You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast. Love football, learn English.
Does the Czech team stand any chance against Portugal tonight?
What will be the likely tactic from the Czechs?
Which Sparta Prague and Liverpool FC players have impressed at the Euros so far?
And what are collective nouns and how do we use them in English?
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Denek Lukas, I'm an English teacher and a football fan.
And you might be wondering what on earth is the Footglitch Podcast?
Well, it is a podcast about football that can help you get better at English.
And today I'm going to be talking about the Czech team because we're playing against Portugal, our first game.
And I'm joined by a countryman from the Czech Republic, Mikolaj Tucek. Hi Mikolaj.
Cheers, welcome everybody.
How are you doing?
Great, great. Not a big expectation ahead of today's game, so we will see.
Alright, well, you are a well-known personality for different reasons.
You are a computer games expert, a TV personality, an influencer, but also, and that's the main thing for us here, a football fanatic.
Football fanatic, yes, certainly. I realized during my career, which mostly covered computer games,
that I really followed football and I kicked off some projects during the years.
Most important was like Premiership.cz, which was like 2007-2008.
And after many years I realized that I want to start some small projects, so I kicked off football fanatics.
At the beginning mostly like Facebook blog kind of focus on transfer rumors.
And it was a TV show for one year, so I'm really glad and I'm enjoying it. It's kind of a passion project for me.
No, I am subscribed to it. It is in Czech, we should say, because this podcast is in English. It's a YouTube channel, right?
It's a YouTube channel as well, with very low Zip production, but just me talking for an hour about the stuff and no editing, no videos, mixing.
So it is what it is.
Well, sometimes these are the best, because they are the most authentic ones.
It's currently authentic.
That's what we like here on the Footglitch podcast.
But we can see you are a Liverpool fan. Also from that channel, I know you are a Sparta Prague fan.
Of course.
But today you are also a Czech fan. Should I say Czechia fan?
Well, I kind of struggle with Czechia still, so I don't care if you say Czech Republic.
I'm still used to it, but I'm a fan of both teams, yes, Czechia and Czech Republic.
We should explain it's just one team, but we have two different names of the same country, which no one understands why it even happened.
Certainly, yes.
Right, so what are you expecting tonight then? The first game against Portugal, one of the favourites of the tournament.
A tough game to start, right?
Not much. Of course, I'm looking forward to our start for Euros, but I think Portugal is one of the main favourites.
Probably they will get some medals, and when you compare those squads, it's going to be really tough.
So I don't expect much. Usually when I don't expect much, I might be surprised, but I don't think I'll be surprised today.
OK, so if you were to bet, because I know you are also a betting man, so if you were to bet on anything in this game, what would it be then?
It probably would be that Portugal will win for more than one goal. That's what I expect.
Because the friendly games before the tournament wasn't great. We picked kind of... I don't want to offend anybody, but it wasn't eight teams we played, and we struggled with them.
We had some very weird injuries, which the main coach tried to cover. It was on the bike, it wasn't on the bike.
So it kind of reminds me of the good old football in the Czech Republic, which is not really a great position.
But there are still some great guys, and they're not in great shape, I guess. Like Schick, Sofas, Socek, Locek. They didn't have a great season.
So we will see, but sometimes it's a tournament. I expect us to lose today, but there are games with Turkey and Georgia, which hopefully will get us through the group.
Well, as you said, there have been some tough things happening around the team. Some weird injuries, an injury on a bicycle or was it a tricycle? Someone trying to go downhill in the mountains.
A bit weird. You would do something like that, an adrenaline sport as a professional footballer preparing yourself for the Euro.
Exactly. It's a bit strange. Also, we need to mention that we have had a manager change, which was quite significant and really surprising for foreign media.
Basically, we had a manager who got us to the Euros, right? We qualified, and that manager decided to resign on the last day at a press conference.
So now we have a new manager, and he has won all four friendly matches so far, but as you said, he hasn't really covered himself in much glory with those performances.
Could that be a good thing? Could that be a good thing that maybe he's hiding his tactics?
He's a very clever, very wise guy. I don't want to show the world how strong we are. Hopefully, I don't expect that, but on the other side, Jaroslaw Šilhavi, who is the former manager of the national team,
he had some issues with mostly behavior. There is a famous party in Olomouc, which three guys during the qualifications group went to pop with all the social media coverage these days.
It was a club, wasn't it? It was a club.
Belmondo is very famous from that day.
It's more famous now after that.
Certainly, certainly.
It's such a great marketing event.
Let's invite some three drunken Czech national team guys to hop up and we will be famous.
