You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
How many points did Czechia get in their two Nations League games this international break?
Did I enjoy watching these games live in the stadium?
How was it to be amongst the Czech ultras in the Ukraine-Czechia game in Wroclaw?
And what does live mean and how should we pronounce it?
Hello listeners, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Denek Lukas and I'm the host of this podcast which is for all football fans and people that love football.
And also for those of you that want to improve their English skills, for those of you that want to develop their listening skills and expand their vocabulary.
And on today's episode of the Footglitch Podcast, you're going to hear me as usual, but also two more people.
And that's because I attended two games live.
Yes, two games live.
These are Nations League games.
That's right.
Czech Republic is in the group with Albania, Ukraine and Georgia in Group B.
And it's quite a tough one, I would say.
It's quite a tough one.
And Czech Republic currently after three games is on six points because we lost our first game against Georgia away.
Then we beat Ukraine at home and we also we beat Albania.
And that's the game we're going to talk about today.
And I have to tell you that I went to this game.
I attended the game with my cousin Honza and Honza is someone that has been on this podcast before.
And I have to say I was really looking forward to this game.
I got the tickets.
I bought them online and I thought I might as well go before I leave the Czech Republic because those of you that know me are well aware that I like to go to Asia these days.
So I'm not going to be in the Czech Republic for much longer.
And that's why I thought it would be a great opportunity to see my favorite players, the Czech national team players live.
And I chose a great match to do that.
And let's hear from my cousin and I.
I'm going to play you a recording that we made right before the game.
This was about one hour before the game.
It was recorded inside the stadium inside the Latna Stadium near the toilets.
And we were discussing the lineup, Ladislav Krejci and why he wasn't playing in this game.
Also, Václav Cerný and Honza gave his prediction about this game.
So here it is.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Footbreech podcast.
And this is the first time ever that I'm recording a Footbreech podcast live from a real stadium.
This time it's from the Latna Stadium ahead of the game Czech Republic Albania.
It's a Nations League game and it's in Prague.
Obviously, the Latna Stadium is the stadium of Sparta Prague.
So I'm here with my cousin, who is currently on the toilet.
So he's back now and I'm going to ask him some questions.
So Honza, have you seen the lineup for today's game?
What do you think about it?
I think that the Czech coach chose the best one, the best lineup, which is possible.
And we will see.
Yeah, I think he didn't want to change the starting eleven, which won that game against Ukraine.
I believe it's almost the same.
I think Bozil is the only name that is different, I believe.
Is Krejci in the lineup?
I think no, no. I haven't seen him.
I heard that he has got too many yellow cards. I think he's suspended.
Yeah, maybe, but I think nowadays he's not in good form.
No, he started playing for Girona, actually.
Yeah, but...
It's getting better.
I'm not sure about his current position.
It's getting better, trust me.
Yeah, much better.
But anyway...
I'm really...
Are you excited about this game?
Yeah, but I hope that especially Václav Černý is a good performance, last couple of games.
He plays for Rangers, right?
He's a Rangers player, isn't he?
Okay, so here we are. We've just arrived at the stadium.
And yeah, the pitch looks great, yeah?
Yeah, we will see that.
Because the current weather...
Okay, come here.
In the morning, the weather was very rainy, very humid.
Yeah, I think nowadays it seems it will be good weather for playing a good match.
So what's your prediction for today's game?
I hope that we will win 2-0.
2-2.
2-2, yeah. 2-2.
2-0, yeah. 2-0.
2-0 to the Czech Republic.
Well, let's catch up in the half time, yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alright.
So Honza predicted 2-0 for the Czech team.
And this prediction came true.
He was absolutely right. We won 2-0.
It was a really enjoyable game.
I thought we put in a great performance.
It was a well-chosen tactic by our manager.
The game was played with very high intensity.
We were the better team, we were the superior team.
We were more physical.
We controlled the game.
And I think what really helped us was the fact that we scored an early goal.
That really helped us.
The first goal scored by Tomáš Chori.
And then it was the same player who scored the second in the 63rd minute
to give us a comfortable 2-0 lead.
And we then comfortably won 2-0.
It was a nice game.
You know, the Latna capacity, the capacity of the stadium is around
19,000.
And it was not exactly sold out.
But it was near enough.
You know, before the game I had read a few articles saying that this game,
you know, it might not be sold out and whatnot.
