You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
Why did Czechia lose their game against Portugal?
Did the heavy rain play any part in it?
What should the Czech manager Ivan Hasek do differently in the next game against Georgia?
And what is the sound in the words like further, turkey and word?
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Zdeněk Lukas and you have just tuned in to the Footglitch Podcast,
a brand new English learning podcast about football, which I started recording about a week ago.
And today I'm joined by Karol Tvaroch, a former Sparta Prague player and these days a football journalist
and someone who has interviewed Pepe Guardiola and that's how he earned my respect.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hi Zdeněk, thanks for having me and thanks for such a lovely introduction.
I mean, it's getting longer and longer, you know, that's because you keep getting all these accolades
and achievements in your career, in your new career.
Yeah, well, it's been quite, quite fast, I would say, something that I haven't experienced during my football career as a player.
So I guess that these kind of moments are just a huge reward for my passion.
Yeah, no, it's lovely. And like I said, I'm an English teacher, so I really sort of, I can sense it, you know, I really am, how to put it,
I'm very sensitive to these things when I notice someone is speaking English well in the media, you know, I'm following you.
Not in a creepy way, don't worry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate that so much. I mean, for me, it was always about just loving to learn languages.
I was never someone who was like decent in maths or these kind of subjects.
I was always more interested in words and languages and just expressing ourselves in different ways.
And then obviously, when you live in the UK, then it helps you a lot.
And of course, when you're working in an environment that is full of English based materials,
then it's much easier for you to just get it in your head.
Absolutely. You pick it up as you go along, it becomes a natural process for you.
But Karel, I think we are avoiding the inevitable. I think we should talk about the Czech team today.
That's why I invited you. But I don't think I don't think we want to do it. I wonder why.
I wonder why. So let me introduce this subject then.
So yesterday, basically, the Czech Republic team was defeated by Portugal 2-1. Not unexpected, right?
Everyone thought we would lose. But in the end, it was rather disappointing.
How gutted are you with how it panned out, Karel?
A lot. It was painful at the end, which I think we both and most of us, most of Czech fans who kind of see the reality,
we didn't even expect to be fighting for points, right?
So at the end, it was just, I would say, extremely painful because the goal and the situation that preceded it was a clear foul.
And obviously, there were many situations that just didn't go for the Czechs.
But it just it just had a very, very terrible taste after all.
But of course, we deserve to lose. We should be probably 3-0, 3-0 down at the half time.
Yeah, true. You know what it was for me? I realized that it was the fact that we had that hope for so long, right?
That we were in the game for 92 minutes. So I think it's the hope that kills you in the end, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're absolutely right. I mean, it was an experience.
It was a game that you will never, ever forget if you're not, I don't know, 80 years and got Alzheimer's or something.
But you're going to always talk about these kind of games.
So in a way, I'm grateful to have experienced that game. But on the other hand, I mean, I don't really I'm not really proud of how we played, especially the first half.
And I just don't want I don't want the Europe to see that the Czechs cannot play decent football.
Exactly. Because I think we can't we are kind of heading in the direction of having getting that label a little bit.
And I'm going to be honest, because we saw other teams that are considered under underdogs in this tournament and they played much better than us apart from Scotland.
Yeah, so yeah, I completely agree with you.
And it looked like the game was poised to become the most boring game of the whole tournament after that goalless first half.
Because of the tactics we chose as well, especially for a neutral. But in the second half, at least it had a lot of drama. Right.
So we took we took the lead out of the blue. It looked like a daylight robbery.
It was great. Great finish by Provod. Could he have finished that any better?
No, absolutely not. It was his weaker foot. And I have to say that I really admire him.
I think that he is one of the most hardworking players, but he's he's got also like very decent way of thinking.
And his decision making is is much better than than the league average where he plays because obviously he's he's still just the Slavia Prague player.
And I'm not saying that because I'm a Sparta Prague fan, but I believe that he can he can go further in his career.
But obviously when he was probably at his best and he had he had the greatest chance to to get a decent transfer, he got injured very badly.
So, yeah, did he did he do his ACL or something? Yeah.
It was I think a couple of weeks after his his best game probably ever against Belgium where he scored as well.
I remember that it was a draw. One one draw was an end. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that was to be to be fair, I think that was a peak of Czech Republic under under Shilhavi.
I think that that that that was like really it.
That that's something we should aim for with with this kind of squad because we got a lot of physical players, not so many technicians.
But I think that yesterday and well, what was the day yesterday? It was Tuesday for the people who listen to us.
Yeah, Tuesday. I think that Tuesday it's it's not the direction that that Czech team should like follow.