I understood that he resigned and I understood that they picked Ivan Hasek, which I heard on some podcasts like Totalit Football Show that Ivan Hasek, so it's called Ivan Hasek.
He's a great person from my point of view, but from his career-wise, it's not top-class 10-20 years. Again, that's the reason I don't have big expectations.
He's certainly a strict guy, which I think was necessary.
I kind of like his down-to-earth approach, especially when he admitted that they had made a mistake when they tried to cover the injury. I like that.
Also, it seems to be that he's quite positive as well when it comes to presenting himself in the media and in press conferences. He speaks in a positive way.
I think this is the right approach, rather than, for example, in the Belgium team, where Kevin de Bruyne says, almost as if they don't stand any chance, some sort of negativity before the game against Slovakia.
And then, no surprise, they lost that game.
That's for the second time. He had the same quote before the World Cup in Qatar, so I don't really get it.
If that was like, okay, ease the pressure, we are not the favorites of the tournament, then it certainly didn't work, as we can see.
Yeah. Okay, then. Well, tonight, you think we will probably lose.
What would be your tactics if you were in the position of Ivan Hasek? Is it more important not to concede many goals, to stand a good chance later in the later part of this group stage, or should we just go for it?
I think the wise approach is to not concede as many as we probably will, because, you know, as a group, there's a high chance that Portugal beat everyone in this group.
So that might, with some draws, that might help. But I think Ivan Hasek is kind of, I don't understand why he doesn't really use data, because I read some interviews, especially like those days, he might change.
It was like, oh, data, I'm the football man, you know, I can see it. But in 2024, data is like, I think it's crucial part. I don't want to say the most important, but it's crucial.
It can help you a lot, you know, understand your weakness, strength, understand weakness and strength of the opponent. So I really hope that their assistants, which are much younger, and I guess, much more modern, with modern approach, then they will take care of it.
So we will see anyway, Portugal is like, you know, you can name, you can name 11, the starting 11 from your head, and it's not usual, because they are superstars.
Absolutely. Now, I should ask you about Ronaldo as well. Obviously, he is the biggest name here. And is it actually an advantage for us that he's in the team and he will probably start? Could that be an advantage? Because I heard some pundits say it in that kind of way, which is strange.
Yeah, in modern day, like, you have to press, you have to press high. He's not really famous for that. It's not his specialty. So it might help us on the other side, he might score three times and kind of, you know, confirm that he's one of the best players ever.
Okay, so do so you expect some kind of park the bus style? Or will we be more active? What do you think we will just sit back and I think we will sit back and we will see. There's like Bruno Fernandes, which is really good to be, you know, the final final passes. So and the team is full of, you know, stars, Bernardo Silva, my god, what a player is it?
Yeah, okay, so we'll probably be defending in like 1011 players. That's not going to be much fun. But if it brings the results, then I'm up for it personally. And we have seen David Moyes at West Ham. We've got two players who play for West Ham so check and so far, so they are very pretty much used to that kind of style. So perhaps that's what's going to happen there. But we could also all be surprised.
And another thing could happen is that we get underestimated by our opponent.
I don't think that with the with the first game, you know, they are looking forward for both season almost everybody that they will underestimate us. We surprise that will be the biggest surprise of the surprise is possible.
Speaking of surprises, what do you make of yesterday's results of the Slovak team against Belgium.
I thought just I thought so just first half so I can see that Belgium is kind of accepted docu which is like super fast and super skilled as great ribbing. But they are kind of bit slower than than they probably should be. And it wasn't big surprise.
Like I didn't expect much from Belgium, I must say. They are they are like you know, the first team should be be promoted from this group. But we saw it in Qatar that this golden generation is a bit rusty these days. So it's probably we will see but it might be their end.
Fair enough. That's definitely got off to a terrible start, especially because Slovakia, especially after what had happened in the previous match, you know, Romania, Romania beating Ukraine, it's gonna be quite tough now for for Belgium to even get out of this group.
They still have Romania and Ukraine. They Ukraine I was of course I'm like big fan from obvious reasons. But they didn't look like they are ready for it. So we will see the depression must be like unbelievable, you know.
At least they can bring some football results, you know, home, and it probably won't happen.
And as a Sparta Prague fan, how did the goal that Stanchu scored make you feel I wonder because Stanchu used to play for Sparta, he didn't win any titles there at all. Then he moved to Slavia.
He did much better there. Now he's in Saudi Arabia, but I think he's a Romanian captain and he scored a wonder goal. It was an absolute screamer.
