You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast. Love football, learn English.
How important is the win over Poland for the Dutch team?
What are the strengths of the Dutch player Weghorst?
Is the Czech Republic a bogey team for the Netherlands?
And how do we use past perfect in English?
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Footglitch Podcast.
A podcast which can help you kill two birds with one stone.
You can pursue your passion for football and learn English at the same time.
And today I'm going to talk about the Dutch team, the Netherlands, at Euro 2024.
And for that I'm joined with Leontes from English with Mr. Henriquez.
Hi Leontes. Hello everyone.
Welcome to the show. So how are you enjoying the Euro so far?
I enjoy watching football in general, especially these end tournaments are always very nice.
I've watched several, quite some matches already.
France is playing tonight, so that's an interesting one.
It's going to be interesting.
And I saw England yesterday, so that was very nice. Yeah.
But of course I have to ask you about your team.
The Netherlands, you played yesterday against Poland.
And you managed to beat the Poles 2-1.
Although you were one nail down. So were you in any doubt?
Well, we played quite well at the beginning of the game.
We started off well, we did lots of pressure.
There were lots of opportunities even in the first 10 minutes or so, I think.
But I think Poland made this kind of counter goal, you know, where they saw an opportunity as well and then they scored.
And then it's getting the morale back up.
That's really part of the team spirit, which I think they did okayish.
They did well.
And it was interesting to see that Wout Weghorst, whom we know from Man United,
came on and scored the final goal, which was the same thing he did during the 2022 World Cup in Dubai.
Qatar. Yeah, Qatar. Yeah, you're right.
I remember that it was against Argentina.
I believe he scored two goals and one of them was in like one hundredth minute or something like that.
And it was in the quarterfinal of the tournament.
That was such an important goal. I think you then lost on penalties.
But Weghorst seems to be a really important player for you, even though he is not a starter.
So is it fair to say that he is a super sub for you?
Yeah, I think so. I think they know his strength and that they use him in a good way when he's necessary.
He's not one of those technically gifted players that your country has been producing over the years, right?
He's not one of those. He's a... How would you describe him?
What are his strengths as a player?
I think his physique is, of course, very large, very big.
He's very tall, like usual Dutch people, not like that's who we usually are.
And I think he can see the opportunities where others are starting off to get tired at the end of the game.
So that was a good thing.
But I don't think we really have those technical players anymore like Arjen Robben, like Ruud van Nistelrooy.
We have Frankie de Jong, but now he's injured, so he's not at the Euros.
Depay is OK, but I think he has... he struggles with his ego a bit too much.
So I don't think that's a very good thing.
Akke, of course.
Akke from Manchester City, but you also have Gakpo, right?
Gakpo, yeah.
But he seemed to be very wasteful in that game. He missed a lot of chances.
Yeah, yeah.
So we don't really have the dream team of 2010, 2014 anymore.
Could that be a good thing, ironically, because sometimes when you have too many egos in one team and the expectations are really high as well,
the pressure from the media and all that from the fans, could it ironically be easier for you to succeed at this tournament?
Yeah, I think so. Maybe they don't have the pressure that we usually put on them, I think.
But I do think that the 2010-2014 team worked very smoothly.
They understood each other, they know where they had to be, and the coach wasn't really necessary, I think.
In 2010, they had Bert van Marwijk, in 2014 they had Louis van Gaal, and now Ronald Koeman.
When I noticed how they were playing yesterday, that they struggled scoring, I wondered whether Koeman really had them where he wanted them to be.
Well, you managed the game pretty well, your coach, Ronald Koeman. He's an ex-player as well, isn't he?
Yeah.
But there is something I need to ask you about. I think you know what I'm going to ask you about.
Basically, he was caught on camera doing something quite disgusting, which reminded everyone of what Joachim Löw had done.
I don't know if you've seen it.
No, I haven't.
If you haven't, I will just tell you and all the listeners here.
Basically, he was caught on camera picking his nose and then eating it.
