Sport — B1 Vocabulary

B1 VOCABULARY · SPORT

Thursday Legends

PICTURE

(you add this)

"Nobody wants to beat you more than a man who can hear his own knees."

People & places · *win, beat, lose, draw* · *warm up, work out, be sent off, be knocked out*

Listening

Speaking

LEAD-IN

Sport survey

Find someone in the class who...

• plays a team sport.

• watches sport but never plays.

• has won a medal or trophy for anything.

• thinks watching sport is a waste of time. Report back.

PICTURE

(you add this)

VOCABULARY · B1 & B2

Places and people.

1. Where do you do it? tennis → ________ · football → ________ · swimming → ________ · athletics → ________ · Formula 1 → ________ · golf → ________ · skiing → ________

(pool · pitch · slope · court · track · circuit · course)

2. Who am I? I lead the team on the pitch and wear the armband. ________

3. I train the team but don't play. ________

4. I control the match and show the cards. In tennis I sit on a high chair and have a different name. ________

5. We paint our faces and sing badly. We are thousands. ________

VOCABULARY · B3

Win or beat? Complete the rule, then the sentences.

1. You ________ a match, a medal, a trophy. You ________ another team or person.

2. Complete: We ________ the final! We ________ them 3–1!

3. Past forms: win → ________ → ________

4. beat → ________ → ________

5. lose → ________ → ________

6. draw → ________ → ________

BEFORE YOU LISTEN

The Thursday Legends

A local radio interview with the captain of an amateur football team. Average age: fifty-eight.

LISTEN FOR

1. What is unusual about this team?

2. What happened in yesterday's final?

PICTURE

(you add this)

LISTENING

Tapescript: "The Thursday Legends"

VERA I'm at the sports hall on Milner Road with Rafael Duarte, captain of the Thursday Legends — the team everyone's talking about this week. Rafael, for listeners who don't know: what exactly are the Legends?

RAFAEL We're an over-50s football team. Average age fifty-eight. Our goalkeeper is sixty-nine. We train every Thursday — hence the name — and yesterday we played in the regional veterans' final.

VERA Against a team with an average age of... fifty-one, I believe. Practically children.

RAFAEL Babies. They warmed up by running. We warmed up by discussing our knees.

VERA Take us through the match.

RAFAEL So, first half, we're brilliant. Tomasz scores after ten minutes — lovely header — and the crowd goes crazy. And I should say, we had a real crowd: two hundred spectators, flags, drums. My grandchildren made a banner with my face on it. Terrifying, but sweet.

VERA And then it got complicated.

RAFAEL It did. Just before half-time their striker went down in the box — nobody touched him, the man simply remembered gravity — and the referee gave a penalty. 1–1. Our coach was so angry she had to sit in the car park for ten minutes. And then early in the second half, our defender Gustav got sent off.

VERA For a bad foul?

LISTENING (continued)

Tapescript: "The Thursday Legends"

RAFAEL For arguing. He told the referee, very calmly, that his decision was — I'll say "unusual". The referee disagreed with "calmly". Red card. So we're playing with ten men, average age older than the stadium, against eleven fifty-one-year-old athletes.

VERA And yet.

RAFAEL And yet. Last minute of the match, still 1–1, we get a corner. Our sixty-nine-year-old goalkeeper — Ernesto — runs the whole length of the pitch to join in. Coach is screaming at him to go back. The ball comes over, and Ernesto — I still can't believe I'm saying this — scores with his shoulder. Possibly his ear. The referee checked everything, and it counted. 2–1. Full-time thirty seconds later.

VERA The crowd?

RAFAEL On the pitch. All two hundred of them. Ernesto was crying, the coach was crying, a man I've never met gave me his hat.

VERA So what's next for the Legends — the national tournament?

RAFAEL First, physiotherapy. Marek got injured during the celebrations — pulled a muscle dancing. Then yes, nationals in May. We're not the fittest team, we're definitely not the fastest, but we've trained together eleven years, and honestly? Nobody wants to beat you more than a man who can hear his own knees.

