Premier Skills English Podcast 11

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

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

Rich: So, what’s happening this week, Jack? Are you getting excited about the start of the new season?

Jack: Yes, I am. I can’t wait for the season to kick off. There are new players, some new managers and new teams.

Rich:  And in this week’s podcast we’re going to talk about the new teams: Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich City.

Jack: Yes, and we also have a little competition for you too, but we’ll tell you about that later. Who’s new this season Rich?

Rich: I think the big story is Bournemouth who will play in the top division for the first time.

Jack: Yes, Bournemouth was founded 125 years ago, so their fans have had to wait a long time for this! What do you know about the team?

Rich: They play fast attacking football and scored nearly 100 goals to get promoted last season. They have a young manager too. Eddie Howe became manager when he was only 32!

Jack: What else do you know about them?

Rich: Well, they play in the smallest stadium in the Premier League - it’s capacity is only 11,000. And their nickname is The Cherries!

Jack: The what? Like the fruit.

Rich: Yes, like the fruit.

Jack: I think I’ll be supporting Bournemouth this season. I always love an underdog to do well.

Rich: Underdog? Can you tell us more about this word?

Jack: An underdog is a team that is weaker than others and who most people think will lose.

Rich: Yes, it’s great when an underdog surprises one of the bigger teams. Do you remember Leicester beating Man Utd 5-2 last season?

Jack: Yes, any team can beat any other if they have a good day.

Rich: Watford are also back in the Premier League after eight years in the Championship. What do you know about Watford Jack?

Jack: I know that Elton John is a massive fan.

Rich: Who?... the singer?

Jack: Yes, he’s president of the club and I also know that Watford’s nickname is the Hornets.

Rich: Hornets? What are they?

Jack: They’re black and yellow insects. Like a wasp but bigger and with a bigger sting.

Rich: Did you know that in the 1980s Watford were also famous for establishing a new style of football in England?

Jack: Yes,they won promotion in three consecutive seasons and then finished second in the top division. Only Liverpool stopped them from winning the title.

Rich: The style of football was often called the direct approach.

Jack: What did it involve?

Rich: It involved lots of long passes into the other team’s penalty box where the other team would make mistakes.

Jack: So the idea was to get the ball near to the other team’s goal as quickly as possible.

Rich: Exactly. Watford’s strikers would also close down or press defenders very quickly.

Jack: So they had no time or space to pass the ball.

Rich: Yes, and make more mistakes. The long ball game is used less these days, but you often see it in the last few minutes of a match when a team needs a goal.

Jack: Sometimes you even see the goalkeeper in the other team’s penalty area.

Rich: Maybe we’ll see Watford with some new types of tactics this season?

Jack: Maybe. Who was the other team to win promotion, Rich?

Rich: It was Norwich City.

Jack: Of course, they were only recently relegated...

Rich: And they’ve bounced straight back, haven’t they?

Jack: What do you mean ‘bounced back’?

Rich: It’s a phrasal verb which means to be successful again after some problems.

Jack: So Norwich were relegated in 2013/14 but bounced back in 2014/15.

Rich: Yes, they’ve only been away from the Premier League for one season.

Jack: And Norwich have an interesting nickname too, don’t they?

Rich: Yes, they’re called the Canaries which is a small yellow bird. Norwich have a picture of a canary on their badge and they also play in Canary Yellow!

Jack: And that brings us to our competition! There are three other teams in the Premier League who have birds as nicknames. Can you name the clubs and the birds?

Rich: If you can, write your answers in the comments section below and you could be our lucky winner!

Jack: Yes, you can win a Premier League shirt of your choice. So good luck and get your answers in before midnight in the 5th of August. We'll select a winner from the correct answers at random and announce the lucky winner in next week's premier Skills English podcast.

Rich: Well that’s all for now. Thanks for listening.

Jack: 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.

Rich: 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.

Jack:  Bye for now and enjoy your football.