I don't think it was an AI thing. I think it happened for real because it's in the media. You have to check it out.
It's quite funny, but disgusting at the same time.
Yeah.
Oh no, I haven't seen that. No. I'll definitely Google it right after this.
I don't understand why in this day and age, when we have cameras everywhere and social media and all that, why you would do something like that?
If you do it in your home, when nobody is looking, then sure, do whatever you want. Who is stopping you?
But at the Euros, when you are the most important person of the whole team, I'm not sure.
Yeah, and the camera is always on you.
Yeah, exactly.
Wow. We had friends over and family to celebrate a birthday yesterday and we were watching the game.
I probably miss it at the moment when I had to get drinks for everyone.
I didn't notice it as well in real time, but the media were full of it after the game.
Oh wow. Yeah.
All right. Well, this is quite a tough group that you have as well because your opponents are France, which everybody thinks will win the group.
And then Austria. In the past, they used to be the underdogs, but now I think they are actually pretty, pretty good.
They beat Turkey in a friendly match 6-1 or something. They are flying in the recent years.
They have been flying. So I think this win is really important for you. Would you agree?
Yeah, I think it sets the tone for the rest of the tournament. It would have been something if it would have lost against Poland.
I think that would have changed the entire mood in the country. The level of support Dutch people are willing to give.
Germany is our neighboring country, so it's very easy for Dutch people to simply cross the border and go watch a few matches.
So I think it's important that they won. I don't know what will happen against France.
We have a track record of losing against France, but we also have a record of beating France in spectacular matches.
So who knows what might happen. Austria is now still with Rovranić. I don't remember.
I think so, yeah. I can check.
So that's going to be interesting.
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
So I don't know what is going to happen. I wouldn't put us as the favorites or anything, no.
Okay. But now after this win, you have a very good chance of making it to the last 16, of course.
And then anything can happen there. You just have to hope that you don't end up playing against the Czech Republic.
I think we are your boogie team, aren't we? Boogie team.
How would you say so?
I don't know. I wonder, would you like to play against us? Would it be an opportunity for a revenge?
Or is it better for you to avoid us?
I don't know. I would say that Spain is more like our boogie team because we have, of course, this final thing and then everything that happened afterwards.
So I would say Spain and Turkey is as well one of those teams that we play.
You know, they're also one of our boogie teams. I don't know about the Czech Republic, actually. I don't recall anything.
We beat you at the last Euros and then there's the famous one in 2004 that all Czechs, remember, because it was like our best match in decades.
Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
We beat you 3-2. But we also knocked you out in the last Euros, right? 2-0.
But I think that was one of our worst Euros ever.
It doesn't count.
No, no, no, I wouldn't say it counts. No.
It certainly counted for us.
Yeah. Yeah.
Who knows? You know, it might be the ultimate rematch this time.
Or we get knocked out. We don't even make it out of the group.
You know, we lose to Georgia. You never know. Anything could happen.
It's football, right? That's why we all love it because it's unpredictable.
Okay. I also want to ask you about one player called Frimpong, who didn't seem to play or was he subbed on at least?
Which player?
Frimpong. Frimpong. Because he's quite a good player and playing for Bayer Leverkusen.
He won the double in Germany now. So I was wondering why he is not starting even because he's such a great talent.
I don't know, actually. I haven't focused too much on the Dutch team, actually.
I haven't read anything interesting about it because the Euros started kind of sort of randomly.
So I am not good. I'm not well prepared. I don't know all the details.
That's okay. We forgive you. But second, next time you come on, we want to ask you the same question.
I'm joking, of course. But personally, what would be the objective for you, for the Dutch team this time?
Where would you like to go? How far would you like to go?
I think it would be nice if it were to reach the finals or at least the semi-finals.
I think it's very important for the Dutch team to show that they...
First of all, Ronald Koeman has his team together, right? That he has a team.
I think it's important to show that we're still a very good footballing nation. I think that's very important.
