It’s international break and World Cup qualifiers this week. The season has only just started in most of Europe but September brings international matches. The whole world looks towards the World Cup in Russia in 2018, hoping their country will make it to the finals. The transfer window has also closed this week in Europe with some big deals being done and lots of disappointment too. We’ll be looking at the qualifiers and transfers in our review section on this week’s podcast. There is a transcript for those who wish to practise their English reading and listening skills (Damian = DF, Damon = DB).

Learning English Through Football Podcast: The International Break

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Transcript of the show

DB: You are listening to Languagecaster’s football-language podcast. Hello everyone. My name is Damon and I’m based in Tokyo, which at the moment is basking in beautiful sun and most importantly isn’t too hot. This week, it’s just me as Damian is on his travels, but he will be back next week.

Now, it’s World Cup qualifiers and a few days ago I watched the match between Japan and Australia. It was a surprisingly routine victory for Japan. Australia are seen as big rivals and most Japanese fans were nervous before the game, but Australia rarely threatened and two clinical goals, the first after striker Asano sprung the offside trap put the game to bed. Everyone very happy here as Japan have now qualified for Russia 2018.

Line up

And I’ll be talking a bit more about World Cup qualifiers and also the transfer window in the good, the bad and the ugly, the review section of the footballing news this week. On the show, we also have some English for football phrases, including one I have just used, ‘to spring the offside trap‘ and one more, ‘a high line‘.

We’ll also have a quiz question and some predictions from the World Cup qualifiers – England versus Slovakia, Honduras against the USA and Argentina taking on Venezuela.

You are listening to Languagecaster.com (in Hungarian)

DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that was in Hungarian. Remember, if you want to contact us just come along to languagecaster.com, or contact us through Facebook,  Twitter, and we’ve also got a forum on the site where you can post any questions or comments.

OK, now what was good in the football world last week?

Good

DB: As I’ve mentioned, it was good for Japan who qualified for the World Cup in Russia with their 2-0 victory over Australia, but it was also good for Spain,