Super Bowl Sunday

Next Sunday, one of the biggest shows, I mean sports events, in the whole wide world[1] will be seen by millions of people all over the world[1]. That’s right, I’m talking about the Super Bowl! You don’t know what the Super Bowl is?! It’s the championship[2] game of football in the U.S. Perhaps I should clarify, the championship game of American football.

Of course, what the rest of the world calls American football, we Americans just call football. What everybody else calls football, we Americans call soccer. We’re a little different, you can say. For instance, the place where the British play football, rugby and cricket is called a pitch. The place where Americans play soccer, football and baseball is called a field.

You play football on a pitch, we play soccer on a field!

Do you know the difference between “football” and “the football”. When we say ball sports without “the”, we’re talking about the sport itself. When we say “the” + ball sports, we’re talking about the ball used in that sport. So “football” is soccer, and “the football” is a soccer ball. You got that?!

Now, there’s nothing worse than a sore winner[3]. So remember that we win[4] games or competitions but we beat[5] opponents. For example:

Arsenal won the Premier League. 
Nadal won Roland-Garros.

Arsenal beat Manchester United. 
Nadal beat Federer.

 

Of course, successful athletes earn[6] a lot of money, through salaries and sponsors. They also earn a lot of respect and fans. But it takes a lot of work, and sometimes pain, to get to the top[7]. But as the expression goes, especially in football, American football:

No pain, no gain[8]

[1] en el mundo entero

[2] campeonato

[3] prepotente

[4] ganar competiciones, carreras, partidos

[5] ganar adversarios

[6] ganar algo por esfuerzo

[7] cima

[8] no hay atajo sin trabajo; ganancias