That's something that we sort of let go of after, I think, 2020-ish.
Yeah. So very modest goals to reach the final.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we missed a European championship, right?
We missed the previous one. So it will be good to show that we're still there and that we're still a very good footballing nation.
Absolutely. Well, fingers crossed. I think your group is tough.
But now I think you are in a good position after securing three points against Poland.
It's Poland that are under pressure now a lot. We'll see what happens in the other game. Austria versus France.
And yeah, we'll take it from there. Yeah, we'll see what happens.
Exactly. Well, thank you very much, Leon Tes, for coming on today and telling us about the Dutch team.
You're very welcome. Yeah, we'll see what happens next.
How do we say good luck in Dutch?
Viel succes. Feel succes. Yeah, feel succes.
That sounds very German slash English to me. Yeah, succes. Yeah, feel. Yeah.
Feel is like feel a feel a dunk. Yeah, it sounds German. OK, then.
Well, thank you again. And cheers. Take care. Bye.
In this part of the show, I'm going to do my job, that is to teach English.
And I would like to take a look at some grammar, specifically the tense, the English tense past perfect.
Here is the sentence that I used in this episode.
He was caught on camera doing something disgusting, which reminded everyone of what Joachim Love had done.
So basically, the main action here is that he was caught on camera.
The Dutch manager, Koeman, was seen picking his nose and then eating it.
And then I wanted to point out to something that had happened in the past.
Joachim Love is an ex-German manager.
Years ago, he used to sniff certain parts of his body and also picked his nose.
And he did disgusting stuff. It's all well documented.
You can find it on YouTube. Just Google Joachim Love.
And basically, if you want to go back in time in English, right?
If you want to say something that happened before the main action, then you need to use the past perfect tense.
Now, it doesn't happen when you are only sort of giving one action after another, right?
If it's a chronological sequence, right?
I woke up in the morning, I took a shower, I brushed my teeth, I had breakfast.
This is a chronological sequence.
In this case, we don't need past perfect tense.
But if I talk about what Koeman did in the match yesterday,
and then I want to point out to something in the past, well, then I have to use past perfect.
And past perfect is made by using head plus the ed ending, the past participle, the third form of the verb.
With the regular verbs is the ed ending, with irregular verbs, it's the third form of the verb.
Here it's done, do, did, done, right?
So, yeah, I can give you another example, but I would like you to think about this.
Imagine a team is dominating in a game.
I know they are, let's say, 4-0 down, and the fans decide to leave the stadium.
And then your manager, there's nothing to lose, you can just sort of test some players.
Your manager decides to bring some players on, to substitute someone and introduce a new player, right?
So we have a context here.
The team is losing, the game is over, but a player is being subbed on.
Now, imagine this.
You are that player, and you're speaking from your point of view.
Okay, when I came on the pitch, right?
You are that player that is being substituted.
When I came on the pitch, the fans had left.
Now, imagine I say this.
When I came on the pitch, the fans left.
Or, when I came on the pitch, the fans were leaving.
So we have three different English tenses, and each of them has a slightly different meaning, right?
Now, when I came on the pitch, the fans had left.
It means by the time I entered the pitch, the fans had already gone.
It means there were no fans in the stadium when I entered the pitch, because it was 4-0, so no need to stay there, right?
The fans gave up on their team.
Now, when I entered the pitch, the fans left.
It means that I am kind of the reason the fans left, because they left as a reaction to me entering the pitch.
Okay, which is weird, but I guess it can happen.
The fans, their team is losing 4-0, and then the decision of the manager to bring me on.
I mean, what could be possibly crazier than to bring me on as a substitute?
And then the third option was, when I entered the pitch, the fans were leaving, which only means that I came on the pitch as the fans were leaving.
The fans were in the process of leaving.
The fans were in the middle of leaving the stadium, let's say.
Okay, I hope it's clear, guys.
Hopefully you understand it.
Do you have any more examples?
Leave the comments down below, why not?
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Bye for now.