You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
How did Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague and Plzeň start their season?
Who is the top goalscorer in the Czech First League?
Which Czech manager was sacked first and who replaced him?
And what do the phrasal verbs to get by and workout mean?
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Denik Lukas and I'm the host of this podcast which is about football.
And it is also for English learners, for people who are learning English.
This was my idea to connect my passion, football, and learning English because I'm an English teacher.
And the idea is that the listeners, that is you, my audience, you can learn English
listening to your favourite hobby, football, your favourite sport, your favourite passion.
Hopefully we share that interest and hopefully this will help you learn English in a fun way.
To be honest, it is important that you get a lot of listening practice
because developing your listening skills is crucial in especially the early stages of learning English.
But to be honest, not only in your early stages.
At all times you should be exposed to quality English, to high level English
or to English that is at least one level above your own level of English.
So this is the idea here.
And sometimes I have guests, sometimes I talk alone.
Today is one of those times when I talk by myself.
I hope you don't mind.
And I would like to say a few things about the Czech League.
The Chance League as we call it.
Because I'm from the Czech Republic.
In the future I will definitely cover the Premier League.
You can definitely look forward to that.
But for now the Premier League isn't here yet.
We are still a few weeks away from the start of a new season.
And that's why we need to get by with the Czech League.
Two rounds have been played already and I'm going to give you my highlights of these two rounds.
First of all let me remind you that actually for the Czech First League this is a huge season.
And that's because the winner gets a Champions League spot.
So there is a lot of money involved.
It's a big deal for the Czech clubs because this time you go directly into the Champions League
without having to play any qualifiers which was almost always the case.
I think it only happened like once or twice that we had a spot directly in the Champions League.
But it's not common practice in the Czech Republic.
And that's why this is such a big moment for the Czech clubs.
Especially for those ambitious clubs like Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague and also Victoria Plzeň.
Which are arguably the three most successful and let's say ambitious clubs in the Czech Republic.
It could change because we have got some new clubs like Liberec that have a new owner.
Kania is a young ambitious guy who really has big plans with the club.
And then there are some other teams like Baník Ostravá, even Mladá Boleslav.
Teams that have the potential but it's a little bit hard to compete with the big boys of Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague.
Because they are historically the most traditional clubs that have the largest fan base.
And a lot of money is pumped into the clubs with the owners that these two clubs have as well.
So how are these two clubs and Plzeň doing after two rounds?
So Sparta Prague has got six points.
They won two games and you could say that it wasn't the prettiest way of winning.
But also I don't think there was any doubt in those two games.
I think Sparta had those two games under control more or less.
So six points quite deservedly in the first place on goal difference.
Same Victoria Plzeň. Six points as well, two wins.
Just like Sparta I think it's a deserved position.
What could we say here? Not much really.
Starstriker went to Slavia Prague before the start of the league so they lost that guy.
But they kept a lot of excellent players like Cherv and Schultz.
So quite a comfortable position to be in not having to sell your best players.
Also they bought a player, Cabongo.
But unfortunately for them he got injured.
The young Cabongo got injured in training and it seems like it's quite a serious injury.
So this young talent is not looking good with him at all.
I think he did his ACL. That's a big obviously big blow for the club.
But their European games are yet to be played.
I believe they are in the Europa League qualifier.
So hopefully they will get to the Europa League.
I think they have every chance to do it with all their experience and the players they have.
And the manager, he's got quite an old manager.
I think he's 72 years old or something like that.
Koubek is his name.
But it's an unbelievable person because despite his age he's a very progressive manager with excellent ideas.
It's almost like he's playing chess.
Every time he has some ideas it seems like he's playing chess or something like that.
You know the game chess.
Then Slavia Prague, they only have four points and that's because they drew their first game against Slovácko.
That was really disappointing.
They did much better in their home game.
They won that game 4-0.
A very convincing victory over České Budějovice.
It seems like Slavia Prague have a hangover after the Euros because a lot of their players participated in the tournament.
I think they had 10 players in the Euros, which is quite a lot.
So obviously they did not join the pre-season.
I think there's no surprise that their start will be a little bit slower.
But they have to try hard not to fall behind too much because losing points in the Czech League can be quite costly.
The season is long, but you don't want to start losing points early in the season and then having to catch up.
It can be quite ugly actually to have to do that.