And, you know, I have to say that it wasn't so bad.
Yes, there were a lot of Albanian fans who seemed to have come from Germany
and Austria, you know, because there are a lot of Albanians living
in these neighbouring countries.
And I know that because there were even some sitting behind us in the stadium
and they were speaking German with each other.
So, yeah.
I have to say that there were a few problems with the fans.
There were a few problems between the Czech fans and the Albanian fans.
But I don't think there was anything major.
I think the stewards and the police took care of it.
So in the end, I think, you know, it was reasonable.
Sometimes fans clash like that.
And, yeah, we have these fans that call themselves fanatics,
some kind of fanaticism Czechia group or something, some kind of a new group.
These guys were even in the Euros.
And I have to say they are the best fans.
They were the loudest fans.
They were the fans that kept singing and kept cheering
and supporting the club more than anyone else.
The rest of the stadium was kind of quiet compared to these guys.
And they were in one sector in the stands right behind one of the goals.
And they were really good.
Apart from one offensive song they sang about Albanians,
I wasn't really happy about that.
I wonder why this happened. I don't know.
I think something must have gone on there.
And they started singing this song and I didn't like it.
I think it's stupid.
I think even if the fans of the opposite team provoke you,
yes, you can sing some things about the team,
but you should not go as low as to sing something about just some rude stuff, you know.
And you shouldn't really provoke the team about some political things as well.
I'm just always against this.
So I was torn. I had mixed feelings about these fans.
Yes, they were the loudest. Yes, they were the best fans.
Yes, they were the fans that the Czech players later went to and appreciated their support.
But also, yeah, this just doesn't give the best impression in my opinion.
And then I heard that a lot of Albanian fans on social media complained about the Czech Republic.
And they were some, you know, these keyboard warriors.
They were very loud as well.
Very unhappy about the way they were treated in the Czech Republic.
I just want to say that these fans, these fanatics or ultras, they don't represent the average Czech fan.
OK, the average Czech fan, I don't think would want to be this impolite and this rude.
I don't think so. We are not all like that. OK.
So, yeah, I've got one more recording for you.
I actually thought we would record something in the half time.
But unfortunately, what happened was that this recorder that I'm using right now, it died.
As in the battery. The battery of the recorder ran out.
And that's why I couldn't record it.
And at that point, I was not smart enough to use my phone to record it.
And it's a pity because next to me, I had a football fan who was from England, someone who has been living in Prague for a long time.
And he was there with his kid.
And apparently this kid goes to the same school as Tomas Rossicki's kid.
So, you know, it's a shame.
It was a, I believe, Derby County fan as well, which was interesting.
Yeah, unfortunately, I didn't get to record his voice.
But instead I talked to my cousin.
But I have to say, please take this recording with a pinch of salt.
First of all, we were really cold, tired after the game, quite emotional and a little bit drunk as well.
So it's not the best recording.
But, you know, sometimes you just want to hear something authentic from football fans.
So this is what we recorded after the game.
All right. Here we are.
Full time Czech Republic 2 Albania 0.
Honza, what do you make of the performance of the Czech team?
I think quite a good performance, especially in the attack phase.
Is it correct to say attack phase?
Attack phase, I could say that.
The final third.
Yeah.
Some good combination football.
But I think the most important thing was that we scored so early.
By the way, I apologize for my voice.
I lost it during the game.
You can imagine.
All it took was just two goals of the Czech striker Tomas Chori, a Slavia Prague man.
He did pretty well, right?
He got a brace.
Nice goals in the third minute.
We scored the first goal.
I think that helped to get the crowd going.
And then in the second half, we scored the second.
Through Vladimir Tsofas cross and Tomas Chori's header.
Pretty nice goal.
I think it was a good match.
Looking forward to a match with Ukraine.
Exactly. I'm going there. I'm going to be there.
Hopefully I'll be able to record some more stuff.
Yeah.
Now we have six points.
I think Albania have three points now.
Ukraine, I think, beat Georgia.
So we are equal with Georgia on six points.
So it's looking quite interesting in our Nations League group.
Yeah, let's see what happens next.
All right. Nice one. Cheers.
All right. Well, that was the game Czech Republic Albania.
We want to nail three points.
Very important result, especially since Albania has been our bogey team.
You know, we actually lost the previous game against Albania and the one before we drew.
