It can’t have escaped many people’s notice that the World Cup will be taking place in Brazil this year, starting on 12 June.
Spain are of course defending champions, having won the 2010 tournament in South Africa, and adding to it by beating Italy 4-0 to win the Euro 2012 championships in Ukraine. Spain is a proud and passionate footballing nation, also boasting the best club teams in Europe at present, two of whom, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, will contest the Champions League final this coming Saturday.
Football is also the most popular sport in many other Spanish-speaking countries, who account for a further 8 of the 32 countries playing in the World Cup. They are Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras and Argentina.
Though football isn’t of course the main focus of our Private Spanish Lessons, we thought that it might be fun and topical to run down some footballing vocabulary for you to try out during the tournament:
world cup – mundial
goal – (el) gol
foul – (la) falta
free kick – tiro libre
handball! – imano!
extra time – tiempo suplementario / prórroga
kick-off – saque de salida
national team – (la) selección
own goal – autogol
penalty – tiro penal / penalti
red card – tarjeta roja
yellow card – tarjeta amarilla
referee – (el) árbitro
fan / supporter – hincha / seguidor
And if you don’t happen to be watching right until the whistle (silbato pitido) and you miss the result of a big game, you might want to ask ¿cómo terminó el partido? to find out what the score was. Not a football fan? Don’t worry – it will all be over on 13 July for another four years!