COMPREHENSION

Put the events in order, 1–8.

____ Gustav was sent off for arguing with the referee.

____ Tomasz scored a header.

____ Marek got injured — while celebrating.

____ The referee gave a controversial penalty.

____ Ernesto scored the winning goal.

____ The spectators ran onto the pitch.

____ The coach went to calm down in the car park.

____ Ernesto ran forward for a corner.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Find, complete and sort.

1. Find in the tapescript: the verb for putting the ball in the goal ( ________ ); a phrasal verb for preparing your body ( ________ ________ ); the passive phrasal verb for being ordered off the pitch ( ________ ________ ________ ); get + adjective for fitness and injury ( get ________ , get ________ ).

2. Complete about the match: The Legends ________ the match 2–1. They ________ a younger team. At half-time it was 1–1: the teams were ________ . The other team ________ .

3. do / play / go + sport: ________ football, tennis, chess · ________ swimming, running, skiing · ________ yoga, judo, athletics.

4. Work out the pattern: which verb goes with ball games? With -ing activities? With individual disciplines?

PRACTICE · F1

Complete with the correct word.

1. The final was played in a 60,000-seat ________ , and every seat was full.

2. The ________ blew the whistle and showed him a red card.

3. In basketball, players ________ the ball to each other; in football they ________ it.

4. She ________ out every morning at the gym before work. Every. Morning.

5. Our team was ________ out of the cup in the semi-finals. Again.

6. Always ________ up before running — your future self says thank you.

7. Skiers race down the ________ ; swimmers race in the ________ ; runners race on the ________ .

8. Professional athletes ________ six days a week to stay at that level.

PRACTICE · F2

Choose the correct verb in this conversation.

1. A: Did you watch the final?

2. B: We won / beat! We won / beat them on penalties!

3. A: Incredible. And the semi?

4. B: We drew / lost 2–2 after ninety minutes and then won / beat the penalty shoot-out too.

5. A: You'll lose / draw the final next year, statistically.

6. B: Thank you for your support.

SPEAKING

Post-match interview

Student A is a reporter. Student B is the captain, star or coach of a team that has just won — or lost — dramatically.

• Any sport, real or invented: office chair racing is a sport if you commit.

• Three-minute interview, using at least eight target words. Then swap.

• The best quote gets written on the board.

PICTURE

(you add this)

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B1 tennis: court · football: pitch · swimming: pool · athletics: track · Formula 1: circuit · golf: course · skiing: slope

B2 1 captain · 2 coach · 3 referee (in tennis: umpire) · 4 fans (the crowd / supporters)

B3 You win a match, a medal, a trophy; you beat a team or a person. We won the final! We beat them 3–1! Past forms: win-won-won · beat-beat-beaten · lose-lost-lost · draw-drew-drawn

GIST An over-50s amateur team (average age 58, goalkeeper 69). They won the veterans' final 2–1 with ten men after a sending-off, the 69-year-old goalkeeper scoring the winner in the last minute.

COMPREHENSION 1 Tomasz scored · 2 the penalty was given · 3 the coach went to the car park · 4 Gustav was sent off · 5 Ernesto ran forward for the corner · 6 Ernesto scored · 7 the spectators ran on · 8 Marek got injured celebrating

LANGUAGE FOCUS score · warm up · be sent off · get fit, get injured. The Legends won the match; they beat a younger team; at half-time they were drawing (level); the other team lost. play football/tennis/chess · go swimming/running/skiing · do yoga/judo/athletics — play + games, go + -ing activities, do + individual disciplines.

F1 1 stadium · 2 referee · 3 throw / kick · 4 works · 5 knocked · 6 warm · 7 slope / pool / track · 8 train

F2 won! / beat / drew / won / lose

HOMEWORK Write the sports report of the Legends' final for a local website (100–140 words), past tenses throughout: scored, was sent off, beat, drew...