So it was nice to beat Albania at home and get the three points.
But it's not all for this episode of the Footgrish podcast.
I'm now heading to Wroclaw, which is a city in the south of Poland, not far away from the Czech border.
And it will take me about three and a half hours to get there by bus.
I was invited by one of the Ukrainian listeners of my other podcast, which is called The Next English Podcast.
And also this guy is a member of my study group, which I have for English learners.
If any of you are interested in joining the study group, head over to teachersdenek.com where you can learn more about it.
So he was really nice, this Ukrainian listener.
And we are going to go to this game together.
It takes place in Wroclaw, in Poland, because obviously Ukraine is at war and that's why no games can be played in Ukraine, really.
So, yeah, of course, Ukraine will be the home team.
I expect that the Czech fans, I expect the Czech fans to be outnumbered because there are a lot of Ukrainians in Poland anyway, the refugees, you know.
But I have already been to Wroclaw before, but never to a football game.
So I'm quite looking forward to that.
And I hope I'll be able to record some stuff as well with the listener that invited me to this game.
All right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
This is Denek speaking and I am in Wroclaw, right in front of the Wroclaw Stadium.
And I was invited to participate, not to participate.
Unfortunately, I'm not playing, to attend the game as a spectator, which is great, because as you know, I'm a Czech Republic fan and I was invited by Kirill.
Hi, Kirill.
Hi, Denek. Thank you for having me.
Thank you for the tickets, man.
It's lovely. It's really lovely because what a great opportunity to meet you and see the Czech Republic play away from home against Ukraine.
No problem.
So who are you supporting tonight? Because I know your story is a bit difficult to explain, maybe, right?
Don't worry. I think today I will support Czech Republic, of course, because I invited you and you bring me cool t-shirt, jersey of Czech Republic team.
Just in case, you know. I said, OK, I'll take both.
So we are two Czech fans today, but you are so you have been living in Poland for eight years.
So you kind of feel Polish, right?
Of course, because I have a Polish roots. My grandmother was Polish.
But you're also from Ukraine.
Yeah.
So you should. So that's that's the funny bit.
So despite being from Ukraine, you're not going to support the Ukrainian team tonight.
You know, in my head, I feel closer to Polish culture.
That's fair. That's fair.
I met my wife here. My daughter is also born here.
OK, perfect. Perfect.
Well, maybe that is like a second part of my life.
I see. So basically, if Poland was playing tonight against the Czech Republic, you would definitely not put this on.
No, maybe maybe I put it, but secretly, secretly hide underneath underneath the Polish one.
Well, so you are a football football fan.
You are a member of my group. That's how we know each other of the Achievers Chamber group.
If anyone is interested in joining that group, go to teachersdenek.com where you can find out more about it.
So we have discussed a lot of football related stuff in the past.
I know you are, you are, for example, a fan of Juventus.
So you understand the Serie A a lot. You know a lot about it.
But international football, sometimes you watch it.
Of course, Champions League, Europa League, Conference League, a lot of stuff.
OK, great. So so today, Ukraine, Czech Republic.
So of course, there is war in Ukraine, so they cannot play in Ukraine.
So that's why they play in Poland.
But I think it's nice because there are a lot of Ukrainian people living here.
And also in Wroclaw, we have the biggest population of Ukrainians, the biggest population of hostages here.
You mean not hostages, refugees.
That would be a bit strange.
Yeah, refugees.
I think it will be a great support for Ukraine today.
Yeah, you know what happened when Ukraine played in the Czech Republic?
There were actually more Ukrainian fans than the Czech fans.
But this is not because like we like some Czech people were complaining about it or even the football players.
But the problem is that the Czech people were not interested enough in watching the game.
That wasn't the that was the reason. That was the main reason.
And then, of course, the Ukrainians bought the tickets. Why not?
Because they want to see their team play. So I don't have a problem with that.
But today, I think there won't be many Czech fans that will be a minority here.
A large minority. It might be a tough game for the Czech team.
Minority, but a loud minority, I hope.
It depends. If the Czech Republic score an early goal like we did against Albania, then it could be a similar story.
But to be honest, I think it will be a tough game.
Yeah, because Ukraine has some really great players in their team.
But a lot of players are injured right now.
Right. Zinchenko isn't here. Zinchenko isn't playing tonight.
And who is the other one?
Mikolenko is also.
