This Week: World Cup Quiz

Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to the weekly round-up called This Week on Premier Skills English.

In This Week, we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

If you are listening to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish where you’ll be able to download the podcast.

On the Premier Skills English website, you can read the transcript and join the Premier Skills English community by completing a language task in the comments section.

This week, I am going to challenge you and your knowledge of football and the World Cup with a 20 question World Cup Quiz. I have spent some time researching this information, but I have to say that my research is all internet based. I’ve done my best to confirm the answers and so if I’m wrong about any of the answers, I am very sorry, but this is a language podcast and there are no prizes.

At the end of the podcast, there will be a new football phrase for you to guess and I’ll give you the answer to last week’s football phrase and last week’s language challenge. And there’s no real language focus this week, but I will put a short quiz on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

OK - this is a long quiz so let’s get started!

Question 1. What does Fifa stand for?

If you listened to last week’s podcast, you will remember that Fifa is an acronym, that is a word made from the first letters or sounds of a phrase. Like Nasa, which stands for the North American Space Agency. When you say the letters, like the BBC or the FA, it is an initialism, but if you pronounce the letters like a word, it’s an acronym. So What is Fifa an acronym of?

The answer is ... Fifa stands for the Federation Internationale de Football Association

That was an easy one to start you off. I think the next one is easy. too.

Question 2. Which country has played in every world cup tournament?

The only country in the world that has qualified for every world cup since the very first world cup in 1930 is ... Brazil. Brazil has qualified 22 times, that’s for every world cup, has hosted the world cup twice and has finished in the top four 11 times.

Was that easy? The questions will get more difficult ... but not yet. Here’s another easy one.

Question 3. Which country has won the most world cups?

OK - that’s got to be the easiest of the questions in this quiz. If you are a fan of the world cup then you will surely know that the country that has won the competition the most is Brazil. Brazil have won the tournament five times. Germany and Italy have both won the World Cup four times, but aren’t going to challenge Brazil’s record this time.

OK - the next question is a little trickier ... I think.

Question 4. Which country has played the most world cup matches?

OK - this is a tricky question because when I started planning this podcast, the answer was one team and then, it changed and now ... it’s a tie. So the question should be which two teams are tied for having played in the most world cup matches? And yes ... one of them is Brazil, but which country is currently tied with Brazil for having played in the most world cup matches? And here’s another clue, they are the second most successful World Cup country having finished in the top 3 12 times, more than any other country.

Do you know which team is currently tied with Brazil for having played the most world cup matches? The answer is Germany. Both Brazil and Germany have played 112 world cup matches. However, Brazil are playing again this evening so that’s another record for Brazil.

The next question is much more difficult.

Question 5. Which country has played the fewest world cup matches?

OK - so I mean which country of the countries that have played in the World Cup. There are lots of countries that have never played in the tournament, but I’m looking for the country that has played in the World Cup but has only played one match. The country I am looking for is one of my favourite, despite their World Cup record. Does anyone know which country only played one match, and that was back in 1938? The country is Indonesia.

In 1934 and 1938, there was no group stage so that meant that Indonesia was able to qualify for the tournament and then only play one match.

Question 6. Which country has scored the most goals in the world cup?

OK - this is another question that is likely to be out of date by the end of the day as one of the two teams competing for this record is playing this evening and is likely to score because ... well, they are Brazil. You see, on the Brazil at the World Cup page on Wikipedia, it says that Brazil have scored an amazing 229 World Cup goals. But that doesn’t include the three goals they have scored against Switzerland and Serbia so I think their total is 232 goals. The other top goal scoring country is Germany who have scored 232 goals, but their page on Wikipedia has been updated with their results from Qatar so if Brazil score against South Korea tonight, they will hold this record as well.

Question 7. Which country has the most valuable world cup squad?

This is a bit of a strange question, but I think it’s quite interesting. This answer is based on a study which was done by a Swiss research group that was published in an Al Jazeera article. The Swiss research group made a list of players and their transfer value to see which team was the most valuable. And the country with the most valuable world cup squad is ... England. Apparently, England’s squad is worth just under .54 billion in transfer value. They are just ahead of Brazil and then France. However there have been some remarkable news stories recently about Cristiano Ronaldo which might put Portugal in the lead.

OK, the next question is about penalty shootouts.

Question 8. Which team has won the most penalty shootouts at the world cup?

Penalty shootouts have been a feature of World Cup matches since 1982. They are the most stressful part of any World Cup for players and fans. And the team that has won the most penalty shootouts is ... Germany. The German side has won 4 penalty shootouts. And the losers?

Question 9. Which team has lost the most penalty shootouts at the world cup?

The team that has lost the most penalty shootouts in the world cup is England. I think that this time, the England manager has employed a special sports psychologist to help players get over their fear of penalty shootouts. England have been knocked out of the World Cup three times in penalty shootouts.

OK - now I have some questions about players.

Question 10. Which player has won the most World Cup winner medals?

OK - is this an easy one? This player was part of the team that won the World Cup in 1958, 1962, and 1970 and is widely believed to be the best footballer of all time. Do you know who I’m talking about? The footballing legend with the most World Cup winner medals is of course Pelé, who scored 77 goals in 92 games for Brazil and is still the country’s leading goal scorer.

Question 11. Which player has scored the most World Cup goals?

Pele scored 12 world cup goals. He’s in fifth place in the list of all time top goal scorers. In second place is the Brazilian Ronaldo who scored 15 goals for Brazil in World Cup matches. But in first place is Miroslav Klose who scored 16 goals for Germany in the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 tournaments.

Question 12. Which player has scored the most goals in a single tournament?

