amüsant: ++++ They don't exactly trip off the tongue. But Germany has come up with a novel way of educating England supporters ahead of the World Cup by teaching them the meaning of Flatterball (swerving shot), Flügellauf (run down the wing) and Blutgrätsche (really horrible sliding tackle).

With fewer Britons learning German, the country's cultural institute has taken matters into its own hands by producing 12 postcards explaining German football terms to England fans - including Abseits (offside), Tor (goal) and Flugparade (acrobatic save).

Article continues There is one card for each England player together with a diagram showing how each one is likely to score. While David Beckham prefers the Freistoss (free kick) Michael Owen is a master of abstauben (stealing a goal), the postcards suggest. Intriguingly, Rio Ferdinand is said to score after a bit of durchfummeln (stumbling through), finishing off with a Schlenzer (bending shot.)

Strangely, there is no mention of England's preferred method of World Cup humiliation: the penalty shootout. Yesterday Nina Lemmens, the London director of the German academic exchange service, which came up with the postcards, said she hoped they would be helpful for the 100,000 England fans expected to travel to Germany in June and July.

Several thousand have already been sent to schools and universities, she said, adding: "They didn't go down too well in Scotland. The postcards suggest that England will win the 2006 World Cup. We've had a few comments." The institute has already run several campaigns trying to persuade more Britons to learn German, coming up in 2002 with the slogan: "Einstein. Learn German - it's relatively easy."

But it was an "uphill struggle", Ms Lemmens admitted yesterday, to persuade the locals that both Germany and the German language were "fun". (von hier: football.guardian.co.uk) +++