You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast. Love football, learn English.
How do Polish fans feel about having such tough opponents in their group?
Will the Polish team miss the injured players Lewandowski and Milik?
Who else will my guests cheer for in the tournament?
What are some basic expressions related to injury and fitness?
Hi, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast. My name is Zdenek Lukas. I am an English teacher
and this is my new podcast which can help you improve not only your football English. Welcome
to the show. And as always these days we are talking about the Euros 2024 on this podcast
and we haven't spoken about Poland yet so I thought I might as well fix that and I couldn't
think of a better person to talk to me about the Polish team than my friend Tomasz, a doctor and
also a polyglot. Hi Tomasz, welcome to the podcast. Hi Zdenek, thanks for the great introduction.
I'm not sure if I'm already a polyglot but I surely am a doctor and I love foreign languages
so thank you for your invitation. It's great to be here. You're very welcome. So Tomasz,
just to explain this, so you are Polish from Poland but you're living in Germany.
Oh yes, to feel the whole atmosphere of the Euro 2024. I'm here and we'll see
how far will Germany get and what would we with the whole atmosphere of football in Germany.
We'll see. But we are not going to be talking about Germany. I think we can say a few things.
You are here to talk about your team, Polska as we say, right? Polska. Of course, Polska is my team,
that's the team I'm supporting since I was a little kid. So yes, today we will talk about Poland.
Ah that's great. So we are neighboring countries as well. I'm from the Czech Republic as my
listeners know. You are from Poland so I think it's reasonable to cover the Polish team well.
But your team hasn't really been pulling out any trees at the Euros. I think,
how many tournaments have you been on so far? That's our fifth time and the greatest success was
2016. Then we came to the quarterfinal and we lost against Portugal. Then we became the European
champion. So we'll see. Yeah, it happened the same thing. It was actually hosted by Portugal,
that Euros, I remember that. And our team, the Czech team, got knocked out by Portugal in the
quarterfinals, I believe. It was the previous tournament. I think it was in France. Are you sure?
16 was in France because Portugal have beaten France in the final. That was this great
disappointment of the French team. If I am not mistaken. Well, we can always check it if you
want me to do that. 2014 Euros. 2016, yeah. 2016, sorry. Yeah, it was in France. You were right, of
course. Thank you for correcting me. It's only because it was this great experience for Opel
because we got to the quarterfinals. We got eliminated in the penalty kicks. What's very
unfortunate every time. So, well, it was a great year for us. It's always disappointing. But you
are quite a football nation, in my opinion. Football, I believe, is sport number one in your
country. And you have a lot of passionate football fans and teams that have a lot of supporters. So,
it is a little bit underwhelming to see that your team doesn't usually get very far.
And to make things even worse, you have been drawn into a group of death. Tell me about that, Tomas.
Why did that happen to you? Well, that's the group D. It's D like group of death. That's for sure.
We have to play against France and against the Netherlands. And the fourth team is Austria.
It's like the phenomenon of the last years. They have, like, I don't know, they have beaten
everybody in last years, including Germany, Turkey in great style, what you've already spoken about.
So, it happened. Well, we made it happen a little bit because we got to the Euro 2024 through the
backyard door. And I mean really backyard door. So, it was the last chance in the last playoffs
that was constructed out of Nations League. So, we are all very happy to be there. And now we have
to do our best to somehow go out of this group. To progress, obviously. So, well, the Netherlands,
that's your first game as well against the Netherlands. That's your opening game. It's on
Sunday, I believe, right? Yes, it's on Sunday. And the great situation we have this time, I think,
is that we have this great group. So, nobody is really in Polish media. Nobody is saying they have
to go further. There is no real pressure. There is this great tension. We are all about football
already in Poland, but there is no real pressure. And that's a very positive thing for the team
that this time is a younger team than before. We have some young players, some new players.
So, we hope that it will go well. Yeah, I think it's always like that, right? The pressure is off,
especially if you are drawn into such a difficult group, then the media are more realistic about it.
And that could be an advantage. It always suited the Czech team. So, let's hope it's the same for
your team. But to make things even worse, some of your star players got injured
right before the tournament. Can you tell us more about that? Unfortunately, we don't have
Arkadiusz Milik anymore because he got injured in the first test game before the Euro. And then in
the second test game, our star player, the best Polish player of all times, Robert Lewandowski,
got injured a little bit. So, our manager says he will not be able to play in two days on Sunday
against the Netherlands and will surely need him afterwards playing against Austria and France.
So, once again, let's hope that the fact that you will not be playing could be this additional
motivation for our young players to show their skills and also to show the world that the Polish
national team can work and can play without Robert Lewandowski because we have to face it.
