Bonus Episode - The World Cup

Hi everyone, and welcome to the new episode of the podcast "Yalla: Learning Hebrew with Steph." Today's episode is a bit shorter than usual. It's a bonus episode about the Mundial, or the World Cup, right before the final! First of all, what is "Mundial," and why do Israelis call the World Cup "Mundial"? If you speak Spanish, you might recognize the word, because it comes from Spanish, where it means "worldly." The Spanish word comes from Latin. When you translate it into Hebrew it becomes "gvia ha'olam" (the World Cup), but almost all Israelis simply say "Mundial." So what actually is the Mundial? It's a football tournament between all the countries in the world, which happens once every four years. The national teams, the best football teams from countries all over the world, come to play against each other. The goal of every national team is to win and take the World Cup home. It's the most popular sporting event there is! A few things I really love about the World Cup are: First, for a whole month, it doesn't matter where you are in the world or which teams you support, everyone is watching the same matches at the same time. I find that really nice to think about. The second thing I really love about the World Cup is that it feels like one of the only things that unites the whole world. I hope you managed to watch at least one match in this World Cup, and felt that sense of unity. In England, the World Cup is a really big deal. The whole country watches every match England's national team plays. And every year we're disappointed. Our players play really well, but not well enough to reach the final. This year was the same. The last time England won the World Cup was in 1966. The most famous phrase in England that people love to say is "It's coming home," and you can hear the fans singing it during matches. In Israel, the story is different. Israel has only managed to reach the World Cup once, in 1970. Because of that, Israelis choose their favourite team for all kinds of different reasons. In the past, people chose their team based on where their family came from, their favourite players, or footballing tradition. But this year, other things are influencing their decision too: the war, political ties, and anger at countries that are hostile toward Israel. In a poll that asked Israelis the question, which team do you support the most?, Argentina was the most popular team among Israelis: 38% said they support Argentina. Many Israelis feel a stronger connection to South American teams than to European ones. Maybe one of the reasons is that Israelis feel culturally closer to South America. A lot of young Israelis travel to South America after their army service, and they feel more connected to those countries. There's also a political reason: Argentina's president is a huge admirer of Israel, and that makes him popular among many Israelis. Among Arab citizens of Israel, the most popular teams are Morocco and Brazil. The situation where Israelis love Argentina so much created a funny situation. When England played Argentina in the semi-final, my husband Alon and I watched the match at home in England, and we wanted England to win. Meanwhile, his whole family in Israel was supporting Argentina! Only one side could be happy with the result of the match, and unfortunately, that wasn't me. That's all for our short episode today. I hope you enjoy the final on Sunday, whichever team you support. Feel free to tell me in the comments which match you watched and which team you support. You can also send me an email or leave a comment on my website. And don't forget, you can find the transcript of this episode, in Hebrew and in English, on my website too. Thank you so much for listening to "Yalla: Learning Hebrew with Steph." Until next time, take care and keep learning!