You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
How many goals did my cousin Honza score in his football career?
Which teams does he support in the Premier League?
Which team does he root for in the Czech First League?
And what is the meaning of the word Fizik?
Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Denek Lukas and this is your favourite podcast, hopefully, about football, which also helps you to learn English.
And in today's episode I've got a special guest because I've decided to invite my cousin.
Hi! Hi. How are you? Fine. What's your name?
Honza. Honza. John.
John, are you English or are you Czech?
I'm Czech, so Honza.
Okay, Honza, so this is a podcast about football, so I have to ask you, are you into it?
Yes, I think that football for me is the sport number one.
Okay. And have you played it before?
Yeah. At a professional level?
Yeah, professional level. It depends on what you mean by professional level, but exactly my career in football, as a football player, was not so long.
How long did you play for?
Yeah, I think I spent on green grass only.
Green grass?
Green grass.
Was there a different colour of the grass after that?
Yeah, sometimes. Because if you play on very low level, there are sometimes, when I played, sometimes it was, I played on, I don't know how to say in English.
I think it's some kind of black clay, I'm not sure. Dirt, it's like dirt.
Yeah, yeah, so because it was...
Dirt, you played on dirt.
Yeah, and it was not so...
Pleasant?
Pleasant, and unfortunately after some kind of movement or some kind of fall, falls, I think it's...
Falls?
Yeah, yeah.
What are you talking about?
When I commit some, because I...
Foul!
Foul, no.
Somebody fouled you, so...
No, usually I fouled somebody because I played as a...
You fouled someone.
Yeah, yeah, I played as a defender, so usually I committed...
A lot of fouls.
Yeah.
So you were like a tough defender and nobody could get past you because you always tackled someone and challenged your opponent.
It was on a very low level of...
Well, you are quite tall. How tall are you, Honza?
I think 1 meter and 95 centimeters.
So almost 2 meters tall.
Yeah, yeah.
So you must have been a great defender, good heading skills, yeah?
Yeah, but sometimes it was difficult to tackle with very small attackers because...
You mean someone like Leonor Messi?
Yeah, Messi level.
Someone who would be much smaller than you?
Yeah, yeah.
It was difficult for you to take the ball from them?
Yeah, yeah, because usually these kinds of players are very fast and...
Ah, skillful.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, well, did you score any goals in your career as a defender?
I think three goals.
Three goals in total?
Yeah.
Own goals or...?
Oh, no, no, I hope that I...
You scored it to the right net, you hope.
You're not sure.
It was a long time ago, yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, now, it's funny.
It was the right goal.
Yeah.
I hope that I scored in the right way.
In the right side of opponent or something like this.
I don't know how to say exactly.
Okay, that's okay, that's okay.
So, did you score like beautiful goals, some overhead kicks or headers or what kind of goals were they?
Scrappy goals.
I think it was some kind of scrappy goals because usually it was...
No, usually...
From...
All goals are...
From set pieces.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Your coach sent you into the box because you were one of the tallest players with a lot of physique, good physique.
Exactly.
Yeah, okay.
So why did you stop playing then?
Why did you hang up your boots?
Because you didn't play as long as I did.
Yeah, but...
What happened?
So I...
You get injured or something or...
No, no.
It was just I had to start...
Studying.
No, I had to start wearing glasses.
Ah, because of glasses.
But you could just take the lenses, right?
Contact lenses.
Yeah, but I had never get used to wear...
You never got used to wearing...
Wearing contact lenses and I hate it and I think...
You hate contact lenses.
Yeah.
But you tried.
Yeah, I tried but...
It's not for you.
No, yeah.
It's something like you...
You have to think that you have something foreign things in your eyes.
I see.
So that is why you hung up your boots.
Yeah.
And from then on, when this moment happened, you became a football fan.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Of course, you didn't stop watching football, right?
Yeah, yeah.
I think you're not as crazy as I am, but you're crazy enough.
You watch some games, don't you?
Yeah.
Which leagues are you interested in and also did you watch the Czech Republic in the Euros?