In a few years, there is no Robert Lewandowski in our team. So, we have to find this new generation.
Yeah, I don't want to sound disrespectful, but sometimes perhaps Poland, the Polish team was
sort of referred to as a team of one player because of how good Lewandowski is, you know,
and how good he has been. And it happens to other teams as well. Maybe someone might say Portugal,
have been the team of Ronaldo. I don't think it's true. Not at all, not anymore. But it's possible
that at some point that was the case. And maybe now again, the same thing, the pressure is a little
bit off and these young players will not necessarily have to look up to their greatest hero.
And instead, they will show what they've got and your team will benefit from it. So,
your team will benefit from it. Yeah, I think so. And they will also show to Robert Lewandowski
how good they are because Robert Lewandowski is not only a great player, he's a great person. So,
he will support them from the bench. I'm pretty sure he'll do everything in the first game. He
will be probably our second manager in this game because he can't wait to play on Euro this time.
And he'll have to wait. The first game that he will not be able to play. So, we'll see. We have
some very strong names already. We have some old staggers like Szczęsny, our goalkeeper. We have
Zieliński, a midfielder. We have Piątek, the striker. But we have this young new generation.
There are some names that are very interesting. There is Jakub Moder of Brighton from England.
Jakub Kivior from your favorite team. A great defender. And there was always a little bit
complaining about how we lack creativity in our midfield. And now the situation is completely
different. We have Kacper Urbański, a very young player who came to the team at only 19 years of
age. We have Sebastian Szymański from Fenerbahce, Istanbul, who had a great season there. We have
Nikola Zalewski from AS Roma. We have Jakub Moder. He is coming back after injury. The one
who I spoke about from Brighton. So, there are many midfielders who could really change something
now. And this creativity, we saw it already in those two test games against Ukraine and against
Turkey, which we won, surprisingly, both of them. And it was a dynamic we haven't seen in last
month, if not even years. So, the hopes of the fans are great, but there is not even a bit of
pressure. So, we only want them to play beautiful football, to play their best against those great
teams we have in the group and we'll see. Well, the good news is that even three teams can progress
from your group. Most of the groups will be like that. So, out of the six groups, four of those groups
will have the third teams progressing into the last 16 knockout stage. So, I think there is a chance,
there is definitely a chance, especially because you could also be underestimated by your opponents,
which always happens in football, right? Always does. So, I think you are in a very interesting
position and I will be eagerly watching your games and obviously I might even send you a message to
see how you react to it. Oh, of course. Oh, it will happen. It will happen, I'm sure. Thinking
about the case with getting to be the third or to become the lucky third in the group, I think you
will need four points. I was thinking about it a lot. So, we have to win against Austria and get an
extra point against Netherlands or France. So, it won't be easy, but it's possible. I think it's
possible. We just have to fight in every game like it would be a final and we have to try it.
Exactly. I want to ask you again about Lewandowski. So, he is still in the team, so he's only out for
that first game and you being a doctor, what happened to him? Tell us what his injury is
and how long it takes to recover from that. Of course, there are many secrets. If you have some
star player that's injured, so they do not tell you everything, but everybody says, and that's what
the officials said, that it's the injury of a tie, of the biceps of a tie and it's probably known
to every person who did some running in his life or played football. So, it could be everything.
It could be from a very light injury and for the second game he's totally fit and we will not have
any problem with it, to some severe states of the muscle. So, I think all sport doctors that are
active in media have already commented it in the last four or five days and you have all kinds of
opinions. So, now it's the tie of the nation. It's not only the tie of Lewandowski.
Hopefully, he will shake it off soon and you will be able to enjoy this great player who is also
getting on. Is it possibly his last tournament in your opinion or will there be one more after that?
Well, it's very difficult to speak about it now because now he's injured and the greatest
advantage of having Lewandowski in your team was always he was never injured. So, we thought it
would have never happened and then it happened. But still, I think his body is some kind of,
I don't know, he uses some magical tricks. Nobody knows what he does, but he has a chance, I think,
to play two or even four more years just like Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo does and maybe you
will see him again at the World Cup. If you look at him, on his constitution and how he plays,
well, I don't see an old player who wants to end his career. You see this great dynamics of a very
experienced striker who can help on every position on the pitch. So, we'll see.
Well, you will not be putting him in the goal, I think, but I understand what you mean and
I think it's also about who plays with him, right? So, if you have players who can run, then it will
be easier for him as long as there is not so much load, like running load and pressing load. You can
see the same is happening with players like Ronaldo and others too who are a little bit older. Right,
Tomas, so you live in Germany, so you're not supporting Germany though, are you? Not at all.
