You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast. Love football, learn English.
On today's episode of the Footglitch Podcast, I talk to a German fan, Martin Schmitz.
What are fan and media expectations for Euro 2024 in Germany?
Who will star for Germany in this tournament? Will Scotland be an obstacle in the opening game?
What are some good phrases and collocations to use when talking about expectations?
And as I said in the previous episode, Euro 2024 is here and it's hosted by Germany this time.
It's in Germany and that is why I have decided to invite as the first guest of this podcast a German person.
Martin, hi Martin, how are you?
I'm fine, how are you?
I'm okay, much better now that this fantastic tournament is here. I'm really buzzing, I'm excited, all that.
How about you? Are you looking forward to it?
Yes, I'm looking forward to it. It will start tomorrow, tomorrow is Friday, the 14th of June.
Our team will play the first game in the tournament because the host country starts the tournament.
It's a tradition and you play against Scotland as well?
Scotland in Munich.
In Munich, in the city of Munich. Just to tell our listeners, you are not from Munich, you are actually from Dortmund, right?
Exactly, I'm from Dortmund and I'm also a supporter of my football team which is located in Dortmund, it's called Borussia Dortmund.
I think we all know the team because you got to the Champions League final, unfortunately you lost to Real Madrid but you played really well in that game.
But Martin, we are not going to talk about club football today because of course we are covering the Euros here and we need to talk about the German team.
So first of all Martin, you didn't have to qualify as the host nation, there was no qualification group for you which means it was easier.
But do you feel like you are ready, your team is ready to show what you've got?
I hope so, I hope so.
Some of the friendly matches before weren't good but I think it's important to show your performance when it's really important on the match days from the championship.
I'm keen and I'm looking forward to what happens.
The truth will lie on the pitch of course, we will see what happens.
I think there are 24 teams and anything could happen, that's why we love the beautiful game, football.
So obviously your national team coach is Julian Nagelsmann.
He started last year, he took over the team and got the team manager last year and we will see what happens.
I want to ask you about expectations, first of all your expectations, then your country's expectations, I want to know the media's expectations, I want to know everything Martin.
So where do we start?
My expectation, I hope we will come at least to the half final but I hope we win the European championship.
But to be honest the other teams are also in good conditions.
So did you mean quarter final or semi-final?
Semi-final would be fine.
Semi-final you think it would be considered success in Germany.
So that's your personal expectation, but what about the media and the fans?
The fans are for the European championship and the media, sometimes you see some experts speaking which teams are up for the cup.
And there are some great teams there and you hear names like France, Italy and Germany also.
But there are a lot of teams who could win it basically, so there's going to be quite fierce competition and I understand what you mean.
So expectations are high, I think there is more extra pressure on you because of the fact that you're the host nation.
And also let's be honest Martin, Germany, when you say Germany and football and Euro, you've always done well in the past.
So you have a history of being really good in the tournament.
I would say you have a nickname of a tournament team even, you are a tournament team, you do extremely well in the tournament.
So that's why in my opinion, but you have to tell me if it's true, in my opinion in Germany the expectations are always through the roof.
Yes, you're right, Germany is really a tournament team, but the last tournaments they failed and it's a long time ago when we had success.
It was in 2014, the World Championship in Brazil we won and therefore we are under pressure to deliver again.
I think it's getting harder and harder because all these European teams, I feel like the quality is kind of evening out.
The gap between the good teams and the bad teams is much smaller than what it used to be.
So we have really quality teams, Serbia, Croatia, Denmark, pretty much every single country you name are capable of beating almost anyone I feel on their day.
So that's why it's going to be hard, but let's hope for your sake that your team lives up to your expectations.
Obviously I'm supporting Czechia as you probably know, but for you on your behalf of course I wish you all the best Martin.
Thank you, thank you.
Okay, let's talk about this a little bit more then. So who is in your group? So you're in group A as the host nation, so you have Scotland, right?
Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland. We are in group A.
Do you think this is a tough group or would you say that it's not too bad?
It's not too bad I would say.
Famous last words everyone, famous last words.
What's your prediction for tomorrow then?
For tomorrow I don't bet, but for us I can say I bet 3-1 for Germany.
Okay, okay. Well we will see, we will see. I think sometimes it's a little bit harder to play the first match.
Yes, that's right. The pressure is extreme and everybody is super excited about the tournament and sometimes you have these teething problems, right?
It's always hard to start something in sort of any activity of your life. So we will see.
Well you said you support Dortmund, so do you have any Dortmund players in the team Martin? Are there any?
Yes, we have three players in the team. It's Niklas Vühlkrug, Nico Schlotterbeck and Emre Can.
Okay, and are any of these close to the starting line-up?
I think Emre Can not. He's midfielder but more in the back area of the midfield.
But he could be a substitute in some situations if he's needed.
We will see. I don't know exactly if Nico Schlotterbeck in the defender position will play from the beginning.
Okay, are you happy with the nomination and are the media generally satisfied with who Nagelsmann has brought to the tournament?
