Learners’ Podcast 27 – Munich / African Cup of Nations

This week Damon is in freezing Tokyo while Damian is in hot and humid Bangkok. On learner's podcast 27 there are three reports: first Damian reviews the African Cup of Nations then Damon explains the Munich Air Crash on its 50th anniversary. Finally we have another expression in English for Football. There are transcripts for all three of the reports below as well as the following links for language learners. Worksheets and transcripts Vocabulary lists Online quizzes and crossword puzzles Weekly blogs from our football-crazy writers in fansa€™ forum Transcript The African Cup of Nations has reached the semi final stage and the languagecaster team looks back at the unqualified success of the tournament so far. With Ghana proving to be excellent hosts, large crowds watching the games, teams playing attacking football, lots of wonderful goals and new stars emerging the controversy surrounding the club versus country issue before the competition had even started has become a distant memory. 70 goals were scored in the group stages with only two scoreless draws taking place as teams attempted to qualify in positive style and few would have predicted the North African sides, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt being among the top scorers. These three teams scored 20 goals in total with only Morocco not making it to the later stages. Two other teams that were expected to make the knock-outs but failed were Senegal and Mali, who were many people's dark horses. While pre-tournament favourites Nigeria were poor throughout and returned home after losing to their great rivals Ghana in the quarter finals. Their coach Bertie Vogts will be looking for a new job soon I feel! The other quarter finals saw Ivory Coast thrash Guinea 5-0, Cameroon beat Tunisia 3-2 after extra time and holders Egypt hold off a spirited Angolan team 2-1. The Angolans were playing in the knock out stages for the first time and threw up one of the stars of the tournament in Manucho who has been signed by Manchester United. Other star performances so far include Ivory Coast's Drogba, Kalou and Keita, Ghana's Michael Essien and Julius Agogo, Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o and Stephane M'bia, as well as Egypt's Amr Zaki and Zidan who all hope to be playing in Sunday's final. I am sticking with my original prediction and going for an Ivory Coast victory. The 6th of February, 1958 saw one of the biggest footballing tragedies in the English game. Flight 609 crashed while making it's third attempt to take off from Munich airport in poor weather. There was snow on the runway and ice on the plane's wings. Twenty two of the passengers died either immediately or because of their injuries later. The plane was carrying the 'Busby Babes', the young Manchester United side coached by Matt Busby - the average age of the squad was just 24, and they were on their way back from a European tie against Red Star Belgrade. The team had looked set to dominate the English game and perhaps the new european Cup too. It was to be a decade before Matt Busby, who nearly died in the crash, built a side capable of winning European's top club prize. So this year is a special one for Manchester United. It's 50 years since the tragedy and the club would dearly love to mark it by winning the European Cup and the premiership title. They look capable of both. They could even win a treble with the FA Cup as well. What a way to honour those players, coaches and journalists who died half a century before. And in one of those weird footballing coincidences, Manchester United will take on their rivals in blue Manchester City four days after the anniversary. The newspapers and message boards have been full of speculation about how the Manchester City fans will mark the event. United want a minutes silence, while City asked for a minutes applause - fearing that a silence will not be able to hide the noise some of their fans may make to disrupt the mark of respect. As another mark of respect, United will play in a kit based on that of 1958. It will have no numbers or players' names.