Main Listening Report (Week 8): London Football Teams

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Each week on languagecaster's podcast we feature a main listening report and on this week's show we look at the teams from the capital of England. You can listen to the report by clicking the link below and can also read the transcript. Explanations of vocabulary in bold appear at the foot of the post.



Listen to the main listening report on London Teams

Introduction

In this season's Champions League, the final will be taking place in a European capital city which has never produced a winning side in Europe's most important club competition and yet has three teams competing in this season's tournament. It is a city with 13 full-time professional clubs yet only three of them have ever won the English title. We are of course talking about London.

History

The oldest professional club in London is Fulham who were formed in 1879 and they were soon followed by Tottenham in 1882, by Arsenal in 1886, 1895 saw West Ham's birth and in 1905 Chelsea were founded. Fulham have always been based in the western part of London, right on the banks of the River Thames in one of the more exclusive parts of the city. Along the river lies Chelsea yet despite this proximity the two teams are not really regarded as fierce rivals, probably because of the fact that they have not always been in the same division. Arsenal and Tottenham can be found in the northern part of the city only five kilometres apart, with West Ham a little more towards the east, and their biggest rivals are Championship side Millwall on the south side of the river. Both West Ham and Millwall's history are closely linked to the old docks of London and there is little love lost between these two sets of supporters.

Rivalries

Of course there are other big rivalries with West Ham fans not really liking Tottenham, Tottenham not liking Chelsea and, since the two teams have become part of the 'big four', there is a mutual dislike between Arsenal and Chelsea. But without a doubt the biggest rivalry in the capital city is between north-London teams Tottenham and Arsenal. They have played 168 times in all competitions with Arsenal winning 71 times to Spurs 51, though I am sure many of those Arsenal victories were lucky ones!

Honours



Well, as we mentioned earlier, three teams have won the title: Arsenal with 13 wins, Chelsea, the current champions, have four and Tottenham have two though the last of these came in 1961. When it comes to the FA Cup Arsenal again top the London chart with 10 victories to Tottenham's 8, Chelsea's 6, West Ham's 3, while both Charlton and the now-defunct Wimbledon have one win apiece. No London team has ever won the European Cup or Champions League though there have been some near misses with Spurs losing in the semi-final in 1962, Arsenal in the final of 2006 and Chelsea on penalties in the final of 2008. But with three teams involved in this year's competition and the final being played at Wembley then who knows, this might be London's year at last?



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Vocabulary

founded: Were started, began life



more exclusive parts of the city: A better part of town



proximity: Near, close



fierce rivals: Strong rivals - usually the two teams dislike each other greatly



docks: The place where ships can load or unload goods (port)



is little love lost: They hate each other!



a mutual dislike: They dislike each other



honours: Titles, championships, cup wins and victories



now-defunct Wimbledon: The team does not exist any more (though it has been re-started by the fans and is known as...