You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast. Love football, learn English.
Czech Republic 2, Georgia 1. How massive is this result for my country?
Was Czechia the better team in this Nations League game?
Who were the best Czech players on the night?
What are the words neither and either and how do we use them in English?
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.
Your solution to learning English through football.
Because as an English teacher, I believe that the best way to learn is by having fun and enjoying yourself.
So that's why I started this podcast. My name is Denik Lucas and I'm your host.
And every host needs a guest and today we have a returning guest.
I believe it's his third appearance. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Tom.
I think you're right. Hello Denik and hello to everybody. It's nice to be here as always.
Good to have you back. I have a question for you, Tomas, to start with.
Do you remember the first time you were on this podcast? After which game it was?
I do. It was when we met in July. Was it in July? I think so.
And it was after our match in Europe. Against?
Against Portugal? It was Georgia.
Ah, Georgia, sorry. We played against Georgia. It was 1-1, remember?
And we played really well, but at the end of the game they had a really big chance.
The Georgian players. And we almost lost that game in our chance of advancing in the tournament.
The reason I'm asking you this... We had a couple of beers as well. This is what I remember very well.
Are you sober this time then? Yes. You're still in your work, aren't you?
I am. That's why. Still at work.
I'm also sober because I've just finished one of my English lessons. I teach online these days.
So I think today it might be more measured from us, right? More sort of academic almost.
But the common denominator, Thomas, to use a mathematical term, because I know you are good at math.
The common denominator is that we're going to talk about a game against Georgia again.
Did you know? Did you realize that? I guess so.
Czech Republic-Georgia, which finished 2-1 for the Czech team.
It was the last game in the Nations League group. This means that our team got promoted to League A.
So next time there's the Nations League, we will be in League A with the best teams.
This also means that we have secured the playoffs for the upcoming World Cup.
And there's more, Tomas. We also are now in pot two, because before this game we were in pot three.
But by getting three points, we managed to get to pot two for the draw of this qualification, the next qualification for the World Cup.
So it was a hat-trick of achievements for the Czech teams. Which of these things do you think is the most important one, Tom?
It's difficult to say. I would say that the most important is that we won the group.
And we definitely improved our impression after the first match when we lost against Georgia 4-1.
I think everyone was very unhappy and was very skeptical about our performance in this group.
But at the end we won and this is the most important thing.
And yesterday's match, I think the first 25 minutes was extremely enjoyable. I have really enjoyed it.
And the next 70 minutes was full of uncertainty, I would say.
Do you know how this game started?
Okay, let me describe my experience of watching this game.
So I turned on my computer and launched my stream.
And then one minute later I received a message from Tomáš and the message was, yay, we scored a goal!
I'm like, okay, where? I don't see any of that.
I think my stream was like two minutes delayed, so I took my phone and recorded the goal.
So that was an interesting experience.
And after that, Tomáš, I have to say, I put my phone on do not disturb.
I love discussing football with you during games, but I have to make sure that I'm not too much behind with my stream.
You ignored me.
I did not, but I always waited for the half time.
I wouldn't dare to ignore my guest.
I noticed Tomáš, so you mentioned that the first game of this Nations League campaign that we lost 4-1.
What does this say about us as football fans that we recorded a podcast after every single game against Georgia, except that one?
How come?
We were too depressed.
It would have been a depressing podcast, so we didn't want that feeling to be passed on our listeners, right?
Yes.
This was the main reason, right?
You were actually being nice to our listeners. Yeah, that makes sense.
Okay, Tomáš, so who were your best players yesterday?
Which players did you think put in a great shift yesterday?
I would start with the goalkeeper because I think Kovář was extremely important.
He saved like two or three goals and he was very confident.
He didn't make any significant mistake.
It was very good, so he would be my number one.
But unfortunately, he's number two at Leverkusen right now because Hradecky is number one there.
But he's your number one.
Yes.
Then I would definitely mention Adam Holozek because he really played a very good match yesterday.
Basically, he scored one goal and he prepared the first goal.
Yeah, he was involved.
Yes, he was very strong in dribbling and he was self-confident as well.
So he would be my number two.
And then I think Alex Grau would be number three.
Alex the King.
Alex the King, exactly.
Have you heard the press conference?
Yes.
Have you heard the press conference?
I've heard it.
What happened?
Describe it to our listeners.
I think that they were asking about the name of Alex Grau, his surname.
Yeah, because there was a translator from Czech to Georgian.
