Podcast 20

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Rich: Hi everyone. I’m Rich and every week we talk about football and help you with your English.

Jack: This week, we’re going to talk about a fantastic performance by Sergio Aguero, the language focus is on how we talk about things that were possible in the past and Rich is going to make some Premier League predictions.

Rich: And you have another chance to win a Samsung Galaxy tablet in our ‘What’s my Team?’ competition.

Jack: What was the answer to last week’s riddle Rich?

Rich: Ah, yes. Last week it was Justyna ... her favourite Premier League team is Crystal Palace.

Jack: We had lots of correct entries so congratulations to everybody who got it right. I think the part that helped was when she said ‘come on you Eagles’ at the end. The Eagles is of course Crystal Palace’s nickname.

Rich: We have selected a winner at random from the correct answers...

Jack: and the second winner of this week’s What’s my team? competition is Dohoan from Vietnam. Congratulations Dohoan, we’ve already sent you an email and your prize will soon be on its way.

Rich: Well done Dohoan! Later on in the podcast, you can listen to this week’s What’s my team riddle. If you want to listen to the riddle more than once, you can click on the podcast player where it says competition, or you can click on the link below.

Jack: But, before we start: we recently had a comment from Salloum from Syria. In our Player of the Week article last week we asked you if players are the same when they return from injury.

Rich: Salloum said that it depends on what type of injury it is.

Jack: But Elghoul from Algeria said that a player is never the same after a bad injury.

Rich: Can you remember Michael Owen? He had lots  of injuries and was never really the same when he returned.

Jack: Yes, he used to be really fast but after his injuries he couldn’t run as fast.

Rich: But sometimes a player can be better when he returns from injury.

Jack: Really? I’m not sure about that.

Rich: What about Gareth Bale? He was bought by Spurs to play as a full back but didn’t have much success. In fact he held an embarrassing record for the number of games playing on the losing side. He was injured and out of action for a bit and was probably worried about his future. When he came back, he played in midfield and on the wing and he really wanted to show that he was good enough. I think that injury helped him.

Jack: Yes. He’s now one of the most successful footballers in the world. He actually broke another record. When he left Spurs, his transfer fee was the highest ever.

Rich: What do you think? Remember you can add comments to all our articles on Premier Skills English and tell us what you think.

Jack: There were some great matches in the Premier League last weekend. Arsenal beat Man Utd 3-0 after scoring three goals in the first 20 minutes, and the Merseyside Derby finished in a 1-1 draw which meant the end of Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool manager..

Rich: And Man City have gone back to the top of the table after a brilliant 6-1 win against Newcastle.

Jack: And what a performance by Sergio Aguero! He scored 5 times. He’s only the fifth player ever to do this in a Premier League match.

Rich: I know, he’s just brilliant. After the match, the City manager, Manuel Pellegrini, said that he’s at the same level as Messi and Ronaldo.

Jack: He scored his goals in only 20 minutes - faster than any other player!

Rich: And he could have scored more.

Jack: Pellegrini substituted Aguero after 66 minutes. He could have become the first Premier League player to score six in a match if Pellegrini had left him on the pitch.

Rich: I know, but he said after the match that he was injured and   he was actually injured at half-time.

Jack: Wow! He scored four of his goals after the break when he had an injury. If he hadn’t been injured, he could have scored lots more.

Rich: Yes, I think he could have.

Jack: In the last few sentences we’ve been using the phrase ‘could have’ a lot. Sergio Aguero could have become the first player to score six in a Premier League match.

Rich: We use ‘could have’ to talk about things that were possible in the past but didn’t happen. Like ‘I could have gone to Bulgaria on holiday.’

Jack: Did you not go to Bulgaria?

Rich: No, I went to Italy but I could have gone to Bulgaria. I changed my mind at the last minute.

Jack: The pronunciation of ‘could have’ is also important. We don’t say the words separately, they come together and the have nearly disappears, you just say ‘ve. Listen to these examples. ‘Aguero could’ve scored lots more goals’ or ‘You could’ve gone to Bulgaria’.

Rich: Could have is often used in conditional sentences and if you want to find out more, you can have a look at our Learn English website. I’ve put a link to the section about conditionals on the side of this page.

Jack: And there’s an activity below you can use to practice this language.

Rich: Right, I think it’s time for this week’s competition: ‘What’s my Team?’

Rich: Here is what you have to do. Listen to a Premier League fan, who will talk about their favourite team and then write the name of the team   in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: It couldn’t be easier! And if you’re not sure yo u can always make a guess - there are only 20 teams in the Premier League.

Rich: But, remember you can only write one answer and only your first answer will be accepted.

Jack: And for each of the 20 podcast competitions th e lucky winner will receive a fantastic Samsung Galaxy Tablet.

Rich: Each competition closes on Monday at midnight in the UK.

Jack: And the winner will be announced the next day at 1200 in the next Podcast.

Rich: Right, so this week, our Premier League fan is Ash. Listen to his riddle and try to work out what’s his team?

Ash: Our team has never been relegated from the Premier League! We got to the FA Cup Final last season and that’s the closest we’ve come to glory in the last few years but you might be surprised to hear that we won the European Cup in 1982. Some of our famous fans include the British Prime Minister - David Cameron and Prince William.

Rich: Prince William and David Cameron. This club really does have some famous fans. Do you think they have season tickets?

Jack: I’m not sure if they go to every match but I’ve seen photos of them at the stadium before. Let’s see how our listeners do... If you know which team Ash was talking about, write your answer in the comments section below. I think it’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction

Rich: There are no Premier League matches this weekend because of the international break so I’m going to make a couple of predictions for the rest of the season. After 8 matches, I can’t see anybody stopping Manchester City. They look to have the best team and are very consistent. I think their closest challengers will be Arsenal. After Chelsea’s bad start to the season it will be very interesting to see which teams get into the Champions League and I think Spurs have a very good chance of finishing third or fourth. At the bottom, all three promoted sides have made a good start to life in the Premier League and I don’t think any of them will be relegated. This means that big clubs like Newcastle and Aston Villa are in danger of rele gation.

Jack: Aston Villa? Did you know that they’ve never been relegated from the Premier League. I think they’ll escape.

Rich: Maybe you are right. If you’ve got a prediction for the rest of this season let us know in the comments section below.

Jack: Well that’s all for now. Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to the competition, your Premier League predictions, and any questions you have about the website or football English in the comments below.

Rich: If you’re listening to this on itunes or elsewhere, come back to Premier Skills English for some language activities, a quiz and lots more. You can find us at www.britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish      .

Jack: Don’t forget if you sign in, you can score points to see if you can get your club, your country and your name to the top of our leaderboard.

Rich:  Bye for now and enjoy your football.