Learn English through sports.

The 2019-2020 Premier League season kicks-off this Saturday and my beloved West Ham United start their campaign against Newcastle United at the London Stadium. It's no secret that West Ham has a very loyal fan base and that they are extremely vocal on match day supporting the team.  However as we approach the seasons start, no further additions to the playing squad have been made.  Considering we finished a disappointing 16th place just five points off the relegation zone, it is clear the squad needs to bring in some better players to avoid relegation fears creeping in again this year.   Fans of the club on social media are quite frankly "at war" with the current owners of the club, David Sullivan and David Gold for not investing any money into the squad to get some signings over the line .  Just last week they sold one of our most promising youngsters Grady Diangana who has been at the club since he was 10 to a relegation rival in West Bromwich A...

On the 16th of August my two sons Jacob and Jack and I  attended a home game between Gyeongnam FC and Chungnam Asan in the Korean Professional football league.  The number of COVID 19 cases was in double digits so the league was allowing 30 percent of the stadiums'  capacity to be allocated by supporters. Firstly, you couldn't buy tickets on the day, you had to purchase the tickets online through a specific website.  Once you had bought the tickets, the website will send you a link to be scanned by Gyeongnam ticket officers on the day of the game.  The tickets we selected had to be spread out evenly, with each person sitting three seats apart from one another, due to social distancing measures.  My sons and I decided on sitting in a triangle shape.  To the day itself of the game.  There were strict measures of just getting to the stadium in passing certain government protocols .  First of all, there was a temperature check (yo...

Gyeongnam FC was relegated into K League 2 after losing a relegation playoff doubleheader against bitter rivals Busan I Park back in 2019.   The clubs venture into a lower division hasn't been all that plain sailing at all, challenging is a better term to use.   Firstly our manager changed from Kim Jung-boo to former Korean international and Premier League star Seol Ki-hyeon.  It was Seol's first foray  into full professional management.  He had been managing Sungkyunkwan University for two years before joining Gyeongnam. When getting relegated usually the better players in the squad jump ship and look for pastures new.  Japanese star playmaker Kunimoto joined K League 1 powerhouses Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.  Goalkeeper Lee Bum-soo joined Gangwon FC and promising youngster Kim Joon-beom moved north to play for Incheon United FC.  So under the new management team, the whole club had a major re-shuffle of the squad. The l...

Fulham FC based in south-west London won promotion back into the Premier League at the first time of asking.  They were relegated last campaign but managed to bounce straight back up beating London rivals Brentford FC in the Championship play-off final, 2-1 after extra-time. Beaten play-off finalists Brentford would be kicking themselves that they hadn't won automatic promotion.  They narrowly missed out on finishing second by just two points behind West Bromwich Albion.  The Bees' as they are known, scored a staggering 80 goals during the season (the best) and only conceded 38 (second best).  So for them to not get promoted was a bit of a shock.  They boast some really good talented players, namely Algerian winger Said Benrahma who scored 17 goals and striker Ollie Watkins who was the joint top goal scorer in the league tallying 26 goals.  He shared the honors with Fulham's center forward Aleksander Mitrovic. To the game itself.  It w...

The relegation of Norwich City FC was confirmed about a fortnight ago but the outcome of the final two clubs to drop into the Championship was to come down to the final day of the season.  The three teams in question were Aston Villa, Watford, and Bournemouth.   In an incident-packed final day Aston Villa secured their Premier League status by picking up a valuable point away at West Ham United.  Jack Grealish thought he had won the game for the Villians with an 85th-minute strike but just thirty seconds later the hammers drew level through a heavily deflected effort from substitute Andriy Yarmolenko.  Bournemouth had a tricky away fixture against Everton who have been in terrible form .  The Cherries picked up the victory 3-1 through goals from King from the spot, Solanke and Stanislas with ten minutes remaining.  They were praying Aston Villa and Watford would both lose.  Watford's fate was sealed in the first half against ...

English side Liverpool FC after a wait of thirty years finally became champions of the Premier League and it was more than deserved.  The Merseyside based outfit won their 19th league title since they were founded in 1892 but their first title since the league was re-branded to be the Premier League in 1992.   At the forefront of their success were the front three of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, and Roberto Firmino who terrorized defenders week in week out.  Salah has been out of this world this campaign scoring 19 goals and assisting 9.  Mane is close behind on 17 goals whilst assisting 7.  Firmino has tallied 7 goals alongside 7 assists. But the key additions of defender Virgil Van Dijk and goalkeeper Allison can't be overlooked either, both providing brilliant stability in the defensive part of the game.   As the Premier League draws to its conclusion in a few weeks but Liverpool have already gained enough points to not be caught be...

Marcos Vinicius Amaral Alves known as Marcão was born in 1994 in Tiete of Sao Paulo.  At the  tender age  of just 12 years old, he joined Sao Paulo FC youth team.  However, in a strange  turn of events,  he fell out of love of football within six months and decided on a new career path.  He took up playing basketball instead.  He failed to get a professional contract so he did a u-turn and started playing football again for Ituano FC.  He played for the club for four years making just sixteen appearances scoring six goals.  Soon thereafter he was made available to be loaned out to other clubs to  get minutes under his belt. This is when Gyeongnam FC came calling for his services.  He signed on loan to the club in the early months of 2017.  Then after a blistering start to his career in Korea with the Reds', he signed with the club on a permanent deal halfway through the 2017 campaign.  He had...