Lesson 26: Unit 51 SPORT

Lesson 26: Unit 51 SPORT

David: Today we look at sport.

Natalie: And we talked to this man just in fashion a professional footballer .

Kevin: We all play different sports at school.

David: That’s right. I played rugby at school. I didn’t like it. I wish I’d play golf.

Kevin: When I was at school, I played baseball. I wish I’d play tennis.

Natalie: I did play tennis at school and I won the school cup.

Kevin: Congratulations.

David: Well done.

I played rugby at school.	I wish I had played golf.	I wish I’d played tennis.
I wish I’d played golf.	Baseball

Natalie: Which sports did you play at school?

1.    Rugby, cricket and basketball.

2.    Tennis, net ball, hockey, gymnastic, swimming.

3.    High jumping and I reached a county standard in that sport I also played hockey, football and rugby.

4.    I didn’t play sports at school.

Natalie: Which sports do you wish you’d played at school?

1.    I wish I’d played tennis at school.

2.    I wish I’d tried fencing, archery so backward diving.

3.    I wish I’d played cricket at school.

4.    I wish that I’d had the opportunity earlier in life to do more climbing.

Boy: I wish I could see the game! I can’t see anything.

Bear: What a shame!

Boy: We’re too small. I wish we were bigger.

Bear: I know. It’s a pity. But I have an idea!

Boy: Hey! How are you?

Bear: I am here to give you three wishes.

Boy: Three wishes? Great! Well, I wish I could see the game.

Bear: Easy!

Boy: Great! But I wish we were a bit nearer.

Bear: Easy.

Footballer: What are you doing here?

Boy: I wish you hadn’t done that.

Bear: Don’t worry. Oh! I wish I hadn’t done that, either.

SPORTING WORDS

David: That little boy was watching other people play sport. He has a “spectator”. We call a lot of spectators a “crowd”. Now at a football match…

Kevin: Wait a minute! What kind of football? There’s American football, rugby football, soccer…

David: Oh, I mean “soccer”. We often call soccer “football”.

Kevin: Ah. You were saying…?

David: Yes, at a football match the spectators go to watch two “teams”, who play against each other. The “winner” is the team that scores more “goals”.

Kevin: Or “points”, if it’s American football or rugby.

David: Yes. The other team is the “loser”. And if both teams have the same number of goals or points, it’s a “draw”.

We’re too small.	I wish I could see the game.	Soccer	Winner.
I wish we were bigger.	Spectator.	Football.	Goals.
I can’t see anything.	Crowd.	Teams.	Points

Loser.

Draw.

When I was 15 a half I left school and I joined Norwich City Football Club. In the first division. I made my debut at seventeen.

Seventeen years old just in fashion it was only been a professional since Christmas day, but this afternoon he gets his first guy in for Norwich City in the first division.

My first appearance was against a team called West Bromwich Albion in the First Division. And they had three other black players playing for their team. And at that stage there was probably about six black professional footballers in the First Division. And so this was quite a unique thing in football: to have four players on the same football field… It was fun. It was a big crowd  25.000 people at Norwich, and I was playing with people who were heroes and role models and things. And we drew two all. I didn’t manage to score, but it was fun, a lot of fun… I then moved to Nottingham Forest 4 millions pounds at 19. And then I played 18, 19 times for England under 21 team, and we won with the first actually England team to win the European under 21 championships. I then managed win an England be cap and I was on the substitutes bench for a world cup match against Romania… I then moved to Notts County in the first division Southampton and Brighton. And then had a knee injury which forced me out the game for four years. In that time I went to America and rehabilitated my knee in Los Angeles and then Canada managed to do that came back here and resume my career at Torquay United.

Kevin: Justin talked a lot about his early career. He talked about some things that he managed to do and some things that he didn’t manage to do. Starting with his first match.

I didn’t manage to score.	I moved… for a million pounds at 19.
I managed to win and England “B” cap.	I then had a knee injury.

Natalie: What does he think of the club?  

It’s a small club. It has very few supporters: one thousand, eight-nine hundred would be the hard core. We are a long way away from anywhere, so all the games we have to travel to away, it’s quite a long journey. And it’s a lot different to what I’ve been used to, but I’m experiencing managing here and I’m experiencing dealing with trying to put a successful team onto the field without having lots of money and without having the luxuries that go with being a professional sportsman. So it’s a it’s quite a culture shock.

The players at this club are fabulous people. A lot of them are young, and it’s a pleasure working with them. The only downside of that is that we have got probably a little bit of an imbalance of having too many  young players who don’t have the experience to help each other when you go through bad times. And so we are tending to lose a lot more games than we really should do, because of lack of experience. I wish that the support for the team was more passionate and knowledgable as well, because we have a very young team here. Because of the finances of a small club like Torquay, people have to be a little bit patient, because we haven’t got the finished article. We’ve got kids learning their trade, and it becomes very daunting for these kids playing at home, which it shouldn’t be. We should be able to play at home and really express ourselves and enjoy playing at home. So I wish that people were a little bit more tolerant. But I think that’s society now. I think that everybody wants a winner and they want it now.

The players.	It’s a pleasure working with them.
The supporters.	I wish that the support for the team was more passionate.

I wish I’d want a full England cab and some more trophies. I think that would have been a highlight in my career and something that’s probably has been missing. I wish that I hadn’t moved to Nottingham forest for a million pound quite as quickly, because at that time there was one or two other offers that would have been put to me which probably would have been a better option for me, which would have changed my career. I wish that I hadn’t been injured because it was at such a crucial time in my career and I think the last thing that I probably would have changed was that I would have been a little bit more disciplined and taking it a little bit more seriously, because everything had gone so well for me. Fairly easily that I didn’t realize that the hardest thing was staying there not getting there.

Natalie: Here are some of the things that Justin regrets:

I wish I’d won a full England cap.

I wish I hadn’t moved… quite so quickly.

I wish that I hadn’t been injured.