And it's not the right path. There's a lot of young players and I don't want to be watching this kind of football even if it brings results.
That's fair. That's fair enough. You know, I think it's unsustainable long term because football is about football fans and they will lose interest.
Especially the young ones. Yeah. The ones that always watch Tiktok.
Yeah, they need those short five minute, five second videos. They're going to get bored to death.
Yeah, exactly. And we're so lucky to have provoked and such a moment of brilliance because then otherwise that there was nothing left for us.
But I want to say that, you know, the game that preceded our game was Georgia, Turkey, and it was probably the best game of Europe so far.
And I wouldn't say that anyone could have expected that. But no, that's the kind of advertisement you want to do.
But we currently I don't think that that there is a skill that there is a will.
I don't think that there's like anything, any foundation that that should be there. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough.
But we have those type of players, right? We could say that.
But I completely agree with you, especially about the point regarding that previous game, Georgia, Turkey, which in my opinion was an amazing game full of drama and high intensity game.
And the atmosphere in the stadium was just frantic. The Turkish a lot of Turkish fans, they were just going absolutely nuts about that.
And I'm just a little bit scared of what's going to happen when we play when we play them.
Yeah. So I'm going to be at both games in Hamburg. I'm going to be traveling there firstly by train, then by car.
So I'm really excited and a bit nervous as well. I'm not going to lie about that, because I think that the games are going to be very tense, even because of the fans, because even Georgia fans, even Turkey fans, they belong to the most vocal ones and very emotional ones.
It's not like if you play against, I don't know, Norway or those Scandinavians, which, by the way, they have decent fans in their home leagues.
But when they travel, it's usually more relaxed. But this is going to be very different.
And I believe that we should take it as our advantage. And what I mean by that, I think that the Czech team should stay much calmer and just stick to the plan.
But to plan that is sustainable, as you said.
What's that for you? What kind of plan should we have then?
Well, I think we should be much more physical. I think that we should be better in the air. I think that we should not be scared of the ball.
Of course, that doesn't help if you're scared of the ball.
Yeah, because we were against Portugal. There were so many situations when I think it's OK to park the bus.
Honestly, I do think that when you play against such a quality team, which, by the way, didn't play well, I wouldn't say that Portugal were like they were not reaching their standard.
Definitely. So when you play against them, you have to keep the ball when you got it. You have to be smart with it.
And there is actually nothing that should make you think that you have to pass the ball.
You can just have it and you can just take the right touch, which we didn't. You can get the man to follow you.
You can hold the ball, right? You could hold the ball, just use physicality.
Something that Hikyil can do, for example, or she should be able to do.
And then Linger as well. He was very useful, but we didn't do so many things that I think this kind of style was based on.
And you can see the players are capable of doing that. But for some reason, I don't know if it was all just just mental.
I don't know. But there was some some reason that that was just like pushing them back.
I agree with you completely. I was wondering what it was. Was it the nerves?
Could it be the the weather conditions because they were quite how to say, like unique, let's say rain.
Rain is it's nothing special if you play football. You know what I mean.
But let's let's say that it rained heavily. It seemed it was a heavy rain.
It seemed like that. So the pitch was soaked.
And I when I was watching the game, I knew I would ask you this question because you played football at a high level.
So at that point, who was it an advantage for?
Yeah, well, it really depends. It really depends. It's a good question.
So if I'm a defender, I don't like rain because it's much harder for me to react because the pitch is a bit heavier for you.
You you can feel it, especially when the game ends, you know, last last couple of minutes.
You are usually much more tired. So it's I can compare it to running on the sand on the beach.
You know, it's it's not the same. But but the feeling is a bit similar.
So when you're a defender, you are definitely not happy with that.
But the same goes for the attackers. But attackers, when you got ball more, you have less to lose.
Right. So so there is I would say that there is high risk for both parties.
We can we can say that Portugal lost, I would say, more balls than they're usually doing because because of that,
because of conditions and because maybe they were not 100 percent mentally in the game.
I think that they struggled a bit with check approach.
So that's credit to checks because they were compact.
Definitely. Like when they were in the shape, the low block, that was something that really worked.
But there was there was nothing to build on.
Yeah, that's that's true, especially in the first half.
For me, I agree with you that it didn't matter that we chose this tactic to sit deep.
I think I think that's fine, especially if you play against a team like that with the youngest team at the tournament
and a new new team that is being just built with the new manager.
I didn't mind that. And I expected that.
But then you have to show at least something.
And unfortunately, our players weren't capable of holding the ball, in my opinion.
