Fantasy Football - Podcast 59

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: This week we’re going to focus on picking teams. First, we’re going to talk about the performances of the Premier League stars at Euro 2016 and choose our Euro 2016 Premier League dream team and later, we’re going to tell you about the fantastic fantasy football game on Premier League.com and ask for your help selecting a Premier Skills English team.

Jack: Anyway, while we choose our Premier League dream team, we will help you with lots of football English like player positions and formations and also more general English that you can use to talk about football and any other topic.

Rich: Over the next few weeks, with your help, we are going to build our own Premier League fantasy team on Premier Skills English.

Jack: We’re going to start by asking you for some ideas, but more about that later.

Rich: We also have news about our latest winner of a Premier League shirt.

Jack: Of course, a couple of weeks ago we asked you to say which Premier League player would score most goals at Euro 2016.

Rich: Shall we do that now?

Jack: Yes, let’s do it. Well, there were two top scorers in the end and they both came from the French team. West Ham’s Dimitri Payet and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud both scored three goals.

Rich: Many of you chose Payet and a few of you went with Giroud either in the comments section on podcast 56 or in our vote on podcast 57.

Jack: From all the correct answers we chose one winner at random.

Rich: And the winner is MasterSilver500 from Vietnam. Congratulations MasterSilver500!

Jack: Well done MasterSilver500 from Vietnam. We’ll be in contact soon about how we will get your prize to you.

Social

Rich: So, what’s been happening on the website this week, Jack?

Jack: Well, we’ve got a new Euro 2016 player article about Hugo Lloris the France and Tottenham goalkeeper and captain.

Rich: He’s probably not too happy at the moment. There was quite a lot of support for France but Kwesimanifest thought Portugal would win and he was right!

Jack: If you want to write an opinion about the final or a small match report just go to the page about Hugo Lloris and we will take a look and correct your English, too. Anything else been happening?

Rich: We’ve had a couple of great football questions from Gugun in Indonesia. His first question is in the football vocabulary section about players. The question is: ‘What’s the difference between a full-back and a wing-back?’

Jack: That’s a difficult question. I can see that you replied to Gugan. If you want to see Rich’s answer we’ve put a link to the section about player vocabulary on the right hand side of this page. Have a look at the reply and tell us if you think he’s right. You said that he had two questions?

Rich: Yes, his second question is in the football vocabulary section about clubs. His question is ‘What is a super-sub?’

Jack: now That’s a good question, too.

Rich: If anybody knows the answer, can you help Gugan and reply to him? I’ve put a link to the club vocabulary on the right hand side of this page.

Jack: And thanks to Gugan from Indonesia for his questions. Remember if you have any questions about football English just let us know and we or another Premier Skills English member will answer them on the website or in a podcast.

Language Focus / Latest News

Jack: As we said earlier, we’re talking about Euro 2016 and choosing a starting 11 of Premier League players who did well at the competition.

Rich: No England players right?

Jack: No England players but I think a couple of Welsh players might make our team. Who should go in goal?

Rich: I’ve picked Hugo Lloris from Tottenham and France but Swansea City’s Lukasz Fabianski had a good tournament, too.

Jack: Ok, Let’s pick Lloris. What about our formation? We like to choose attacking players so let’s go for 3-4-3. So we need three big defenders. I’m going to pick the Swansea City captain and Wales captain, Ashley Williams. He had a great tournament.

Rich: I agree. We need someone from the new European Champions so let’s pick Southampton’s Jose Fonte who played well for Portugal. You know, he only started playing for Portugal when he was 31 and now he’s European Champion!

Jack: It’s a great story. He was playing in League One for Southampton a few years ago. I’m going to go for Laurent Koscielny of France and Arsenal. He’s a great defender.

Rich: So, that’s the defenders. What about midfield? I’m going to start with West Ham’s Dimitri Payet. I know he was disappointing in the final but he scored some great goals.

Jack: Good choice. I’m going to go for another Swansea City player here. Iceland were one of the biggest surprises and Gylfi Sigurdsson was great in the middle of the pitch. Let’s pick him.

Rich: The other big surprise was Wales of course. Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey played really well when they beat Belgium. I think his suspension was one of the reasons that they didn’t beat Portugal in the semi-final.

Jack: You could be right. So, we need one more midfielder. Let’s select Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaquiri. He produced one of the tournaments best moments with that overhead kick against Poland.

Rich: OK, that’s the midfield. Now, we need three strikers. I’m going to start with Southampton’s Graziano Pelle. He scored twice and held the ball up well for the Italians.

Jack: Yes, he’s very good for a big lad! I think we need more pace and skill in attack. I’m going to go with the Chelsea and Belgium forward Eden Hazard. That leaves one more spot in our team, Rich. Who are you going to pick?

Rich: It’s tricky. I could go for Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud but I’m going to cheat a little and pick another Chelsea and Belgium player. Michy Batshuayi completes our team. He’s just signed for Chelsea last week and he scored with his first touch of Euro 2016 - things can’t get better than that!

Jack: I’m sure Chelsea fans are looking forward to watching him play. Right, that’s our Euro 2016 Premier League XI. Take a look at our team in the graphic on the podcast page on the website. Do you agree? What changes would you make? Is it too attacking? Would you change the formation?

Fantasy Football

Rich:Right  We have some exciting news for you. This season we’re going to have a fantasy football Premier League team and we would like you to choose the players that play each week.

Jack: Yes, you will choose the players, the captain and make changes to the team each week.

Rich: If you don’t know what Fantasy Football is, it’s a game where you are given £100 million to buy 15 players for your team.

Jack: Each week, depending on what happens in the Premier League, you score points when your players score goals, make assists and keep clean sheets.

Rich: It’s very exciting and we would like your help to get the Premier Skills English team to the top of the leaderboard.

Jack: Our first step is to choose the squad. This week we just want your ideas. We would like to hear which players you’d like to see in the team.

Rich: This week it is easy but soon we will have to think about the money we have available, too.

Jack: That’s right. But let’s not think about that, yet. I hate thinking about money.  

Football Phrase

Jack: Right, last week’s football phrase was golden boot. The golden boot is the award or trophy that goes to the player that scores the most goals in a competition. France’s Antoine Griezmann won the golden boot at Euro 2016 with 6 goals.

Rich: And Harry Kane won the golden boot in last season’s Premier League. It will be exciting to see who wins it this year. Zlatan Ibrahimovic maybe?

Jack: Yes, it will be great to see Zlatan in the Premier League.

Rich: Well done to Kwesimanifest from Ghana, Alex from Ukraine, and HassanRaja from Pakistan who all got it right. Do you have a football phrase this week, Jack?

Jack: Yes, this week’s football phrase is *** ****** ********. This is a match that is not part of a competition and happens before the season starts. Tottenham have already played their first *** ****** ********. They won 3-0. Their new signing, Victor Wanyama played and the South Korean, Heung-Min Son got one of the goals.

Rich: Wow! The season has started already. Well not the season, but matches before the season if you know what I mean.

Jack: Yes, I think I know what you mean. Right, that’s all we have time for today!

Rich : Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and the football phrase in the comments below.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football!
 

.