And I think she was translating simultaneously or consecutively one of those.
And then she forgot about the surname of the player.
So she asked during her translation, she asked Hacheck, our manager, what's his surname?
And he said, what did he say?
King.
He said Kral.
No, he said Kral first.
And then he added the King to help with the translation.
But everybody started laughing because in Czech Kral means King.
It just seemed very funny to everyone involved.
And he was very good as well, I think.
He was the King.
He was the King, definitely.
And the great news is that even without Tomáš Souček, he was playing, I think, mainly his role.
He was very good at it.
He was excellent at stealing the ball.
He was like everywhere.
I think him and another player, Cerv, now if we want to use the same thing, so we should say the worm,
because that's the translation of the word Cerv.
Kral and Cerv, the King and the worm.
It's the current Czech midfield.
So, yeah, I would say early bird catches the worm, but nobody caught this worm.
He was everywhere.
And what do you think?
Who was the best from our team, according to your opinion?
So, you know, after the game that I sent you a message, I was really excited about Alex Kral's performance.
I have to say, I think later when I thought about it and I read other people's opinions,
I realized that I may have been a little bit biased because I don't remember Alex Kral playing so well in the previous years.
And that's why my expectation was so low that this excellent performance, it just there was such a huge gap,
huge gap between my expectation and the reality that in my head, it meant that he was the best player on the pitch.
But then looking at it from the benefit of the hindsight, I would say it was Kovář, I think, the goalkeeper, because he saved us, really.
And then it was a team game. A lot of players. Excellent.
But I think the team was above everything, because if you look even at the individual qualities of the Georgian players,
not only Hvíča Kváraškelja, but the other players as well, they technically better than our players.
I would agree. Yes, absolutely. But I think that our tactic was very good. It was quite similar to Slavia, Prague, wasn't it?
It was very... Your favorite team. Yeah, but we already talked about this, that the national team now is playing in a similar way like Slavia.
So with a very high intensity and they try to score as soon as possible because they usually start with super high intensity.
And it happened yesterday as well. And after 25 minutes, it was 2-0. So our tactic, exquisite.
I don't think anyone understood this joke. Only people who know Stanislav Žezáč, the famous Czech biathlonist who gave an interview in three languages,
which is Czech, English and German at the same time, will understand. If you haven't heard this, please Google Stanislav Žezáč and his interview in three languages.
Then you will understand why I told this joke. But I'm a little bit scared that only about three people got the joke. And one of them was Tomáš.
Anyway, Tom, what else can I ask you about? So do you think there's bright future ahead of us now in the Czech national team,
considering that we have some young players in the team now and we should also mention our under-21s have qualified to the Euros after beating the Belgian team, 3-1 on aggregate.
It was a two-legged tie. So do you think it looks like there will be better times ahead for the Czech team?
Well, I think it's fair to say that we were lucky in both cases. So under-21, the first game against Belgium, both goals were really just lucky goals.
We were not a better team. Definitely. And yesterday against Georgia, I would say the same.
Really? You think we were?
I think we were not a better team. We were...
Would you say so?
Yeah, I would say so. I think, like you mentioned, the Georgian players, they are technically, they are on a very high level.
I missed this a little.
But if you look at stats, just to counter your argument a little bit. So if you look at the number of shots, we actually had nine shots in total, whereas Georgia only six.
Yeah, so I think we were a little bit better when it came to shots. The only big difference, I would say here, is the possession of the ball.
So they had two-thirds of the game, they had the ball, two-thirds of the game, 65% of possession. So that's a lot.
And also the chances, I think Georgia had quite a lot of chances.
Yes, but we had six. Six on target, they had five on target. Maybe it was about what kind of chances they were. Maybe their XG was bigger.
I'm looking at this right now on the website, but I cannot see XG there. So it's possible that Georgia had better XG. I don't know.
So I wouldn't say that we were like 100% better than Georgia. Let's see. Let's hope for a bright future.
Exactly. Exactly. That's what we can only hope for. That's what I do on this podcast as well, Tomas.
It's great that we have a lot of young players now. I think Czerw and Schultz, they are very promising.
So hopefully they will be playing as much as possible. Exactly.
So they will gain the experience in tough matches against big European teams.
I don't think Ivan Hache can imagine his team without these players anymore.
Neither can I. I cannot imagine this podcast without Tomas either, to be honest.
So thank you very much, Tomas. I promised to you that it would be very short today. So I want to keep my promise.
