Learn English Through Football

La Liga kicks off this weekend, and we take a look at the favourites, a dark horse and some of the teams that may be fighting relegation.

Weekly Football Phrase: To start the new season, we look at the phrase 'curtain raiser', a phrase which is used to introduce the first match of a new season.

8 teams are left in the CL: two teams from Spain, and one each from Germany, England, Italy, Portugal and surprisingly, Cyprus. Which teams will make it to the semis?

13 games to go in the Premier League. Who do you think will win it? Languagecaster discusses the run in.

On this week's podcast we take a look at some of the statistics behind the big northwest derby: Liverpool vs Manchester United

On this week's report we take a look at one of the fiercest rivalries in English football: Liverpool versus Manchester United. Which team is older? Which has won more head-to-heads? Have they ever played each other in a final? Which of them has won more league titles? These and other questions are answered in this week's report, which also has a transcript

2014 South American World Cup Qualifiers: Did you know that the 2014 World Cup qualifying rounds have already started? With 'only' just under a thousand days until the big kick-off in Brazil, we take a look at one of the most hotly-contested qualifying groups: South America.

With less than a year to go until the European Championships kick off in Poland and the Ukraine the qualifying rounds in Europe are starting to hot up. With the two hosts already qualified, there remain 14 other spots to fill - the nine group winners and the remaining five will come from a series of play-offs involving the runners-up. On this weeka€™s main report we take a look at how the groups are shaping up.

World Cup Stars: Johan Cruyff: Continuing our series of the worlda€™s best footballers, languagecaster.com takes a look at a player who would be in most peoplea€™s top five best players ever - Hendrik Johannes Cruijff.