That was for me, that was the biggest issue.
The basics just didn't didn't didn't work.
You know. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you can you can see how Romania played against Ukraine.
They were definitely underdogs in the game.
They had less than 30 percent of the ball.
But it didn't matter at the end because they they were dangerous.
They were shooting well.
And you can always tell when when the teams got less of possession and when they're defending more,
you can always tell if they are actually dangerous.
And we didn't have that. And when you don't have that, I think it's much easier for the opponent, especially.
Yeah, exactly. And that's what made it so ironic that we managed to score first with that with that pro-bought screamer.
But then soon after that, I think it was five minutes later, they they scored an equalizer, which was.
Well, I don't know how to how to put it. It was chaos, chaos, chaos in our defense, a very unlucky goal.
Basically, the keeper parried the ball onto Hranac and then it got deflected back into the back of the net.
Who do you blame for this goal? Because I see so I see so many Internet people, so so-called keyboard warriors, have different opinions,
especially they they lay the blame on Staniak. And I'm not so sure. What do you think about that?
Yeah, unfortunately. Well, it's always tricky when you try to criticize goalkeepers,
because if you're not a former goalkeeper or current goalkeeper, you know, it's always a bit of a thin ice.
But I believe that Staniak should try to save it, should try to do anything, but not just forcing the ball against Hranac,
because then it was kind of inevitable with this kind of a safe that it's going to it's going to happen,
that that that we're going to concede from from such action. So, yeah, it was a bit unlucky.
I understand that he wanted to punch the ball somewhere out. But when you analyze the situation, I think it was clearly his mistake.
Yeah, yeah, definitely not Hranac's mistake. He was just trying.
That was just just wrong, wrong place at the wrong time. And and really credit to Hranac. I said it this morning and I will repeat it.
I really believe he was our best player. And and just to consider that he's he's really young and unexperienced and he's played against Cristiano Ronaldo.
I agree with you in first half. Definitely. He was the best player for me in the first half.
And then so basically then the Portuguese, they won the game with a late winner. And again, he was there.
He was part of that chaotic situation. But again, it didn't seem to be his mistake,
because there was a flick like last last second flick, which changed the direction of the ball.
And he was just trying to stop it. He slid down on his knees or something.
And I thought like he did the best thing he could at that moment.
Unfortunately, it got deflected to a Portuguese player and then they scored.
But in my opinion, he is not to blame. Yeah, Hranac maybe so far.
Yeah, those goals goals came from the crosses came from his side. He lost the header there as well. Right.
Yeah. Look, so far, so far it was it was his worst game ever.
I've seen him and it's such a shame that that it happened at this game.
Well, we did expect ourselves to lose, obviously.
But when you're when you're so close, it's just so frustrating and I cannot blame him for, you know, his attitude or or something like that,
because you know that he he is one of the greatest warriors we got in the squad and he's one of the most experienced players.
And, you know, when you know his his story and his journey, where he came from and how hard he had to work, you have to really respect him.
So I would never say that he is the reason we lost the game.
But it really didn't help that he as someone who should lead the group had had maybe the worst game ever.
Yeah. Yeah. But I completely agree with you. I'm a huge fan of so far.
I follow him at Wessem as well. And honestly, it just happened.
So hopefully we will bounce back and we will show you show his best again. At least he got that assist. Right.
So that was a nice, nice little move from him as well. He is capable of that, too.
Yeah, that's right. To be fair, when you when you just play back his actions forwards, he was he was actually kind of dangerous.
And you could see that he's got really drilled crosses, you know, he can cross the ball, you know, if he if he doesn't even watch the situation, if he's got blindfold or something and he's fine.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With pinpoint accuracy, he's really able to just toss it in and there's a good chance something will happen at the end of that.
So next game against Georgia on Saturday. So what would you personally change? Would you change some personnel?
I think that's what's going to happen. Probably. We have some signs like I think they leaked leaked some information from the staff.
Yeah, I think the changes are inevitable. And and I believe that regardless of the result and maybe even some performances, I think that certain changes were like pre-designed.
So so I believe that you're asking should definitely play. He should he should swap with Dodgera.
It was a surprise to me that Dodgera was was in the starting eleven. But I understand that maybe they wanted someone who's more defensive minded. But who knows?
I believe that we should play with Hytil as well. I'm not saying that she shouldn't play, but he didn't really help us in that transition.
And I thought that he's going to be much more useful in that kind of area. But I think he's going to play. So so maybe Kuchta Kuchta will start on the bench.