Thank you very much for listening, everyone. Tomas, any last words?
Thank you very much. It was a pleasure, as always. And hopefully next time we will be celebrating some good results.
We will probably do another podcast about Georgia with our luck.
Imagine we might get Georgia in the World Cup qualifier or something like that. Yeah, it's possible.
Okay. Anyway, Tom, have a nice day, man. Thank you very much.
Have a nice day. Bye bye. Take care. You too.
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Language Corner.
As always, in this part of the show, I'm going to explain to you some bits of the English language because I'm an English teacher.
And that's what we do. We are here to help you with the English language.
And as you know, my approach is to teach English through football.
So the context for this language is always the interview that I have with my guest.
Today, my guest was Tom. By the way, before I get to the nitty gritty of this Language Corner bit, I should also make something right.
I said in the podcast that Stanislav Rzeszac is a Czech biathlonist. It's actually not true.
He is a long distance cross country skier. Right. So I apologize for that.
Anyway, I hope you find the video interesting. If you indeed do search for it online, I have to say it's well worth it.
But what are we going to talk about today? Well, this is what I said.
I don't think Ivan Hasek can imagine his team without these two players. And neither can I.
Now, I was referring to Pavel Schultz and also another player, Czerw, these two Victoria Plzenj players.
And I used the phrase, and neither can I. And then after that, I said, I cannot imagine this show without Tomas either.
Tomas was my guest. Right. So I use the word neither. Then I use the word either. What do these words mean?
How do we use them? Basically, they are both used to agree with negative statements.
If I say, I don't think Ivan Hasek can imagine his team without these players, this statement or this sentence has a kind of a negative meaning.
Right. So I cannot imagine this, basically. Sorry, Ivan Hasek cannot imagine this.
And if I want to agree with the negative statement, I can use the word neither. There are two ways I could do this.
First of all, the simpler one is to say me neither. Yeah, that would have been the simpler way to say it.
But also you can use neither or neither. The pronunciation doesn't matter. Both variants are acceptable.
Neither, neither. Then the verb, the helping verb usually or the modal verb.
And then the subject, which is usually a person's name or a pronoun. Like in this case, it's I. Right.
Let me give you another example. Someone might say, I'm not very good at heading the ball. I'm not very good in the air, let's say.
And if I want to agree with this, if I want to say that I'm the same, basically, I can say neither am I. Yeah.
Or someone could say I train very hard every day. Right.
This is different because it's a positive statement. If I want to agree with the positive statement, I can either say me too, which I believe most of you know already.
Or I can say so do I. So do I. Right.
Another one could be I can I can run for 50 minutes straight. Right.
And if you want to agree with it, you can say me too. Or so can I. Right.
So you see the structure is similar to neither. And so it's a similar structure.
You so neither. Then after that, the helping verb and finally the pronoun or if it's a person's name.
But the point is neither is used to agree with a negative statement.
So it's used to agree with positive statement. Me too is also used to agree with the positive statement.
And then there was that word either, which here is used also to agree with the negative statement.
The trick is you have to put it at the end of the sentence.
So I said I cannot imagine this show without Tom either.
Basically, it was a little joke. But you could say let me give you another example.
You could say something like this player is not very good at dribbling. Right.
I don't know. Tomas Socek is not very good at dribbling.
And if I want to agree with this. So this is a negative statement. He's not good.
I could use neither. Right. But I can also use either.
I just have to make sure it's at the end of the statement.
I can say, well, I'm not good at dribbling either or either.
Again, either either both variants of pronunciation are acceptable. Right.
So hopefully this has been useful, guys. Hopefully I made it clear.
It's not easy. This grammar. It can be quite confusing.
And there is more to it. But I don't want to overwhelm you at this point.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the show.
I hope you liked this one about the Czech Republic.
I know not everyone is a Czech Republic fan, the Czechia fan.
But you know, guys, that I'm from the Czech Republic.
So occasionally I will have to cover the Czech team, the Czech players and so on.
But I think next time it will all be about the Premier League as usual.
Thank you very much for listening.
And if you did enjoy this episode, why don't you give it a like on the Teachers Denik YouTube channel,
leave a comment or even subscribe to the channel.
It will help this show out a lot, even if you don't watch this on YouTube.
If you're a listener, if you are an audio listener, please, you still you could go to YouTube channel and help the show.
It can really make a massive difference to me and how this show will succeed in the future.
Anyway, that's it from me today. Thank you very much and goodbye.