The players are chosen by the performance of the year in the league.
Therefore, if you don't have a good performance as a football player, a long performance is not one game.
You have to take a look for the whole season.
Because Leberkusen won the Bundesliga this year...
And the Cup.
Exactly. Therefore, some players from Leberkusen are in this team because they had a really good performance this year.
And... Like Andrić, right? Andrić and Wirtz.
Yes, he's called this year the top player of Germany.
He's a wonder kid. He's your German wonder kid.
He has really an excellent football brain, in my opinion. I really like it.
When he's at his best, I thought he was going down with his performances towards the end of the season.
But I think it's understandable because he's so young.
But when he's at his best, oh my God, he's unstoppable.
The kind of passes he sees, it's amazing. He's a fantastic player. So skillful.
And what about the goalkeeper situation? So I heard some things about that.
So obviously Manuel Neuer, he has been the number one goalkeeper for as long as I can remember.
For a long, long time. But now he's getting on a bit.
Now he's about 30, 80 years old, right?
So is his position still strong or not anymore?
Yeah, it started. The discussion started last, I think it was last year.
He was injured for a long time. But he came back.
And I don't know exactly because Nagelsmann was also a manager of Bayern Munich.
And he knows Manuel Neuer really good. Perhaps it's not an objective choice.
I don't know exactly. But many people say perhaps it's not the best goalkeeper to choose.
But it seems like Nagelsmann really trusts him. He will be your number one.
And as we know, he's this kind of keeper, he's like a sweeper, a sweeper keeper, right?
He can hold the ball and distribute passes. And he's really good with his feet.
He's a really good goalkeeper, I have to say. He's really good.
But in the last games before the European Championship, the friendly matches, he failed sometimes.
He made some mistakes and therefore he came into discussion, can I say?
He came under criticism, we could say.
Yeah, okay. And who do you think will star in this tournament for Germany?
Who do you think will do really well?
I would say Wirt and I think Toni Kroos also.
Toni Kroos is somebody who has finished his professional career for Real Madrid.
He played his last match and this is his last tournament.
He's hanging up his boots.
Yeah, exactly. But he's a really experienced player.
He actually retired before for the national team.
But he came back because Nagelsmann asked if he could come back and he decided to do it.
But he's a really good player.
Yeah, he's a personality as well. You need some leaders on the pitch too.
I think that's a good choice and obviously your national team will benefit from it.
Okay then, Martin, thank you very much for featuring on today's episode of the Footglitch podcast.
I hope you enjoyed your appearance and thank you for telling us about the German team.
Good luck to you. But when you meet the Czech team, I cannot say good luck to you.
I absolutely understand.
I think you would do exactly the same if you had your own podcast.
Yeah, thank you for having me on your podcast.
You're very welcome, Martin. Take care. Bye bye. Bye bye.
Welcome back everybody. In this part of the show, I would like to do my job, so to speak.
As an English teacher, I should teach you some language.
And today I thought I could talk about expectations.
For example, you can say high expectations, low expectations or zero expectations.
These are combinations of words which collocate with the word expectations.
So when you have high expectations, you expect a lot from the team.
So the German media, they really want the German team or think that the German team will do well.
They have the expectations. They have really high expectations.
On the other hand, let's say in Czechia, the expectations are lower.
Because we realize that we are not exactly one of the favorites.
And if you have been losing for a long time, then your expectations are lowered.
You have lowered expectations and then we could talk even about no expectations or zero expectations.
And then we can say that if you perform as expected, we can say that you live up to the expectations.
You can meet expectations. If you meet your expectations, again, you live up to them.
You do exactly as expected. And if you do better than that, we say you surpass expectations.
Or exceed as well. You can exceed or surpass expectations.
The opposite would be, we could say just we didn't live up to the expectations or we didn't meet the expectations.
Or there are other words like underperform or even you could say underwhelm.
To be underwhelming in the tournament or to disappoint. You can use this word as well.
And then there are three phrases like to have nothing to lose.
If you have nothing to lose, you are in a situation where basically if you lose, it's not such a big problem.
It's not such a big problem, but that means that the pressure is off and it will be easier for you to play.
So to have nothing to lose is quite a good position to be in. It's similar to the phrase a free hit.
Then there is a phrase the stakes are high.
If the stakes are high, the situation or outcome of the situation is very important.
So for the German team, the stakes are really high.
It really matters how they do in the tournament, how they perform.
It really matters because if they fail, the German manager, the German players will be under heavy criticism.
So the stakes are really high for Germany.
And then another interesting phrase is against all odds.
That's usually used when you're talking about underdogs and you don't expect these teams to win.
You don't expect them to do well in the tournament.
And if they do, if they do do well, then we can say that they succeeded against all odds.
They achieved success despite very unlikely circumstances.
They also overcame some challenges and obstacles that seemed impossible for them to overcome.
All right, guys, so I hope this language is useful for you.
I want to keep this up. It's part of the show.
And well, thank you for listening to the Footgrisch podcast.
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And yeah, thank you very much for listening again until next time.
Bye.