Now, Ostrava, Banjo Ostrava looks good, I have to say.
Mladá Aboleclav lost their first game in a bizarre circumstances when their two players got sent off in their opening game against Jablonec, the team that I cheer for.
Speaking of Jablonec, they have three points after two games because they also lost to Banjo Ostrava away from home.
Liberets, as I mentioned, have a new owner, Mr. Kania, who is a young, confident guy. I think he's about 30 years old or something like that.
And he is very different in the way he communicates because he talks to the media.
He goes to all different podcasts, and I've heard all his interviews.
Very transparent. He prides himself on being very transparent.
You know what? Some people say he might struggle in the Czech League because of him trying to be different, trying to change everything.
And also kind of over ambitious because sometimes when you have young people, they have all these ideals, right?
And it doesn't always work out. For example, it happens to teachers very often, right?
When you start as a teacher after graduating from university, you have all these fresh ideas and you want to implement everything.
And then you realise that it's almost impossible to make that work because of the environment you are in.
So I'm a little bit afraid that something similar might happen to Mr. Kania, but you never know.
It could work out well for him. I think it's kind of a breath of fresh air, actually.
And it might make the league more interesting because he's like a marketing guy as well.
He focuses on marketing, tries to do it well. And I think it's interesting. It makes the league more interesting.
Yeah, so so far, I would say the league has been interesting enough.
We have seen some interesting moments. Also, the transfer window is still open.
So it looks like Slavia and Sparta Prague have big squads and some of their players are wanted by big teams, actually.
Preciado is an Ecuadorian player playing for Sparta Prague and he's wanted by, apparently, Everton.
Everton from the Premier League, which would be a big move, of course, for the Czech League as well.
We had a player in the Premier League, a player that has been in the Czech League, wanted by a Czech club.
It's always a big moment. Then by an English club is always a big moment.
And then there is Oskar, the midfielder who has been at Slavia for a long time, 26 year old.
I think he's from Liberia. I think so. And he is linked with Galatasaray Istanbul or possibly even Sevilla.
So those two players, the Czech League could lose them soon because those are, of course, big opportunities for those footballers.
So you wouldn't blame them if they left, right? They would have higher salary, better conditions and all that, bigger club.
So the Czech League might lose those two guys. We should also say that the Czech League has unfortunately lost two young talents.
We have mentioned the Kabongo guy. He got injured. Something similar happened to Vlček.
He also completely destroyed his knee in a match. I think it was in the first game of the season.
So Slavia Prague defender. Unfortunately, those two players, they had a chance to make it to the international squad, in my opinion.
Very good young talents. So now their progress will be interrupted or stalled by at least, I would say, one season because those injuries until the end of the season, probably most likely.
So, yeah, we had one surprising comeback. Kyrie Nen playing for Spartak Prague. I would say they're arguably the biggest star.
He returned on the pitch earlier than expected. I heard on a podcast that he had eaten a lot of yogurts and that's why he kept himself in good shape physically and mentally because of eating a lot of yogurts.
So now he's back on the pitch. So I think that's great news for Spartak Prague.
What I've noticed a lot is that both Slavia and Spartak Prague do very heavy rotations.
So you kind of expect it from Slavia Prague because their manager, Jindřich Tarpišovský, always used to do that.
With Spartak Prague, it's happening as well, but it seems to be working. They have a manager, Lars Fries.
He used to be the assistant manager to Brian Priske, who left for Feyenoord Rotterdam. He's now the manager of Feyenoord Rotterdam.
After winning two titles with Spartak Prague, no one could blame him. And now his former assistant became the first coach.
He is also from Denmark, so we have got a Danish coach. And that's really interesting.
And we have an interesting situation with Václav Jurečka, who was the top goalscorer in the Czech League twice in a row, I believe, in two consecutive seasons.
And he's a Slavia Prague striker, but he refused to sign his contract.
And now he's got, I think, one season left. And I think there are some issues, some internal issues with the management because of him not wanting to sign that deal.
Now he he's kind of being sidelined. So his role in the team has been has been reduced.
It looks like he's just on the bench. But that's a bit weird, because if you have a top goalscorer, can you really afford to do that?
It's a bit strange. I think there is some bitterness going on between the chairman Jaroslav Tvrdík and this player.
I don't honestly know what was said. It's a bit strange, honestly.
