View Content #25273

Your InterCom Editor is excited about the World Cup, whose first match was late last week, and hopes that the best team wins, as long as that team is Brazil. Regardless of whom you're cheering for, following the World Cup is a great way to boost global awareness through a wildly popular sport and to follow teams and athletes from your target culture. Here are some resources for following the World Cup:

Keep track of matches, standings, brackets, news, and players through Google at https://www.google.com/search?q=world+cup+2018+schedule&oq=world+cup+2018&aqs=chrome.0.0l3j69i57j69i60l2.3022j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#sie=lg;/m/06qjc4;2;/m/030q7;mt;fp;1

The official website of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia is available at https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/. The website is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese.

From Deutsche Welle, here are 100 things to know about the 2018 World Cup: http://www.dw.com/en/100-things-to-know-ahead-of-the-2018-world-cup-in-russia/a-42841195

From the BBC, here are 7 charts with information about the World Cup: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44388118

From the New York Times, available in English and Spanish, here is a guide to all 32 teams competing: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/sports/world-cup-groups.html

Read about World Cup anthems at https://daily.jstor.org/why-we-love-world-cup-anthems/

Speaking of official and unofficial cultural phenomena, be sure to check out this video from Peru to Denmark (https://youtu.be/-whgifhMRwM) and Denmark's musical response (https://youtu.be/8b9ZcqkNAwk)

French teachers may be interested in discussing this article in the New York Times about players from the Banlieues of Paris: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/sports/soccer/france-world-cup-kylian-mbappe.html

Chinese students may enjoy this short reading and listening selection: https://www.thechairmansbao.com/chinese-football-fans-ready-for-world-cup-in-russia/

Light Bulb Languages has a collection of resources for French, German, Italian, and Spanish learners: http://www.lightbulblanguages.co.uk/resources-worldcup2018.html

Get some great classroom ideas from the EFL Classroom 2.0 blog: http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2018/06/07/world-cup-resources/

Resources for Spanish teachers and learners abound. Follow the tournament on ESPN at http://espndeportes.espn.com/futbol/liga/_/nombre/fifa.world or on Univisión at https://www.univision.com/deportes/futbol. Learn the officially sanctioned ways to talk about soccer in Spanish on the Fundéu's website: https://www.fundeu.es/blog/fundu-con-f-de-ftbol/. Here is a scaffolded activity involving the Twitter handles of the different teams from Zambombazo: http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/billetes-grupos-de-la-copa-mundial-de-la-fifa-rusia-2018/. And finally, for Lionel Messi fans (your InterCom editor would never cheer for anyone playing for Argentina), here are some great authentic resources: http://www.ceauthres.com/2018/06/mas-para-la-copa-mundial-lionel-messi.html