Project Time: The biggest Uruguay fan

By Camila Durán
Level: FCE

The biggest Uruguay supporter out of the country

Ivan Eginsson Esturland,   is a man  from Faroe island who has a huge crazy   passion for Uruguay.   He was recently known for starring  Oca’s* advertisement for the 2014 World Cup.

He was always interested in geography, since he was a child he studied about lots of countries and that was the way he found Uruguay and started investigating about it.

When he was a teenager he got an interest in football and when he watched by chance a video of Uruguay playing for the qualifiers  to Italy 90’s world cup he fell in love with the way of playing that the footballers had, with  the   sky-blue t-shirt but what really caught his attention were the   supporters and the passion that they showed  cheering  the team.

 Actually he knows a lot of Uruguay in general, he said that every 19^th of June** he changes his profile picture for Artigas picture, he even has an Artigas painting in his living room. He also knows a lot about Uruguayan  football, not just this generation, he knows about historical players, his idol is Luis Cubilla but he got the chance to know the famous  Alcides Ghiggia in his first visit to our country in 2008,  and got a picture with him, that picture was what caught the attention of the publicists of the advertisement.

Ivan came to Uruguay for the first time in 2008 and he came 6 times since then, he even rented a house in La Paloma during the summer and he has already been in the 19 main cities. 

 He says that he would love to move to Uruguay, even though  he thinks you have to be quite rich to live here.

He works selling things for fishers, due to his work he was able to see Uruguay playing in several countries for several events, actually he organizes his schedule according to where Uruguay will be playing.

Despite his big passion for Uruguay he doesn’t speak Spanish, but he can sing the whole anthem perfectly by heart, he even got it as his ring tone, and he yells ¡arriba la celeste!”, in an almost perfect Spanish

 His wife Kinga  in the advertisement says that is pretty difficult to be married with a Uruguay supporter because he always wakes her up in the middle of the night just to see the matches, however she  ended up being a Uruguay supporter too, she says that  she got her own sky  blue t-shirt, and  she has  made a painting of Artigas, and another  of our flag, both are hung in their living room together with a lot of posters, t-shirts, and other things of Uruguay.

Currently Ivan is in Brazil seeing the World Cup but he is planning to travel to Montevideo if Uruguay makes it to the final, he confessed that one of his dreams is having Faroes island and Uruguay faced in a match, who would he support if this got to happen?

* OCA is a Uruguayan credit card

**June 19th is José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguay national hero's birthday.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc8jX2xPdgE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqJUcrVa94k

Camila's activity for her classmates

Multiple choice:

1: Ivan got really interested in Uruguay when:

A: he started studying about it.

B: he saw the country’s football team.

c: he came to the country.

D: his wife made a painting of Artigas.

2: The thing that attracted him the most when he first watched a match was:

A the sky blue  t-shirt

B: the way of playing of the footballers

C: how supportive was the people

D: the anthem

3: His wife says that:

A: is annoying to be awaken at night because of the matches.

B: Ivan is crazy.

C: is not easy to be married with an Uruguay supporter.

D: she would like moving to Uruguay.

4: Ivan’s biggest dream is:

A: traveling around Uruguay.

B: moving to Uruguay.

C: meeting Luis Cubilla.

D: having his country and ours faced in a match.

Camila checking the answers

Project Time: Mascots

By María Eugenia García
Level: FCE

Maru gave her presentation using the projection of her power point. She talked about the World Cup Mascots and she prepared a Use of English exercise for her classmates.

Choose the most suitable alternative below to fill in the gaps in the following text.

Each FIFA World Cup 1)______ 1966 has had its own mascot. The designs show  a characteristic feature of the host country.

The World Cup 2)_____ us many things, fun is one of them, and mascots for each event are a very important part of this, too.

The first appearance was in England.

1-   A) by       B) for         C) since     D) from

2-    A)tells       B)gives         C) thinks    D)says

“Willie” England 1966  was the first.

A cute 3)_____footballer who welcomed the participants, wearing a shirt with the flag of Britain. He was widely accepted by the people especially from British people.

3-   A)kitten     B)puppy       

C) calves    D)cub

"Juanito" Mexico 1970

Juanito was a child wearing football clothes with Mexican colours, and he had a big Mexican hat that had on it the words "MEXICO 70".  He wanted to 4)______  fair play.

4-   A)reflect     B)imagine     C)show     D)represent

"Tip and Tap" Germany 1974

Two children that wanted to inspire the union and their t-shirts had the   WM74  on them (World Cup 74- Weltmeisterschaft in German). They pretended to be symbolize of the union of both Germanies, which at that time were separated.

"Gauchito Mundialito" Argentina 1978

He was a little boy that used  to wear the colours of Argentina, and he had details of a cowboy(a neckerchief, a hat and a horsewhip) so for that he was called Gauchito. His puma clothes arose some curiosity.

"Naranjito" Spain 1982

A big change appeared, where humans were no more 5)_____ and a fruit appeared  as a mascot.

It was an orange, a typical fruit from Spain, wearing the kit of the national team.

5-   A)used      B)show        C)part      D) convenient

"Pique" Mexico 1986

For Mexicans this chili with a big hat and a moustache was a better representation 6)_____ Juanito (1970 World Cup Mexico mascot). He had a big smile, an outfit of Mexico team, a ball and many other things that Mexicans felt  7) ------- represented.

6-   A)like       B) as          C)from     D)than

7-   A)most      B)more        C)the most  D)good

"Ciao" Italy 1990

Real characters and fruits were left to move to a  little strange design. It consisted of many cubes that 8)______ to be of wood and they were painted with the Italian colours and the head was a ball.

The name is a Italian  greeting (Hello and goodbye).

8-   A)had      B)seemed       C)may      D) might

"Striker" USA 1994

United States returned to animals as mascots, similar to their American football mascots, wearing a football outfit. For Americans, he was a symbol of fidelity and work.

"Footix" France 1998

Its name came from the beginning of "football" and the ending "-ix" from a popular comic strip (Asterix). It was chosen from a survey. This rooster had a strong , fun and sporty personality.

"Ato, Kaz and Nik, The Spheriks" Korea-Japan 2002

Another change of the mascots was this, the Asian created a kind of alien, that came from Atmozone planet and they were created 9)____  a kind of energy.

Ato (the orange one) was the official mascot, but then Nik (the purple one) and Kaz (the blue one) were joined for marketing.

9-   A) for       B)by          C)from      D)to

"Goleo VI and Pille" Germany 2006

A lion wearing a German shirt with the number 06 and a talking ball named Pille.

Goleo came from the words "goal" and the  "leo", the Latin word for lion. In German, "Pille" is a 10)______  term for football.

10-     A)colloquial   B) perfect   C)another     D) preference

"Zakumi" South Africa 2010

A leopard that is a typical animal from South Africa.

His name came from "ZA", for South Africa, and "kumi", a word that means "ten" in many African languages.

It tried to represent a joined continent.

"Fuleco" Brazil 2014

It's a Brazilian armadillo, whose name is composed by the word football and the word ecology