Mikolenko is out.
And Malinovsky. He broke his leg.
He broke his leg. But there will be Mudrik. Mikhail Mudrik, right?
He is the best, maybe the most known Ukrainian player as of now. Playing for Chelsea, isn't he?
Yes.
He was really expensive as well.
I think he's got a 10-year contract or something, something crazy.
And he scored the winning goal against Georgia three days ago.
Yeah, he can bring some problems for Czech defenders.
Yeah, we need to mark him tightly.
And then who else? So Dovbek will probably be playing, right? Dovbek.
Yeah, he's a good one.
He went to Italy.
Yeah, he's playing in Roma.
And before he was in Girona?
In Girona and he was the best striker for La Liga last year.
He was the top goalscorer of La Liga.
And now the Czech Republic has a player in Girona and that's Krejci.
Krejci is an ex-Sparta defender. He's a leader, he's dangerous at set pieces, but he's a central defender.
But tonight he might not play.
What about Patrik Šyk?
Patrik Šyk is out. He's not in the team because he's got some niggles, some knocks or something.
And he made a deal with the coach, with the national team coach Ivan Hasek that he would stay at level 2.
So not this time.
But to be honest, we have another striker in form. His name is Tomáš Horý.
He scored two goals against Albania. He's a very tall guy.
And of course the captain, Tomáš Soček.
Tomáš Soček, my favourite player.
The best leader.
I love Tomáš Soček. He's the leader. He's very nice. I like polite people, right?
And he's very polite and respectful.
Me too, me too.
For example, there was one game at City. He's a West Ham player, right?
Yeah.
And he was playing against Manchester City. And there was a logo in the middle as they were trying to enter the stadium.
And everybody stepped on the logo except for Tomáš Soček who went round because he has respect, right?
Of course.
He respects the opponent.
Alright, well, Kirill, do you think you could check for me the line-up?
Because I think we already have the line-up because I think it's one hour before the start of the game.
So would you mind checking the line-up for me?
We can see it live.
Right, let's see what the line-up is.
Okay.
Okay, so Krejci is playing. This is the Girona player.
It's a surprise. It's a surprise because Holes.
Holes played really well last time but I think he's maybe a little bit injured or...
So it's the same team as before, exactly the same team except Krejci is playing today.
So what about Ukraine then? Do they have any surprises on the team?
No, they have just Dovbek, a very dangerous guy.
Sudakov. He's the danger man.
Sudakov. He's like a playmaker.
Okay. Who is this Gutaliak?
Guculak.
Who is this guy?
Polisar Zettonar.
Okay.
Alright, well, I am honestly excited about this game. Anything could happen, right?
What's your prediction? I think it's really hard to call for me.
Like anything could happen in this game in my opinion.
In my opinion it could be 0-1 for Czech Republic.
You think so?
Yeah, or a close draw, 1-1.
So you don't think many goals will be scored today?
Yeah.
Would you prefer more goals?
Of course.
It would be more fun, right?
4-4.
I would take it. I would take a 4-4 draw.
Of course.
It's still away from home. It's still against a strong Ukrainian team. I would take it.
Ah, so they are already trying to spur on the fans.
Spur on the fans, yeah. Something like that.
Alright, Kirill, let's talk after the game, right?
Alright, I'm back on the Footgrish podcast, still with Kirill here.
Kirill was so nice and decided to stay with me for a couple of hours because, guys, my bus from Wroclaw leaves at 3am in the morning.
And that's a bummer because I need to stay somewhere for 3 hours basically.
So we are sitting somewhere at a gas station right now outside on a curb.
And basically, you know, just waiting to kill some time.
But Kirill, how did you see the game then? We almost forgot to record this.
Yeah.
Right?
It was a great match.
Did you enjoy it?
Of course. We were in the Czech fans' sector.
Right, it was the ex... what do you call them? The hooligans.
Ultras.
Ultras, right?
Yeah.
How many of them? How many Czech fans were there?
One hundred.
We really were among them.
We were among the Ultras.
Yeah.
They were not very aggressive. They were quite nice, respectful.
I enjoyed the fact that they were not singing something bad about the Ukrainians because, as I told you before, they did that against Albania.
And I honestly hated that.
So I was happy, like we were respectful and just supported the Czech team.
And it was fascinating to see you join in as well.
Of course.
So you were jumping like when we said, who doesn't jump isn't Czech.
