This week, the Champions League group stages are done and dusted and the remaining 16 teams are waiting for the knock-out stage draw next Monday. We’ll be featuring news from that and other football stories in our good, the bad and ugly section on the podcast this week. We also have some English for football phrases including: dead rubbers, ball watching and one for the cameras. The show also features feature three big games from the Premier League in our predictions battle – Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion, and Liverpool v West Ham. You can read the transcript for the show in our post below (Damian = DF, Damon = DB).

2016-17 Learn English Through Football Podcast: Dead rubbers, ball watching and one for the camera

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Transcript of the show

DB: Your listening to languagecaster.com’s football language podcast. Welcome to our show listener. It’s a show for everyone who loves football and is interested in improving their English language skills. My name is Damon, and I am talking to you from Tokyo, Japan on a beautiful December’s day. For those of you who haven’t visited Tokyo, in winter, although it is cold, it is generally good weather, with blue skies and lots of sun. Now, down the Skype line is Damian in London, where winters are generally a lot greyer than in Tokyo. What’s the weather like there Damian?

DF: Hi Damon. Yes, the weather in the UK’s capital in winter tends to be on the grey side but today, Sunday, is cold but bright. Perfect weather for some Christmas shopping but think I might stay in and watch the football instead!

DB: Sounds good. I’m guessing you’ll be watching your team Tottenham’s game against Manchester United, a game we feature on the show today in the predictions section. Am I right and what else do we have on the show?

Line up

DF: Yes, I will be watching that game later on today – and after going to see Spurs play at Wembley during the week in the Champions League I am hopeful we will put in a good performance at Old Trafford. Right, on this week’s show, as always, we’ll start with some stories from the footballing world in the good, the bad and the ugly section. After that, we’ve got a quiz question for everyone – it’s a tough one this week. Then we will spend a bit of time talking about three English for football phrases: dead rubber, ball watching and the cliche, one for the cameras. And, of course, we’ll finish with our predictions for three key games in the Premier League this weekend.

DB: Let’s kick off with some good news form the world of football. What was good for you this week, Damian?

Good

DF: Well, it was a good week for Lionel