We have seen some big goals as well. The most beautiful goal was by Kliment. I think it was in the game against České Budějovice.
Kliment is a player playing for Olo Mouz, Sigma Olo Mouz, and he scored a fantastic bicycle kick.
In that game, he actually scored a brace. He he got two goals under his belt.
And this goal, the bicycle kick was absolutely awesome.
It was the top quality, almost didn't seem like Czech League to me.
But that was that was absolutely brilliant.
Then there was a hat trick as well. Mladá Boleslav has a player called Mareček, who scored a hat trick.
All of these three goals were kind of simple goals. But, you know, even simple goals count, even if they were easy.
Three goals, scoring three goals is a great achievement, of course. So well done.
Mareček is now the top goalscorer, obviously, after two rounds, having three goals.
That's enough for being on top.
There was a really bizarre goal scored by a player with an interesting name, Dominik Hasek, who also used to be a famous Czech goalkeeper who used to play in NHL in the NHL for Buffalo Sabres.
And now we have a footballer, Dominik Hasek. I don't think they are related.
But basically he was crossing from kind of the halfway line and the keeper was trying to catch the ball and missed the ball with his feet.
Oh, sorry, with his hands. And I don't think he even touched the ball. It just went into the goal.
It was the ball was slow. It was just a slow lofted ball, like a cross.
And the goalkeeper completely missed it, mistimed it. And it was like a really surprising error, basically a blunder.
And that goal was scored by Dominik Hasek, as I said, playing for Dukla Praha.
It was a derby game. Dukla Praha is a Prague team. And the game was against Bohemians. They are another Prague team.
Bohemians were the better team in this game. They were the home side as well.
But because of this weird goal, they lost their game 1-0.
Yeah, we had one manager sacked already. Jiri Lerg from České Budějovice was sacked with his entire staff.
And that's because after two games they only had zero points. But it looked a bit weird because at České Budějovice,
they have a new owner and it looked kind of like it was sort of prepared, like they didn't want this manager there.
They wanted to implement their own people. So they were waiting for this opportunity to happen.
And they did it really quickly. It seemed to be unfair.
Jiri Lerg was replaced by František Straka, who is a well-known Czech coach.
I would say he's kind of a TV personality. He's a funny guy who always speaks very fast and has kind of erratic behavior
and kind of hot-tempered personality and always uses German words when he speaks Czech, which is a bit weird.
But to be honest, it could help České Budějovice because they have three German players and one player from Austria.
So these are German speakers. So from that point of view, the appointment of František Straka could be a good choice.
He also comes from that place. He is originally from the south of Bohemia.
So České Budějovice is like the capital of the south. So I think we will see.
Then we have got another interesting coach back in the Czech League. Of course, I already spoke about Dukla Praha.
Petr Rada, who is probably the most controversial Czech manager. He is like another hot-tempered coach.
And he always says something incredible during his press conferences or interviews that it doesn't fit the 21st century, basically.
He often, when it comes to some players of different skin color or players, international players, he doesn't mean it.
I don't think he's necessarily racist, but he's just so awkward whenever he speaks about players like that.
And he even got a ban last season. He was in the second league with his team, Dukla Praha, and he got an eight-month ban.
This ban was later reduced down to three months, and he also got a fine of 80,000 Czech crowns.
Now he's back in the league, but during his press conference he said basically that the apology that was issued by him
and that led to him getting the ban reduced, actually he admitted that he didn't even read it, that he just signed it,
which was a weird thing to do, to be honest with you. He should just admit that he had made a mistake.
I don't understand why he's trying to be this kind of person. He's a bit of a dinosaur for me, I'm sorry.
It's just who I think he is. Of course he can have his opinions, but honestly you can't say on the one hand
that you are not racist and then say things which are considered racist in the 21st century.
So he should be more careful, but I don't think he can change him. He's in his 60s, I think, and he's just kind of old school manager,
like retro manager as I heard it on another podcast called Nosici Vodi, one of my favourite Czech podcasts about football,
and I completely agree with this assessment, to be honest.
We also had three Czech teams in the European Cups, we have seen them already, because they were in the second round of their competitions.
Sparta Prague won their game against Schemrock Rovers in about one hour's time. They are playing the second leg at home.
They have a comfortable 2-0 lead after the first leg, so I don't think there will be any problems.
Sparta Prague looked dominant in that game. It was that game for which I did a preview in the previous episode of the Footglitch podcast.