Hop, hop, hop. Who doesn't jump isn't Czech.
Hop, hop, hop. You did that as well.
To be honest, I can't feel my feet after that right now. I'm not used to that kind of movement, Kirill.
And as we were walking here, you suggested that I should do some burpees as well.
Of course.
Why burpees? What are burpees, basically? What are they?
It's an exercise in which you should do some push-ups after that you stand up.
And jump.
Jump.
And go back to the push-up.
And then you do that on repeat.
On a circle, yeah.
It's one of the hardest exercises I've ever done, listeners.
I don't do that anymore, but Kirill seems to be an expert because he just told me that he did it for 30 minutes.
Half, half.
How can you do burpees for 30 minutes? I don't understand.
How is that even humanly possible?
I just listen to the next English podcast.
You listen to my other podcast, the next English podcast.
So you don't listen to the Footgish podcast.
Some of the episodes are shorter than 30 minutes, it's true.
That's funny.
Well, anyway, I think the listeners of this podcast are more curious about what went on in that game.
So basically the game finished 1-1.
It was 1-1, right?
The Czechia team took the lead in the first half through Lukas Czerw's shot.
There was a Ukrainian player who got injured during that set-piece situation, a corner maybe.
And then the player got injured, so we thought for a second that VAR was going to disallow the goal,
but I think it was some kind of accidental moment.
The guy was taking off on stretchers as well.
Something bad happened to the Ukrainian player.
But the goal stood, so the Czech Republic were 1-0 up, and we saw the goal, right?
We were quite close.
And in this sector, it was like the sector for ultras, so it's right in the corner in the Wroclaw Stadium,
and there was a net, like the net to protect everyone else from the ultras.
So we saw the match through the net.
Kind of.
We were not really a danger to anyone, to be honest.
We didn't have any sort of pyro or anything there, right?
No flags.
It was just supporting our team.
It was a small amount of fans, unfortunately.
Was it like 100 Czech fans or maybe 150?
We tried to make some noise, right?
We did our best.
There was a leader who was managing everyone else, right?
He was giving us the chance, like starting the chance, and we were trying to follow.
And we did what we could.
But obviously the Ukrainian fans were louder, right?
Because of their amount.
How many fans do you think were there in the stadium?
Did you notice the attendance, the turnout?
I think it's less than 20,000, definitely.
Maybe 15?
The upper stands were just empty.
The lower stands were full, but kind of.
The upper stands were completely empty.
And weak frequency.
But you know what? I actually kind of enjoyed the game.
I liked the game.
I think it had good tempo.
And it was interesting enough, even though it was just 1-1.
It was interesting enough.
It was so fast.
Yeah, it was a fast game.
I think the Czech team was on the front foot in the first half.
But then there was an incident in the second half.
Sorry?
Oh.
Someone was calling like 2 minutes ago.
Oh, don't worry about it.
OK, OK, OK.
Probably. No one important.
OK.
Yeah, thanks man.
No problem.
OK, so just to explain.
This was a Polish guy who was working for the gas station shop.
Or, what is it?
Kaff-Kaff.
Like, you know, you have those little 24-hour shops that are open 24-7, right?
At the gas station.
So it's one of those shops.
And we asked the guy to charge my phone because my phone is running out of battery, right?
Now he came to me saying that somebody was calling me.
Now I'm getting curious who it was.
Who was it?
Who could have called me like at 1 am?
Maybe Honza?
Honza, my cousin.
Why would they be trying to call me at 1 am?
That's weird.
But anyway, going back to the game then.
So in the second half, something happened and suddenly the referee blew the whistle and penalty for Ukraine.
And I don't think anybody knew at that moment.
Not even the players.
You know how the players know when there is a handball and they start sort of gesturing towards the referee?
None of that went on in that game.
The fans didn't say anything.
It just came out of nowhere, that penalty.
I need to see it on replay, to be honest.
I need to see the replay.
But it seemed a bit anticlimactic at that point.
Right?
So we cannot even say, like, was it a handball?
Was it not?
We can't say.
But VAR approved that.
VAR saw a handball, right?
Which probably was a handball, let's be honest.
But we need to see it.
It was Dovbik, right? Who scored?
Yes, number 11, Dovbik.
Dovbik is the penalty taker for Ukraine.
Where does he play again?
AS Roma.