[print_link] | Subscribe: Main Listening Report | Complete List Here We are well into April now and leagues around Europe are entering the final stretch of the title races. This week, languagecaster takes a look at the five big leagues and which teams look best placed to be crowned champions. Let's start with France and Ligue 1 The contenders With all teams having played 29 games Lille sit atop League 1 with 58 points, four ahead of Marseilles, most people's favourites for the title at the start of the season. Behind these two are Rennes and Olympic Lyon on 51 and 50 points respectively. Lille have been winning a lot of admirers with their exciting attacking style led by the three-pronged attack of Sow, Gervinho and Hazard, butthey'll have to be aware of the experience of Marseille who have also hit form at the right time with three wins on the bounce. This looks like a two-horse race. This title race will go down to the wire and Lille's second to last match away at PSG on the 21st of May could be crucial. Tip Marseille Next up is the Spanish La Liga The contenders There are only two contenders, as there seem to be every year in Spain - Real Madrid and Barcelona, the two giants of Spanish football. 16 of the last twenty titles have been shared by these two teams, and it's been over six years since another team, Valencia, had a look in. This season it looks like it will be three in a row for the Catalan side as, with eight games remaining, they lead their rivals from Madrid by eight points. Barcelona have 81 points to Real's 73. To illustrate their dominance, the third place team is a massive 24 points behind the leaders. Tip You can't see beyond Barcelona. Real Madrid's loss to Sporting Gijon last week ended their slim chance of overhauling their rivals. Crunch match It won't be a crunch match with any bearing on where the title goes, but it will be a grudge match. Next week Barcelona travel to real Madrid and Los Blancos will be hoping for revenge for the 5-0 humiliation they suffered earlier in the season. Next let's take a look at the Bundesliga in Germany The contenders Dortmund lead the pack after 28 games with 65 points. Behind them it's Bayer Leverkusen on 58 and Bayern Munich in the last Champions League spot on 51. That 14 point gap pretty much rules out last year's Champions Bayern, but there is a chance for Leverkusen to catch Dortmund if the team from the west of Germany bottle it like their big rivals Shalke did famously in 2001 and again in 2005. Jurgen Klopp's youthful Dortmund side have been destroying other teams with their energy and pressing game and have beaten their closest rivals convincingly. Tip This is Dortmund's to lose and I can't see them throwing the opportunity away to win. Crunch Match This match is really to see if Leverkusen can hold on to second place. On the 17th of April they travel to Bayern Munich and a victory will almost surely secure second place and leave Munich struggling for a Champions League spot. What about Serie A in Italy? The contenders The two Milan sides, AC and Inter plus the team from the south, Napoli. Currently AC Milan top the league after beating their Inter in the derby last week. that victory was a convincing one and Inter's up and down season looks to have hit another rocky patch. AC Milan have 65 points after 32 games, five more than Inter who lie in third place. Napoli have taken advantage of both Milan sides' unconvincing recent form, a win, a draw and a loss for both in the last three games, to pick up nine points from their last three games. This surge has put them into second place on 62 within striking distance of the leaders. Tip This one really is too close to call at the moment. However, it looks like AC Milan have the easier run in, while Napoli have the toughest. The team from Naples have to play Inter, Juventus and Udinese - all tough potential fixtures. So, my tip is AC Milan to hang on to top spot. Crunch game Sampdoria vs Milan this weekend. If Milan can win, their rivals may buckle under the pressure and Milan could build some momentum for the run in. The contenders Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea. It's pretty much the same faces every year at this stage, but this season has a new face, Manchester City, who are looking to break into the Big Four at the expense of Liverpool. It hasn't been a vintage season this year in terms of the quality of the leaders, but for fans it has certainly been an exciting one. All the big teams have had their surprise defeats and bad runs of form, and only 11 points separates Manchester United in first place from fourth place Chelsea, who have a game in hand. All of these four have a chance to win it, but they would have to rely on Manchester United taking their eye off the ball, something they never seem to do. Traditionally the Red Devils always finish strongly, while every year it seems that Arsenal find ways to throw title and trophy chances away. A few weeks ago we were talking about Arsenal still being in with a chance of a 'quadruple' - The league title, the Champions League, the FA Cup and the League Cup. They only have one left - the league title. Tip Manchester United will become the most successful English club by winning their 19th title, and Fergie will have completed his quest to knock Liverpool off their perch. Crunch match May Day sees Arsenal host Manchester United. If they are still withing range a victory here for the Gunners would make the last few games very interesting So, will we see Marseille, Barcelona, Dortmund, AC Milan and Manchester United crowned champions in May, or have I got it completely wrong? We shall see over the coming weeks. Enjoy the football! Vocabulary hit form: start to play well, begin to win matches on the bounce: one after the other, in a row, in succession can't see beyond: the subject of the sentence is the only choice, the only answer the pack: the other teams in the league (from a pack of wolves) hit a rocky patch: have a difficult time, have a poor run of form striking distance: within reach, close enough to catch run in: fixture list, remaining games in a competition buckle: collapse, lose games because of pressure the Big Four: for the last decade (10 years) in England, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal (take your) eye off the ball: lose concentration, become complacent

On this week's podcast Damian and Damon review their predictions made in August 2010 regarding the teams they support, Tottenham and Liverpool. Remember on this week's podcast you can also: Listen only to the main report here - complete with transcript and vocabulary Learners of English can review the footballing news from around the world in our good, the bad and the ugly section of the show Check out a new football expression in English for Football For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources page with: A page with all our Football vocabulary posts Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases) Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking here //

Click here or the image to see the slideshow! Or check out the audio report above. I was lucky enough to be invited to a nihonshu (sake) tasting event combined with the Holland vs Japan game last weekend organised by Etsuko and Te-chan from tokyofoodcast. The event was held in downtown Tokyo and the bar was crammed full of about 30 sake enthusiasts and Japan football team fans who had come along to taste the FIFA endorsed sake from all corners of Japan. As the alcohol started flowing the game kicked off and the fans already predicted a confident 2-0 or 2-1 victory for Japan - maybe they believe in the power of positive thinking. After 45 minutes and about six different sakes the score remained a 0-0 stalemate, and on the whole, the fans were still confident: 1-0 or 0-0. Of course, we all know the result, a Kawashima error let Sneijder score from distance and Japan lost 1-0 and Holland have qualified. But credit to the Japan fans who continued to chant and support their team throughout and who will, confidently, expect their team to beat Denmark in the final group match.