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Superstars Ronaldo and Messi are both out; Brazil and Mexico go at it this morning—and Russia stuns Spain in a penalty-shot upset
A lot has happened in the World Cup so far, and we’ll go through all the big games as the knockout stage has begun. Today’s episode is a special World Cup episode and you can find the transcript online at PlainEnglish.com/61. This is a bonus episode and I’m writing it on Sunday, post-World Cup action, so there are no translations for this episode. But soccer is its own international language, right? So I bet you’ll still understand everything if you listen and read along at PlainEnglish.com/61.
Uruguay, France, Russia and Croatia victorious in knockout stage
Now every game counts: we have reached the knockout stage of the World Cup, where the winner of each game advances to the next round, and the loser goes home. And the first two teams to meet that fate were soccer powerhouses Portugal and Argentina. France knocked off Lionel Messi and Argentina by a score of 4-3, in a rollercoaster victory that featured 19-year old Kylian Mbappé scoring two goals, as France came from behind to knock out Messi and Argentina. If you have trouble pronouncing Mbappé, you can call him Donatello—that’s what his teammates call him, since they say he looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle named Donatello. Whatever you call him, the young French forward has made a splash in this World Cup. He is the youngest player since Pele in 1958 to score two goals in a single World Cup knockout match. He outshined Lionel Messi and some are now wondering if the Frenchman will establish himself as one of the game’s best in the coming years.
The other early knockout was Uruguay and also featured a single player scoring two goals—in this case, Edinson Cavani’s two goals were his team’s only goals, but that was enough to put Uruguay over Portugal and knock out the other legend of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo. Uruguay got off to a slow start this year, but they have gotten better with each game. They will face France, Les Bleus, in the quarterfinals on Friday.
It was heartbreak for Spain and jubilation for host Russia yesterday morning. They fought to a 1-1 draw after regulation time—but in the knockout round, there is no such thing as a draw. The game went to penalty shots and when goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev deflected Iago Aspas’s final penalty shot attempt, the celebrations broke out for real in Moscow and around Russia. Just a day earlier, the Russian coach had said: Anyone can be a god if he tries.
Croatia also knocked out Denmark in the second game yesterday, setting up a quarterfinal matchup between Croatia and Russia.
Belgium, Croatia and Uruguay came out of the Group rounds undefeated. Croatia and Uruguay have already won their first two games in the knockout round; Belgium will face Japan tomorrow.
The most anticipated game on the schedule right now is Brazil against Mexico—and that is actually today, Monday morning at 9 am. Depending on when you’re listening, that game may already be over. Mexico has played well so far and they are eagerly anticipating the chance to knock off Brazil. They have never beaten Brazil in the World Cup and haven’t defeated them in international play in six years. But Mexico captain Andres Guardado says it’s the game of their lives and the chance to knock off a five-time World Cup champion is all the motivation they need to bring their best. This is the seventh consecutive time Mexico has made the knockout round of a World Cup, but they have never won the tournament.
This World Cup is shaping up to be a popular one, but not record-breaking from an audience standpoint. I saw a stat that TV ratings in the US are down over 40% from last time—not surprising since the games are on while most of America is either sleeping or at work. Ratings are doing well in Europe, despite an early exit from Germany, one of the biggest TV markets. But England’s and France’s successes so far are expected to keep European ratings high. Here’s a quick warning if you watch pirated free streams online: cyber-criminals are using the opportunity to send malicious code to your computer. So if you’re watching on some illegal web site, make sure you don’t download anything from that site—and if you have the opportunity to watch at a restaurant or a friend’s house, do that instead of watching an illegal stream.
A couple quick stats before we wrap up today. Harry Kane of England leads all players with 5 goals so far this World Cup. When Japan beat Colombia in the Group Stage, that was the first time an Asian country beat a South American country at the World Cup.
I want to say hi to a couple of listeners today. First of all, Diego, who is originally from Colombia. He said he’s been listening since the very beginning—that’s almost six months now. Right now he’s living in Brisbane, Australia—so a big hello to Diego from Down Under.
I also want to send greetings to Karollyne from Brazil. Whenever I talk about Chicago it brings back good memories for Karollyne, who spent some time here studying at one the universities here. Thanks Karollyne for being in the audience.
If you’d like to get in touch with the program, you can connect with us on Twitter and Facebook with the user name PlainEnglishPod.
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