Kashima Antlers have won the J-League championship after a narrow 1-0 away victory over Sapporo. That was enough to keep them ahead of strong finishing Kawasaki - they won 2-0 away at Tokyo Verdi. That victory was enough to send them into a creditable second place, leap-frogging Nagoya who finished with a 0-0 draw away at Oita. Compounding a disappointing end to the season, Urawa Reds were absolutely hammered 6-1 at home by Yokohama F. Marinos.

Tokyo Verdi and Sapporo, beaten by the top two, finish in the bottom two and will be relegated. Iwate, once a powerhouse in the J-League, will have to win a play off to stay in the top division.

Well done Kashima on their 6th league championship!

In front of 22,000 fans, the Asian Champions League holders, Gamba Osaka, were sent back to west Japan after being thumped 4-0 by a lively Kawasaki Frontale at the Todoroki stadium yesterday. Under blue skies, the team from Osaka will be ruing some half chances in the first half. If they had have taken some of them, the game could have had a quite different outcome. However, the home side got the breakthrough on the stroke of half time with Chog Tese, Frontale's North Korean striker, finding the net in front of the disappointed away fans.

The second half saw Kawasaki's players stronger in the tackle and using the width of the pitch to great effect, especially the right side where Juninho (full name, Carlos Alberto Carvalho Dos Anjos Junio!) was causing the Gamba defence all sorts of problems. Deservedly, the Brazilian effectively ended the game with a sweetly taken shot for Kawasaki's third.

Kawasaki move up to third in J-League, behind Kashima and Nagoya, and with two games to go and only three points behind, Frontale are in with a chance.

Listen to this week's show here

The next World Cup maybe in 2010, but qualifiers are already being played around the world with some big games in Asia. This weekend also sees the return of Major League Soccer and David Beckham's second season. In addition on this week's pod we:

• Review the football week in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Introduce a new Vox Pops topic
• Continue the David Beckham update in Beckham Watch
• Introduce a football expression in English for Football
• And continue their weekly battle in the predictions competition

For learners of English there are also:

• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists
• Online quizzes and crossword puzzles
• Weekly blogs from our football-crazy writers in fans’ forum

 Listen to the latest show here

This week Damon is in freezing Tokyo while Damian is in hot and humid Bangkok. On podcast 27 we have two main reports: first Damon will look back at the tragic events of February 6th 1958 when 7 members of the Manchester United team were killed in an air crash in Munich. In the second report Damian reviews the African Cup of Nations so far.

In addition the languagecaster team:

• Review the football week in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Have a new Vox Pops topic
• Introduce a football expression in English for Football
• And continue their weekly battle in the predictions competition

For learners of English there are also

• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists
• Online quizzes and crossword puzzles
• Weekly blogs from our football-crazy writers in fans’ forum

2007 is coming to an end and on this week's show Damon and Damian look back at some of the highs and lows of the footballing world.

Listen to the latest show here

They also:

• Review the football week in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Have a new Vox Pops topic
• Introduce a football expression in English for Football
• And continue their weekly battle in the predictions competition

For learners of English there are also

• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists
• Online quizzes and crossword puzzles
• Weekly blogs from our football-crazy writers in fans’ forum