Then I believe that Barak will play because we really like creativity. And I hope that Lingger is going to get a bit more time.
But I'm not sure that he would start, but I believe that he should get at least 30 minutes because when he's when he's on, you can just feel it. You can you can just sense his presence.
Absolutely. He's a real danger man. But unfortunately, he has got this this label of super sub.
Hopefully he can one day get rid of it because he's such a talented player.
Yeah, exactly. And what do you think? Like, what do you do these changes? What do you make? No, it makes sense.
Actually, I actually was surprised by the inclusion of Dodgera. Yeah. At the same time, I actually thought he was quite good.
But after the game, I saw the rating and he got a low mark. So I was surprised that in my opinion, he seemed to have always.
He always seemed to have the sort of confident posture, always looked up with his head. And I appreciated it.
He kept the ball like he didn't lose it so much. But then when I saw the rating, it wasn't so high. So I don't know.
Yeah, it's a bit tricky with him. Like he's he's a bit mad. He's he's a bit crazy. He's a bit he's a bit of everything.
He's he's a bit too much, we could say. But sometimes it can it can really help you and it can just, you know, just get the teammates more involved and more infused maybe into the game.
But yeah, it's a bit hard. I mean, as a Sparta fan, I'm not saying that he's not my favorite, but it doesn't help that he's from Slavia.
I know that you're you're as well, but I just I just prefer your asex style more. I think that it would make sense to put him there because his left crosses are amazing and he's such a threat for advice.
And this natural position as well. And he's he seemed to play quite well in those friendlies in those pre euro friendly.
So it was it was a surprise. But I don't I don't think it was though. Yes, Paul, that we know.
Well, we should we should be honest that if I would say that regardless of starting 11, it wouldn't be like much better to the game.
Yeah, makes sense. So what's your prediction prediction for the game then?
Well, I have to stay optimistic and I believe that we can win the game, but it's going to be very, very tough. And I think that we won't be winning like it's going to be tight.
It's going to be to one maybe. Well, it's kind of all or nothing game. Yeah, definitely an all or nothing game for Georgia.
The last game is against Portugal, maybe more for them than for us, because technically if we get a draw and we and we beat Turkey, who will by then have qualified, hopefully because they they will beat Portugal, then anything could happen there.
But yeah, yeah, I mean, we we should definitely try to win the game, but we should we should really mind the situation and that it's quite possible to to get through from the third place or with four points.
We should definitely aim for four points because four or six, it might not matter. It's guaranteed pretty much. Yeah.
Yeah. Even I think there might be even teams that go with three points. It might even happen.
Yeah. Well, but hopefully we are not losing against Turkey or Georgia.
Yeah, definitely. I don't want that that scenario. But Karel, all the best to the Czech team, all the best to you as well.
Thank you very much for being the guest on this brand new podcast. It's been a real pleasure. And I have to say your English is fantastic. That's exactly that's exactly the kind of guests we need on this podcast. Yeah.
But if you indeed speak Czech, then make sure you follow Karel's podcast called Nosyčivody, which is one of my favorite. He co-hosts this podcast with Luděk Mádel and Jaromír Bosák.
So check that out for sure. And Karel, all the best to you again.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me once again. And your English is truly amazing. So good luck.
But I'm a teacher. So thanks, man. Thank you. Take care and bye.
All right. Welcome back in this part of the show. As usual, I'm going to take a look at the English language. And today we will be looking specifically at pronunciation.
There are all sorts of different aspects you can study when it comes to pronunciation.
But one of the basic things to learn is to pronounce the individual sounds correctly.
Karel said he can go further in his career. He was talking about Lukáš Provod. He can go further.
Now notice how the sound is longer. It's not further. No, it's further. In my first language, we don't have this sound.
It doesn't exist, except when people are trying to think about what they say next. They say.
That is the sound that exists in the English language in words like further. I can give you another example.
Karel said the game that preceded our game was Georgia, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey. Now, it is very important to get the length correct.
Some of my students don't always get the vowel length correct, which may lead to misunderstandings, because if the vowel is shorter, then it can it can mean something different.
So you have to be really careful to give you more examples of words which contain this sound.
Word world girl burn turn first third. There are more, of course.
Can you think of any more examples of words which have this sound? Why don't you send me an email at teachers, then at gmail.com or just leave a comment if you're watching this on YouTube?
Well, I guess that's it. It's time to wrap it up. Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the Footglish podcast.
And if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts, Spotify, Apple podcasts.
You can even find us on YouTube. It's on the TeachersDenek YouTube channel. So thank you very much and I will speak to you soon. Cheers. Bye bye.