Because Kirelo is an Italian league expert, Serie A expert, he knows it all.
But he came from Girona, the Spanish team.
You told me that he was the top goalscorer.
Yes, last year.
In the Spanish league.
Cool.
And then I thought, you know, in the second half,
I thought they kind of evened it out, they evened out the game.
And points shared was fair enough in the end.
Would you agree?
Of course.
At the beginning of the game I expected that it will end probably 0-1 for Czech Republic.
Or maybe it will be a friendly draw.
Yeah, I kind of expected something similar.
But I'm glad that we played quite well.
There has been a lot of improvement in the way the Czech team has played recently.
I'm very happy.
Since that terrible performance against Georgia, we've done really well.
Three good games, you know.
Seven points. It's nice.
Czech Republic should play more on the second half.
What's that?
With Header.
Oh yeah, you think we should play long balls?
Yeah.
Because we have tall guys.
It's your advantage, really.
Chory is very tall, so is Czech.
And some players are really good at heading the ball.
Keiči is good as well.
100%.
Yeah, you're right.
So now what this means for our group is that we are top of the league.
Because for some reason Georgia lost to Albania at home.
Which puts us...
Which makes us the leaders of the group now.
Which is good. Good.
But you have to win against Georgia.
If we beat Georgia at home, I don't think any other results matter anymore.
Even if we lose to Albania, we can afford to lose to Albania away from home.
As long as we beat Georgia at home.
Then we are good.
And we can win our group.
And we will progress to group A of the Nations League.
Which I think is no mean feat.
So thank you very much for the tickets again.
I really enjoyed this trip.
The worst part is now waiting for the bus.
Waiting for the bus.
It is what it is, as we say.
And who knows, maybe in the future one day...
I will come to Prague.
You will come to Prague or you will come again.
When Poland play the Czech Republic.
There will probably be more fans as well, right?
You will be cheering for your team this time.
Alright, Kirill, nice one.
Thank you.
Cheers.
Alright ladies and gentlemen.
I think it's time to close this episode of the Footglitch Podcast.
This is the last time I'm going to talk to you.
This episode has been made up of several shorter recordings.
Some of them I did by myself.
Some of them with my cousin Honza.
Then some of them with my friend Kirill.
And I've got a few more points to make to close this episode.
And then obviously that will be it.
So first of all I would like to say I'm sorry for losing my voice towards the end of all this.
I think you can imagine that being in the Ultras, being part of the Ultras and cheating for your team the entire game.
It takes its toll on you.
Your voice is going to suffer, right?
So actually I'm happy that I'm still able to talk, to be honest.
I think it's a miracle.
Because I was shouting really, really loudly.
And I was trying to be heard.
I was trying to support my team.
Then I have to say it was a real pleasure to meet Kirill.
It was the first time I saw him in real life.
And I also have to make one correction here.
Because at the beginning, somewhere at the beginning of this episode.
Actually no, sorry, it was right after the first game, the game against Albania.
I said that Kirill is Ukrainian.
And I'm going to meet a Ukrainian guy who bought me a ticket.
Well it's true, he is from Ukraine.
But after meeting him today and talking to him and getting to know him better.
It turns out that he kind of feels more Polish.
His identity is obviously not completely Polish.
Because he wasn't born here.
But he has been living here for a long, long time.
He is married, he has a child that was born here.
So he feels more Polish.
That's why he wasn't really supporting Ukraine today.
And he sort of joined me supporting the Czech team instead.
So that's one thing I wanted to rectify.
Hopefully I managed to do that.
And then there was another wonderful moment.
Because finally I managed to see my student who started working for the Czech national team actually.
And I texted her.
I've been having lessons with Denisa for almost a year now.
Maybe longer even.
And we never met in real life.
It's all been just online, right?
So it's great that finally I managed to see her live.
And we took a photo with each other.
But it was kind of funny.
Because in the ultra sector in Wroclaw there was a barrier.
There was a see-through plastic board.
And we weren't even able to sort of shake each other's hand.
So we were behind that.
We were close enough.
We took a photo with each other as well.
Which is hilarious.
I was glad to meet Denisa for the first time ever.
That was cool.
Overall I have to say I really enjoyed both games.
It was a really good decision to go to those games.
And to be one of the fans supporting the Czech team.
And then as we were going back to the bus station.