So how did that make you feel? I wonder. Well, I don't have a hard feelings. Of course, when he left Sparta Prague, it was kind of a traitor.
Judas. I don't have hard feelings. He's a traitor Judas.
That was like the you know, the whole atmosphere. I got it. I got it. And he's a brilliant player and slightly sad that he's playing in Saudi Arabia. I don't follow that leak. I understand that the money are probably different from the rest of the world.
But I would love to see him in some, you know, top five, top five leagues and he's still gorgeous. Yeah, we saw it. We saw it in Prague. We saw it in Slavia slightly more.
He's a very talented player indeed. And any other players that play for Sparta Prague at the tournament or indeed Liverpool FC, the two teams you support any other players that have impressed you so far in the Euros?
Well, of course, Harasin has a great game yesterday for Slovakia.
And I saw Virgil, Virgil, of course, he didn't seem like in great shape. I think that the first goal was slightly his mistake.
But I had a feeling from the other end that they are always able to switch to another gear and kind of push more and play more aggressive and better. So it wasn't great game.
But I expect I expect them and certainly they will go to quarterfinals kind of.
And also the best player of the Czech League, Vilko Birmancevic, I didn't think he played really well in that cameo he had like 20 minute cameo. What do you think of that?
I didn't I didn't see that see this game. So I so I don't know. That's great. Serbia for me is kind of you know, there is a bigger group of possible dark horses. Serbia certainly was certainly one of them before the tournament and they kind of confirm it.
Absolutely. Well, Mikolaj, tell us again where we can find you. If there are any listeners that can speak Czech, where can they find you?
I have a football fanatics YouTube channel published weekly. It's really it's really passion side project. It's not my main business.
But usually I'm trying to do my best to at least every morning or midday or afternoon to bring some rumors on on our Facebook page, which is kind of you know, just kind of boomer stuff, you know, Facebook.
I like the writings about it and the other the other social medias are not suitable for it. Instagram, especially TikTok, because I'm not on TikTok for also obvious reasons.
And I'm with you on that.
So so Facebook, Facebook and YouTube football fanatics sees that probably because there are many football fanatics, but I hope you'll find the proper one.
Football fanatics as in there is an apostrophe as well, because it belongs to you.
It's your sort of channel because football fanatics, it could be the plural of the word fanatic or it could be with the apostrophe.
So that's the one you have. It's kind of that's that's that's a good good good that you mention it.
That was my reason. Like it's mine. But as we are football fanatics, we can we can work on it together.
Mostly I'm working on it by myself, but I love it.
Yeah, no, it's fun. It's fun. I'm a fan.
OK, thank you very much, Mikolaj, for featuring on today's episode of the Footgrish podcast.
And let's go Czechs. Let's go. Come on. Come on.
Cheers. Bye.
All right, guys, welcome back.
And in this part of the show, I'm going to teach you something because I'm an English teacher, you see.
So I might as well do my job here.
Mikolaj said there's a high chance that Portugal beat everyone in this group.
And I really like the way he uses the verb beat here.
Now, you might think, why is it not beats? Portugal is a singular noun, isn't it?
Yes, it is. It is the name of a country. So it is a singular noun.
Also, we call it a proper noun.
But when you are referring to a team, the Portuguese team, which certainly Mikolaj was talking about,
then we can really use the verb in this form as if it was plural.
And that's because team is a collective noun.
A collective noun is a noun which refers to a group of people.
So in English, we can either use a singular verb after a collective noun or a plural verb.
Now, the difference is that if you, for example, say that this team is playing well,
you are basically focusing on the team as a unit.
You mean the club, right?
But you don't care about the individual so much.
Maybe a better example would be this team has established itself on the map of the world football.
I don't know, maybe Georgia.
Now, if you are referring to the players, if you want to emphasize and stress the individual members of that team,
then you can really or you should certainly use the verb in the plural form.
So, for example, you would say something like the Czech team are not playing really well tonight
or the Portuguese team are excellent tonight.
And this is very common in football commentaries in the UK.
So you may hear things like Arsenal are under the kosh today or Liverpool play excellent football these days.
Or I don't know, something like that.
So hopefully this is clear.
I can give you some more examples of collective nouns.
These are words like family, police, board.
What else is there? Government.
Yeah, so it's either followed by a verb in a singular form or a verb in a plural form,
depending on what you want to emphasize.
OK, so thank you very much, guys.
That's it. That's it.
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So thank you very much for listening.
And let's go Czechs again.
We need to win it or draw or lose by not so many goals, I guess.
Bye bye, guys. Cheers.