Well, I think it's the trouble that Poland and the Netherlands have this kind of football trauma
against Germany. So, we do not support them directly, but of course, you know, if you are
a real football fan, you can see the quality and you respect your opponent. So,
we'll see. You've already had a great discussion about the German team. We'll see.
At the moment, I would say there is an analog situation between Poland and Germany. Those are
both themes that you cannot estimate even a little bit because they didn't play with those players
in many games till now. So, we have to wait what they'll show and that's also the trouble
with the Polish team. We had a new coach, he is not very long with the team. So, we'll see.
The first game we'll show it and today here in Germany, the tension is great at the moment
because it starts today. So, we are speaking on Friday, 14th of June. So, today at the evening,
everything will start and we'll see. The whole Poland waits for Sunday to see what these boys
can do against those great teams. We have this very tragic, very bad tradition
we have in Poland because it's already a part of Polish language. We have this joke that everybody
is telling when some kind of football tournament starts. It says that Poland plays three games,
the opening game, all or nothing game and the consolation game and we do not want it to repeat.
Well, fingers crossed. Well, apart from your team, which other teams
do you cheer for? Well, I'm overwhelmed with the fact that there are so many
Slavic teams in the tournament and I will surely support Czech Republic because I love your team.
I've been twice to a game in the stadium of Czech Republic national football team.
Really? That's great. Yes, it was great. It was a game against Portugal on Euro 2012.
It took place in this great stadium. I have behind my back and now you've lost only
one goal to Portugal. It was a great team with Ronaldo scoring a goal and the second time I was in Turin.
I was with my wife. We went to a game in Italy, Czech Republic. So I love Czech fans.
You know I'm learning Czech language. So that's the team I will support surely.
Slovakia also because I would say the reasons are the same and Ukraine of course.
Because 2012 it was the championship of two nations and you were together.
Yes, we were organizing it and now with the whole situation we have in the world it's just terrible.
I think every pole will also support Ukraine just to show that they're there.
I'm doing exactly the same. I told you in the first episode of this podcast that I definitely will support Ukraine.
Maybe there will be more energy in the air because we will support each other in this way.
Of course. I keep my fingers crossed also for the Czech Republic.
I'm very curious what will you play? What will we play also of the Czech Republic?
Poland is very easy. We're a counter-strike team.
So we're waiting on our chance and that's what we do since like 70s.
So that's what we can do. Stick to it then. Stick to it. Stick to your guns.
That's what we have to do. Yeah. Do what you're good at. It makes sense.
All right Tomas, it's been a real pleasure to talk to you and thank you very much
for featuring on this episode of the Footgrish podcast.
I hope to have you back soon to talk about some Polish national team success.
Great. All right. Take care. Thank you very much. Bye. To all the fans have fun.
Okay guys in this part of the show I would like to teach you some language as usual
and this time I want to talk about injuries. So if a player isn't okay we say that player is injured.
Usually an injured player cannot play right in the game and they have to recover from that injury first.
Now the moment it happens in a match we just we say that player gets injured.
Yeah that player got injured. If you really want to know who is responsible for that injury you could say that that player got injured by someone.
Right. Okay now if you are okay we can say you are fit. That means you are in a good physical condition.
We can also say that you are in good shape but then there is another expression and that is to be match fit.
If you are match fit that's slightly different from just being fit. It's sort of even better than just being fit because you could be fit but not match fit.
Match fit means that you are used to playing matches regularly. You're used to playing 90 minutes each week.
If you're match fit it means you are in the rhythm. You are in the rhythm. Your body is used to that physical load of playing football matches.
So to be match fit it's really important for players. Of course it's also important to be fit. That's for sure.
Now I'm not going to talk about injuries. I mean there are so many different types of injuries but I'm just going through some basic vocabulary here.
So obviously a collocation is you could be seriously injured. If you're seriously injured then something really bad happens to you.
For example you tear your ACL, your anterior cruciate ligament, or you break your leg or something.
So those are obviously more serious injuries. Concussion can be a serious injury as well.
Then we can talk about a minor injury, a moderate injury and severe injury.
So minor injury is nothing too serious. A moderate injury and then finally a severe injury.
That's a really bad one. That's similar to serious.
All right and then I've got a question to end the show with. Tell me about the worst injury you have suffered in sports.
Let me know in the comments if you are watching this on the YouTube channel, on the TeachersDenic YouTube channel.
If not you can just send me an email or just answer that question for yourself.
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