Yeah, so generally speaking, I prefer watching Czech Republic or Czech Republic, not Czech
League or something.
So the international games are more interesting for you.
International games, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And...
And you also watch the qualifiers or just big tournaments.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Qualifiers as well?
Yeah.
Okay.
And from the point of league, I think that it's the same as many other fans.
I like watching Premier League and some kind of big match in Spain or...
La Liga, El Clasico, maybe.
El Clasico, exactly.
Okay.
Well, let's talk about the Premier League then.
So do you have a team?
Do you follow a team or not really?
Well, nowadays, I think that I like some teams, but I am not really, how to say, big, not
big fans, but really crazy about them.
I like Arsenal and maybe Wes Ham.
Okay.
Like me?
Yeah.
You're like me, you're exactly the same as me.
Why Wes Ham then?
Yeah, Wes Ham, basically.
Wes Ham don't play that well?
Yeah, for I think most of the Czech fans of Premier League like Wes Ham because they
are playing, I think, two most famous Czech players nowadays.
Patrik Šík.
No.
Patrik Šík and who is the second one?
Tomáš Souček.
Yeah, Tomáš Souček and Vladimir Tsofá.
So not Patrik Šík?
Not Patrik Šík because he played in Bayer Leverkusen in Germany and I think...
He still plays there, I think.
Yeah, but last couple of years he has been injured very often and I think his career
is like...
Up and down.
Up and down, yeah.
Okay.
Well, that's fair.
So Arsenal and Wes Ham, so it's exactly like me.
I thought you supported Chelsea before.
Yeah, but I think currently, the current two or three years they don't play very well.
But for example, Kukurela played really well at the EU.
Yeah, but it was like, I don't know.
Don't you like him?
He has beautiful hair.
Yeah, but...
And he sings and dances very well.
But I'm not a fan of this kind of man or this defender.
But he can sing so well.
He has this song, Kukukukurela.
He eats paella and drinks Estrella.
Kukukukurela.
But if you see Chelsea's performance last two or three seasons in Premier League, it's not good.
It's not fun to watch.
Yeah, and I think that currently Chelsea are not able to build, are not able to create a good team,
despite a lot of money they put into players and into their wages or salaries.
Okay, well, that's disappointing, of course.
But I don't care so much about Chelsea.
Yeah.
Not my team.
Do you think someone else can win it this time because obviously the season starts, I think, it's next month.
In about one month, we will have a new season here.
And of course, Manchester City, they won it three times in a row, I think.
So it would be nice to have someone different.
Do you think someone stands a chance against City or will it be City again all over?
It's hard to say, but I think last season Arsenal showed some potential,
but they need stable form and they need to be much more consistent in their performance
because they played very well against strong opponents, but they lost, from my point of view,
they lost quite a lot of matches with weaker teams.
But to be honest, in England or in Premier League, they are not strong or weak teams.
Usually the teams from the top can lose with the team from the bottom.
Right. And what about the Czech League? Do you have a team there?
Do you support a team in the Czech First League?
Yeah, my favourite team is Sparta Prague.
Sparta Prague, yeah.
It's one of the oldest Czech football teams next to Slavia.
Sparta and Slavia are a big rival in the Czech Football League
and their matches are some kind of El Clasico in Czech.
Are you sure this comparison is fair?
No, it's not fair, but it's like a small scale El Clasico.
Like 10% of significance of El Clasico.
But it's our biggest match in the Czech Republic, of course, Sparta and Slavia.
It's a derby.
Overall, I think it's good that Sparta and Slavia and some other Czech teams like Bani Kostrava,
Blená Boleslav and so on, nowadays they are preparing or they will play European competitions.
And I hope that they will achieve good results and they will continue with their performance from the last season.
Okay, well, let's hope so. Thank you very much, Honza.
Is there anything else you would like to say to the listeners of the Footgrish podcast?
Or anything you would like to ask maybe?
Okay, so I think it will be good to make some kind of survey about the listeners of this podcast,
about their preferences or favorite teams and so on.