Do you remember the one I recorded with Kahl? So that was about Sparta Prague, Schemrock Rovers.
Schemrock Rovers were very disappointing in that game for me. I did not expect this to be so easy for Sparta Prague,
but there was a huge difference in quality. And of course I'm happy because I support Sparta Prague.
Also, Baník Ostrava played really well. They beat their opponents 5-1.
Boleslav Mará and Boleslav, they were not as convincing as the other two teams, but also they got a good result, I believe 2-0.
So in the end, all is good. And after the first leg of the round two qualifiers,
it seems like all three teams have a decent chance of advancing to the next round.
As far as the Czech Fantasy League goes, and if you want to join the Czech Fantasy League, the link is in the description.
I have to say it's the one that is done by eSports, by the way, eSport, the Czech Fantasy League.
I have to say that I haven't been doing very well. I have been really struggling.
It's my first time playing the Czech Fantasy League because I've got a lot of experience playing the FPL, the Fantasy Premier League.
But this one is a bit tough for me. Anyway, I think that's about it for today.
Thank you very much. These were my highlights. I might speak about the Czech League later, but I cannot guarantee it.
Hopefully, I will get some interesting guests as well to speak about maybe Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague.
I think more will come, especially when those bigger matches arrive.
Hopefully, there will be some bigger matches in the European competitions and perhaps the derby.
And then I think there will be a good chance to talk. OK, well, that's it for today.
I think all that you are waiting for is now the language corner. So let's do it.
Welcome back. This is the language corner. I told you already that I'm an English teacher. I keep repeating it.
I think you should know because you should know who your host is. You should know you are in good hands.
And so in the language corner, that's when I'm going to showcase my teaching skills.
That's when I teach you something. And this time I am going to take a look at two phrasal verbs to get by and to work out.
To be honest, phrasal verbs often have more meanings.
And in these specific two cases, we are looking at those two specific meanings that were used for those two contexts,
which I'm going to tell you now. So the first one is when I was talking about the fact that the Premier League is still not here.
And that is why I have to talk about the Czech League on the Football Grish podcast.
I literally said that the Premier League is still not here yet. We are three months away from the start of the season.
And that's why we will have to get by with the Czech League.
So to get by in this case basically means that we will have to do what we can.
We will have to use the resources that are available to us.
We don't really have any other choice, but to get by can mean so many different things, so many different things.
In this case, it kind of means we'll have to improvise.
We will have to just do this because we don't have an alternative.
That's the meaning that is used in this case.
Then the second one, I said, sometimes when you have young people who have these ideals, I was talking about Kanye, the new Liberec owner.
I said when you have new ideas, it doesn't always work out because of the environment that you are entering.
When I gave you an analogy to when you become an English teacher, when you become a teacher, a fresh graduate from university,
you have all these fresh ideas and you almost feel like you want to, you have this drive, you want to change everything.
But then you are disillusioned very soon because you realize that the environment that you have to work in doesn't allow you or makes it hard for you to implement those ideas.
I said that it doesn't always work out.
I use this phrase, the verb to work out.
Again, to work out can mean so many different things.
You can work out in the gym, for example.
But here, if something doesn't always work out, it means it's not always going to work.
It's not always going to succeed.
It's not always going to develop in a satisfactory way, in a suitable way, in the way that you expect.
So I don't want to be negative.
I think it's too early to say it might be very successful, but it might also not work out.
All right.
Well, I hope this episode of the Footgrish podcast has worked out for you.
I hope that you enjoyed it.
And don't forget that it's still a very young podcast, very young indeed, because I created it about two months ago.
So it's early days for the podcast and I need your support more than ever later.
It might be much easier for me, you know, because once a podcast is established, once a lot of people know about the podcast, then it's easier to get connections and get more listeners.
But when you're at the very beginning, that's when I need your help.
So please, why don't you write a review on Apple Podcasts?
Give me five stars on Spotify.
Do all that good stuff that can actually help me make this podcast better in the future and keep and keep me motivated as well, which is also very important for me wanting to publish more and more episodes for you.
I do love doing it.
I really enjoy it, but it also takes my time.
So understandably, I need to find some kind of balance.
Anyway, that's all for today.
Thank you very much for listening and I will speak to you soon.
Take care, everyone, and enjoy your summer.
Bye bye.