Learner’s Podcast – Week 24

A On this week's show Damon and Damian take a look at the African Nations' Cup in Ghana. Damian also has a new English for Football phrase.Try out ourA worksheetsA orA online quizA to help you practice your listening and vocabulary skills. TranscriptA A This cup keeps getting bigger and bigger in terms of worldwide interest, and even though Africa only has one team, Nigeria, ranked in FIFAa€™s top 20 therea€™s no doubt that Africa producesA some of the best and most exciting players in world football: Michael Essien, Youssef Hadji, Obafemi Martins, Yakubu, Drogba, Kolo Toure, Etoa€™o, the list goes on. To celebrate this feast of football, here is a look at the tournament in numbers.5 - The number of letters in the host nations name - Ghana. Also the number of times Egypt (the most successful side in the competition) have won the Cup.26 - The number of times it has been held. The whole show started in 1957.4 - There will be four venues: Tamole (20,000), Mumasi (44,000), Accra (44,000) and Sekondi-Takoradi. This is also the number of groups, and the number of times Mali have participated and the number of times they have progressed to the last four. Can they do better this time?16 - There are sixteen teams taking part: In group A, Ghana the hosts take on Guinea, Morocco and Namibia. A tough group, but my guess is Ghana to go through with Morocco. Group B is also a difficult group: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali and Benin. Ivory Coast have got to be favourites here, as they are packed with big stars playing in Europe, and Ia€™m going to tip Mali to join them. Group C has Egypt, Cameroon, Zambia and Sudan, and this looks like a two horse race, with the team with the history in the cup, Egypt, probably vying with Cameroon for the top two spots. The final group, D, will pit Tunisia, Senegal, South Africa and Angola against each other. South Africa seem to be going backwards at the moment and Angola would be a big surprise to progress, so it looks like the Carthage Eagles and the Teranga Lions to go through.13 - The number of countries who have won the Cup3 - The number of teams with a€˜eaglea€™ in their nickname: The Super eagles form Nigeria, The eagles from mali, and the Carthage Eagles from Tunisia.0- The number of times Angola, the next host for the competition in 2010, has won the Cup4-2 - The score in penalties of the last competitiona€™s final between Egypt and the Ivory Coast.14 -A  Goals scored by the competitions top-goal scorer, Laurent Pokou from the Ivory Coast. I wonder if Drogba can top that?