Learn English Through Football Podcast 15: 2007 ASEAN Cup, Friendly Matches

This week's show features news from Thailand on the ASEAN cup, a look at international friendlies, and our usual review of the week, English for football, vox pops and predictions.Damon is in the UK and Damian is reporting from Thailand. You can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at [email protected]. Contact UsA  Forum Glossary [paypal-donation] http://gty.im/73199010 This week's worksheet, answers, transcript, vocabulary and English for Footbal Worksheet week 15 pdf Vocabulary_15.pdf Transcript Yes, I am in Thailand at the moment and though Damon thinks I am only enjoying the beach I am also enjoying the football here. Thailand is a football-crazy country a€“ there are games of football being played everywhere, people wear the colours of their Premier League favourite team and there is more football on TV here than anywhere else I know. Now, Thailand has never qualified for a World Cup finals though they did reach the final group of 6 for the 2002 finals but with a FIFA ranking of 125 it does not look as if they will challenge in the near future, particularly as Australia now play in the Asian qualifiers and the fact that Asia may well lose a qualifying spot for future tournaments. The country is joint hosts (along with Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia) for the upcoming Asian Cup tournament, which is the Asian equivalent of the European Championships. Thailand is not expected to win and may even struggle to qualify from their group, which includes Australia, Oman and Iraq though they will play their home matches in front of 35.000 noisy locals at Bangkoka€™s Supchalasai Stadium. To warm up for the continenta€™s major competition in July, the Thai team participated in the ASEAN Cup this month along with seven other teams in the region and after defeating Vietnam in the semi- finals (which I went to see) they played the two-legged final against Singapore which has recently become one of Thailanda€™s biggest rivals. The first leg was played in Singapore last week and in a tense and often physical match and the score at 1-1 the referee awarded a dubious penalty against Thailand who promptly walked off the pitch. They stayed there for 15 minutes before finally coming back on. Singapore scored the penalty and held on to win the first game 2-1. Not a very good advertisement for the game in South-east Asia. For the return game in Bangkok, tensions were high. Newspapers from both countries were full of accusations of cheating against the other nation and security was very tight. The game was tense again but also scrappy and though Thailand scored first they never looked comfortable and with just 8 minutes to go Singapore equalised and held on to win their 3rd ASEAN Cup. This was a big disappointment to the Thais who had hoped victory in this tournament would help their chances in the forthcoming Asian Cup and the World Cup qualifiers that start next year. It looks like a difficult road ahead for the football-crazy nation.