Asian Cup 2019: On this week’s English through football podcast, we take a look at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup taking place in the United Arab Emirates. We’ll take a look at the teams – the favourites, dark horses, and the format. We will also have an English for football phrase – nail on, a quiz question on how well you know national team nicknames and we’ve got some Premier League predictions to finish the show. 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 you can use the transcript to make several activities for your learners. If you have questions or comments, email us at: [email protected] (Damian=DF, Damon=DB).

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Introduction

DB: You are listening to languagecaster.com’s football-language podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to the show for all those who love the beautiful game of football and who want to improve their English language skills – this is your learning English through football podcast. My name is Damon and I’m here in a chilly Tokyo, but luckily the sky is beautifully clear and blue – typical Tokyo winter weather. I wonder if Damian is enjoying typical wintery weather in London?

DF: Hello Damon. Well, the weather here is wet and rainy but I cheered myself up by watching some football this week, including the first leg of the Carabao Cup, traditionally called the League Cup, between Tottenham and Chelsea. The game was tight and there was some VAR controversy but my team will be taking a slim 1-0 lead into the second leg in two weeks time. Did you watch it Damon?

DB: I’m afraid I didn’t catch that game, but I did watch some more cup action. The last game in the FA Cup third round between Liverpool and Wolves. Unfortunately, Liverpool were dumped out of the competition 2-1. That continues their poor run in this competition – the previous three years we fell at the fourth round hurdle, so this is one earlier! Oh well, hopefully we can focus on the league and the next game is Brighton, which I think features in our predictions.

DF: It does indeed. Along with Tottenham, who welcome a resurgent Manchester United, and Manchester City, who host Wolves. Can the Midland side get another big victory?

DB: We’ll see, and we’ll be talking about those games at the end of the show. What else do we have?

Line-up

DF: OK, we’re going to start by taking a look at the 2019 Asian Cup tournament, which kicked off on the 5th of January in Abu Dhabi. We’ll discuss which teams are favourites, take a look at some dark horses...