Just to be sure that...
That's a good idea. That's a very good idea.
I'm going to make a poll and I will put the link in the description of this episode.
And so what questions should I ask? Maybe which league do you watch?
So I'm going to put there the most popular leagues.
I'm going to add the Czech league and then maybe the option others so people can add their own options.
And then your favorite players and teams and the support, maybe also the country they come from.
And Messi or Ronaldo? Are you team Messi or team Ronaldo? Who are you, Honza?
Nowadays...
Or are you Zlatan?
Nowadays it's more like Jamal and...
Jamal, Musiala, these guys, and Bape.
Williams and so on.
Robbie Williams, you mean? You mean the singer?
I mean Williams from Spain.
The attacker from Spain team.
Well, thank you very much, Honza, for featuring on the Footglitch Podcast.
I hope you enjoyed recording it with me.
And yeah, it might not be the last time I talk to you.
So I hope that this podcast will increase in popularity and they will attract more and more listeners.
I hope so too. Thank you very much. That was very nice.
All right. Take care. Bye bye. Bye bye.
Welcome back to the Language Corner.
As always, since I'm an English teacher, I'm going to do my job and have a look at some vocabulary today.
So I told to Honza that he had or he still does actually have good physique.
What does that mean? Physique?
Well, it means that he's very tall.
Be careful. Don't say hi like my Vietnamese students.
Don't say hi because it means you're on drugs if you're high.
We need to use the adjective tall in this case.
Basically, his stature or his body is quite large in shape.
He's not fat or anything. He's just very tall, you know.
So, yeah, when you talk about physique, you're basically talking about the appearance of the human body and maybe the muscular sort of side of things.
The muscles as well, so to speak.
But have a look at the word. It is spelled as P-H-Y-S-I-Q-U-E.
And you need to stress the second syllable, not physique, but physique.
It's quite a confusing word for a lot of people because they may confuse it with the word physics, which is a subject at school.
Also, you can refer to physics when you talk about football in some cases.
For example, imagine someone scores a goal and then you admire the trajectory of the ball.
And remember that goal that what was his name?
That Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos. Remember that goal he scored? That amazing free kick?
It defied physics. It kind of defied physics, you could say, which means it almost didn't follow the laws of physics.
Right. Yeah. So that is that is a word with a different meaning.
Also, there is another word fitness. Right.
So that has a completely different meaning. Fitness. You talk about how how much stamina players have and how fit they are.
Right. In terms of how long they can run and if they can sprint and stuff like that.
That's that's fitness. It's about health, sort of physical health. Right.
And another one that people may confuse with this is psychological.
So if you have PSY in spelling, that's pronounced as psi in English.
Psi, psychologist, psychological, psychiatrist.
Yeah. So that's obviously something you may also need in football.
If a player has a gold drought or stops believing in themselves, they need a psychologist.
There is a player whose name is Richard.
Yeah. Remember this guy? He now plays for Tottenham Hotspur and I believe he used to struggle with his mental health and then he got a psychologist.
I think it's nothing unusual these days.
Footballers, they really do need to work on their mental strength so they may hire a psychologist.
So all these words, physique, physics, fitness and psychology, they all mean something different.
So be careful how you use them, how you spell them, how you pronounce them, because if you don't pronounce them correctly, if you don't spell them correctly,
if you don't use them correctly in a sentence, then this may lead to confusion in communication,
which is something we obviously all want to prevent here on the Footgrish podcast and in general in football or in your life.
OK, guys, let me remind you that I have created a poll for you, which was obviously Honza's idea.
So there is a fun poll that I would like you to get involved in.
Basically, this is a way in which we can interact with each other and I can announce if we have some people joining or taking part in this poll,
I can announce the results of the poll.
So I will be asking about where you guys are from, what your favorite league to watch is, what is your favorite player and stuff like that.
Some general questions and you will find the link to the poll in the description of this episode.
I think that's all for today. Thank you very much for listening and I will speak to you soon. Take care. Bye bye.