OK - this is an amazing statistic. Just Fontaine played at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and scored 13 goals. Unfortunately he was injured and had to retire early, but he scored more in one tournament than the great Pele had managed in four.

Question 13. Which player has scored the most goals in a single game?

Here’s another impressive statistic. In 1994, Oleg Salenko scored five times in a single match in Russia’s 6-1 victory over Cameroon. He scored 6 goals in the group stages and shared the Golden Boot that tournament and that is the only time that the golden boot has been awarded to a player on a team that was eliminated at the group stage.

Question 14. What is the name of the award given to the best player in the tournament?

The player that scores the most goals is awarded the golden boot. The best goalkeeper in the tournament is awarded the golden gloves but do you know what award the overall best player is awarded? The best player wins the golden ball. There are silver and bronze boots, gloves and balls for the second and third places for each of these awards.

Now for some general world cup trivia questions.

Question 15. How many people watched the 2018 world cup?

The number I am looking for is the number of people who watched at least 1 minute of football during the 2018 World Cup in Russia. I imagine most of these people watched more than one minute, but that’s what the number I’m quoting is for. So, how many people watched the last world cup? The answer is 3.2 billion people. That was almost half the global population so pretty much half of the world watched the World Cup.

Question 16. How much has Qatar spent preparing for the World Cup?

This is a crazy number. I really don’t know what to think about this. So for some perspective, Brazil spent nearly bn in 2014, Brazil spent .7bn on upgrading stadiums and other infrastructure. Four years later, Russia spent bn in preparation for the 2018 world cup. And so Qatar which is only putting on matches in 8 stadiums, four fewer than Brazil and Russia, in a country that is something like 5% of the size of the UK, that’s less than 1000th of Russia has spent ... 9bn.

Question 17. What is unusual about the World Cup in Qatar?

OK - there are lots of unusual things about this World Cup so there are lots of valid answers to this question, but for me, the most unusual thing is the timing. This is the first winter World Cup. At least for those of us in the Northern hemisphere. I suppose the first World cup and the Brazil World Cup were sort of winter world cups. However, this time is unusual because the tournament is taking place in the middle of the Premier League. This is of course because it would be way too hot to play football in any of the fantastic new stadiums at any other time of the year as it will be dangerous to play or do physical exercise in the sorts of temperatures Qatar experiences at the rest of the year.

Now for a couple of funny questions.

Question 18. What helped Giuseppe Meazza score from the penalty spot against Brazil and secure a place for his team in the finals?

This is a funny story. It was during the qualifiers for the 1938 France World Cup. The Italian legend Giuseppe Meazza was set to take a penalty against Brazil. On his run up to take the kick, Guiseppe’s shorts fell down. Everybody fell about laughing, including the Brazilian goalkeeper. Everyone, that is except Giuseppe, who grabbed his shorts and took the shot and scored past the laughing keeper, getting the goal for Italy and a place in the Finals.

Question 19. How did Pickles save the 1966 World Cup?

In 1966, before the tournament in England, the trophy was stolen. This was a disaster and must have been very embarrassing for the English FA or whoever was supposed to be looking after the trophy. Fortunately, help was on hand in the form of a small dog called Pickles who found the trophy stashed under a park bench when his owner was taking him for a walk.

And now for the most difficult question of the quiz:

Question 20. Who is going to win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?

And the answer is ... I don’t know. Nobody knows. South Korea are playing Brazil this evening and although the bookmakers are strongly on the side of Brazil, you never know. There are still 12 countries in the cup and 12 possible winners.

How did you do? Did you know all the answers to the questions about the world cup? Who are you cheering for? Who would you like to see win? Let us know in the comments section on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week’s football phrase. I will give you the answer to last week’s football phrase in a minute. First, this week’s phrase:

This week, I’m looking for the phrase ******* ********. This is how a winner is decided in a knockout match if the scores are level after extra time. I have used this phrase in the quiz so I hope it’s not too difficult to work out. I particularly like the phrase because it reminds me of cowboys settling their differences at high noon.

If you know the answer, be sure to leave it in a comment on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Last week, the football phrase was a good one and the following listeners got it fight. Congratulations to Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam - well done for getting it right first this time Vietnguyenngo. Congratulations to Riosaurus from Indonesia, fantastic username. Well done to Mehment Sisman from Turkey, Lobachyov_24 from Russia, GD26, also from Russia, Hsn from Turkey, Asamul from Japan, welcome to the website Asamul. Congratulations to Wilson 2103 from Colombia, to Popberry from Mexico, welcome to the website Popberry, Well done to Mobeckham from Turkey, and also to Amal Khalafallah from Egypt.

You all managed to work out that the word I was looking for last week was trophy.

Before I finish, here are the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1: The round-robin stage, normally just called the group stage, of the tournament will end on the 2nd of December.

Number 2: The knockout stage of the tournament starts with the first of the round of 16 matches on the 3rd of December.

Number 3: So far, clubs from Asia have performed better than was expected in the tournament.

Number 4: King Salman of Saudi Arabia declared a national holiday after the cupset against Argentina.

Number 5: Fifa has given the go-ahead for rainbow-coloured hats to be worn in the stadium in the Wales-England match today.

Number 6: The community coaching programme won the prestigious social action award.

Number 7: Just after his 17th birthday, he signed his first professional contract with Manchester United.

Number 8: Manchester is set to host its first ever Christmas Parade this year.

Number 9: Argentinians are worried that they won’t qualify for the round of 16 after their shock defeat by Saudi Arabia.

Number 10: In sport, ranking is often called seeding with the team or athlete in second place referred to as second seed.

That’s all I have time for today. Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope all of you stay fit and healthy and safe.
Bye for now and enjoy your football.