wants to practice their English and who loves the beautiful game of football. My name is Damian and I am one half of the Languagecaster team,  the other of course is Damon who is based in Tokyo, Japan and we’ll be hearing from him a little later on in the show.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French)

So, the domestic seasons in Europe have finished and football fans are now turning their attention to the 2024 European Championship (the Euros); and these are taking place in Germany. On this podcast we are going to look ahead to this competition and look at some of the favourites, the dark horses and the possible flops of the tournament. We’ll also give a few predictions and remember that you can join our Predictions competition by simply coming along to our site and clicking on the Euro24 page.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Dutch).

Introduction

Yes, that message was in Dutch and of course the Netherlands will be taking part in this year’s tournament. All of the stingers on today’s show will be from countries that are participating in the Euros. Can you guess what languages they are? We are interested in getting some more languages for our stinger   collection: I wonder if we can we get languages from all of the 24 participating nations? We’d love to hear from Portuguese and Albanian speakers (and Swiss and Belgian and Croatian and Serbian and…)

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in German).

Some Numbers

This will be the 17th edition of the European Championship – the first one took place in 1960 when there were only four teams taking part. In 1980 the format changed with eight teams now taking part and this continued until 1996 in England when there were 16 teams participating. Interestingly, West Germany/Germany won in both 1980 and 1996. The tournament expanded again three years ago to 24 teams – remember that the competition was held a year later than planned due to Covid. Do you remember who were the winners from 2021? That’s right, Italy beat England on penalties and so are the current holders. Italy have won the title on two occasions but they are not the most successful...

The Learn English Through Football podcast explains the language of football: the words, phrases, and cliches used in the game. This week, we look at the word ‘heavy’, and how can be used in football. You can find a transcript of the show below, which is great for learners of English to practice listening and reading skills. Teachers of English can also use it to create activities, such as fill in the blanks, true/false, comprehension questions, sentence ordering activities, etc. You can also check out our massive glossary of footballing phrases here. We have hundreds of previous posts and podcasts too on our website. All  can access these resources for free.  Let us know if you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

Learn English Through Football

DB: Hi there everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com’s football language podcast. My name’s Damon, and I’m enjoying the sun over here in Japan. Damian, the other half of the Languagecaster team is in London, where England have just lost a warm up game before the Euros in Germany.

Damian has posted recently about the phrase ‘do the double‘ and which teams achieved it or were close in Europe this year (2024). Come along to languagecaster.com to check that out, or subscribe to the podcast via your favourite podcast feed.

On this week’s football language podcast we’re taking a look at the word heavy and how it is used with other words to talk about football. But first, here’s a message from one of our supporters.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Turkish)

DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was in Turkish. Thank you Mert! And now it’s time to kick off and discuss today’s word – heavy.

Heavy Challenge

DB: OK, so heavy is used commonly in three phrases: a heavy challenge or tackle, a heavy defeat, and a heavy touch. Let’s start with the first one.

A heavychallenge is a strong tackle. It usually means that the player being tackled was hurt in the tackle or even injured. When we use the phrase, we are not usually criticising the tackler. The tackle is very physical but it may be a fair tackle. If it is a bad tackle, we might say it was a reckless challenge, a leg breaker, or a dirty tackle for example.

Here’s an example from the Guardian match report on the England vs Iceland game last night: ‘John Stones, who took a heavy challenge at the outset before making way at half-time, was off the pace. Stones would depart with his right foot heavily strapped.’

So, John Stones was hurt in a heavy challenge and was replaced to make sure he wasn’t injured further.

Heavy Touch

DB: Another way heavy is used is with touch, a heavy touch. This describes how a player controls the ball. It means the player receiving the ball does not control the ball as they wanted to. The ball moves further away from the player than they wanted. It makes the next touch more difficult. It is often used with ‘first’ – a heavy first touch.

Here’s an example from a Daily Mail match report on Chelsea v Bournemouth in the 2019-20 season: ‘Twice Josh King broke behind Chelsea lines in the second half. On the first occasion he was clean through and leaving Kurt Zouma for dead, but a heavy touch allowed Zouma to recover and blo...

Do the double: In this football language podcast we look back at a weekend full of cup finals across Europe as many teams tried to do the double. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

 

Learn English Through Football Podcast: Do the Double (2024 Domestic Cup Finals)

DF: Hello everyone. You’re listening to languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast. The show for everyone who wants to practice their English and who loves the beautiful game of football. My name is Damian and I am based in London and I am one half of the Languagecaster team – the other member is Damon who, of course for regular listeners who will know, is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Tagalog)

Now, last weekend saw lots of domestic cup finals being played across Europe and on this week’s podcast we are going to take a look at four of them. Now in all of these finals one of the teams was trying to complete a double: that’s winning the domestic league and cup. So, we are going to look at the FA Cup in England, the Coupe de France, the Scottish Cup and the Pokal from Germany. Do you remember which teams were going for the double in those finals and how many of them were successful?

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from Umid in Tashkent (Uzbekistan))

Vocabulary

Now before we take a look at these finals let’s take a look at the phrase, ‘the double‘ and how different verbs can collocate or go with this word in football:



* To do the double

* To complete the double (To complete a league and cup double)

* To win the double

* To deny (a team) the double [so, to stop them from winning the double]

* To clinch the double

* To secure the double



Now, five of these phrases all really mean to win the double. So, to do the double; complete the double; clinch the double; secure the double – with one of them, ‘to deny the double’ is to stop the other team from winning the double.

We are also going to be looking at the phrases, ‘to pounce on‘; ‘the Old Firm‘; ‘ to battle past‘ and ‘to defy‘ – do you know what these words mean?

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Hungarian)

FA Cup: Manchester United v Manchester City – Defy the odds

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Before this year’s FA Cup final between Manchester rivals United and City,