We were on a tram and there were a lot of Ukrainian fans singing.
And that was kind of cool as well.
I managed to soak up more atmosphere.
Even after the game.
And also I have to say this has been a unique experience.
Recording the Furtgris podcast in a slightly different way this time.
It's really different, right?
It's kind of less comfortable.
But at the same time it's more adrenaline and more authentic.
I think for the fans.
There's kind of a story to it, right?
Unbalanced.
I think it's nice to do it differently.
Why not?
Right? For a change.
Okay.
And now over to you.
What did you guys think of this episode?
By the way, if you want, you can send me an email.
Yeah, you can send me an email at the Furtgris podcast at gmail.com if you want.
And give me your opinions.
By the way, if you like what I do.
And I have to tell you guys, I do this in my free time.
It's just something I do because I find it enjoyable.
And because hopefully one day there will be more people.
There will be a bigger audience.
That's kind of the plan, right?
Hopefully there will be some people supporting what I do as well.
And you can be one of the sort of founding fathers of this project.
I've got the Furtgris podcast page on my hero hero.
Where you can contribute, right?
You can consider supporting me there.
If you think that what I do with this podcast is worth supporting.
Well, that's up to you.
I'll leave that up to you.
And if you think it's not worth the support, then you know what?
I can promise that I'll do my best to improve in the future.
And to make this podcast even better.
I will try to be consistent and keep bringing interesting episodes.
After all, football is something I love.
So you know what?
If I didn't do this, I would probably do something different, right?
I would probably be creative in a different way.
So why not?
All right.
Thank you very much for listening and I'll speak to you soon.
Cheers. Bye for now.
All right, everyone.
All that remains to do now is the language corner.
Obviously, this will be I promise.
I really promise this will be the final part of this episode.
Because honestly, it has been very long, right?
So I would like to talk about the word live in the episode.
I said the following sentence.
I attended two games live.
Right.
So we're looking at the final word live.
Now, this one is really interesting and can be confusing to English learners.
And that's because we also have the word live.
For example, I live in the Czech Republic.
Where do you guys live?
You know this word.
Everybody knows this word.
If you can listen to this podcast, if you're at good enough level to be able to understand what I'm saying,
you definitely know the word live, the verb live.
But do you know the adjective live, which is spelled in exactly the same way?
L I V E.
Yes, that's what makes it confusing.
Right. Live.
OK. Again, I think most of you have heard of this one.
Basically, we use this adjective to talk about a performance or some kind of broadcast,
which is recorded or seen while it is happening.
So in this case, I went to the stadiums to see that performance of the Czech players, right, of that football team.
Basically, I went to see the game live.
Right. You can go to see a concert live as well, which means you don't watch it somewhere five days later after it was recorded.
You watch it live.
You can also watch something live on TV.
That's possible, too. Right.
Basically, you watch it as it is happening.
Right. Not not as part of some highlights, not as as a recorded game, which you then watch later, not at the time it was actually happening.
Right. So the problematic thing we have to be careful about here is pronunciation.
Live.
And then there is another word life.
And it's again confusing because some people don't know how to pronounce the final sound as a voiced sound.
So they would just pronounce these two words live and life in the same way.
But unfortunately, you need to make a difference when it comes to pronouncing these two words.
So life, like, for example, it's my life, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Who was this guy? Bon Jovi, the singer.
Yeah. He sang this song.
It's my life. Yeah.
You could say I have a difficult life or my life is full of surprises.
You know, I enjoy living my life.
Right. That's that's a noun.
L I F E.
So there's F instead of V.
But the adjective that I'm explaining in this particular language corner is with the sound.
So is the voice sound live.
The same vowel I.
But when you have a voiced sound at the end of a word, the previous vowel is actually a little bit longer.
So in order to be able to pronounce it.
So you say live instead of life, which is the same vowel I.
But it sounds much shorter because the final sound is voiceless.
Obviously, this is quite advanced stuff.
I am basically talking about phonology right now.
And if it's difficult for you to understand, don't worry.
Just try to remember we have three words, live, live and life.
And try to be careful about how we pronounce all those three words and how we use them.
All right. That's basically it for today.
I don't want to keep this episode any longer.
I don't want to hold you.
I think you have some stuff to do, obviously, probably watching some football games, right?
So thank you very much for listening.
And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast if you haven't done so already.
Thank you guys and bye for now.