Hand Of Pod

The hundred-and-forty-second episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, Peter and Andrés begin with an in-depth consideration (much more in-depth, we'd be prepared to bet, than the AFA gave it) of the Argentine Football Association's decision this week to expand the top flight to thirty teams and change the entire league structure as from next February. What it means for the top flight, what the second half...

There's a lot to get through on Hand Of Pod 141, but Sam, Peter and birthday boy Andrés manage to whistle through in under an hour and a half, for once. First on the agenda is the news that on Wednesday, Javier Cantero finally stood down as Independiente president. How the club's barra brava forced him out and why, in spite of being against the barra, many ordinary fans will be happy to see him go...

Episode 140 of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Peter welcome not one but two special guests - Jonathan Wilson returns to HOP and Rupert Fryer finally makes his long-awaited debut. We discuss Ramón Díaz and Ricardo Caruso Lombardi embarrassing themselves to varying degrees, two managerial changes, as Newell's Old Boys and more surprisingly, Arsenal de Sarandí both changed bosses, cons...

Hand Of Pod episode 139 is a bumper edition, featuring Sam, Santi, Andrés and Peter. They discuss not one but two rounds of Torneo Final action, including a 3-3 thriller between Racing and Estudiantes which no-one saw coming, and a 2-1 away win for Rosario Central in Sunday's Rosario clásico against Newell's Old Boys. Three sides lead the Torneo Final on 21 points, with two more just behind them o...

The hundred-and-thirty-eighth episode of Hand Of Pod was recorded at lunchtime on Tuesday, over mate, in order for us to get it to you ahead of (most of) the eleventh round of Torneo Final action. It features Sam, English Dan and a brief guest appearance from Sam's brother, Will, who tells us what it was like watching - or rather, trying to watch - Boca Juniors v River Plate from a cafe on the Bol...

The hundred-and-thirty-seventh episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, Peter and Andrés joined by German Dan to discuss an interesting weekend of matches, at the end of which Colón were still top of the Torneo Final pile, and looking increasingly likely to avoid relegation, points deduction or no points deduction. There were surprising results on Saturday and more predictable ones on Sunday, which conclu...

In episode 136 of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Peter, Andrés and some bloke called Joel who wandered in wanting to record discuss last weekend's Torneo Final action. There are thirteen teams within six points of the top after half the championship has been played, and in spite of an unexpectedly thrilling defeat to All Boys, River Plate are one of them. Boca Juniors are also up there, also in spite of themse...

In the hundred-and-thirty-fifth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam and Peter look back over a weekend which saw two of the title frontrunners - league leaders Colón and their pursuers Estudiantes - drop points, allowing the race to become even more congested; even River Plate, who picked up seven points in three games last week, are only three points off the lead, despite now not having scored more than...

In the hundred-and-thirty-fourth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam is joined by Peter, English Dan and Andrés, as well as Gustavo Malamud, an Atlanta fan. We discuss another double round of matches - we're a third of the way through the Torneo Final already - in which it was a decent week for Colón and Newell's Old Boys among others, a poor one for Racing (obviously) and Arsenal, and a more mixed one fo...

The hundred-and-thirty-first episode of Hand Of Pod features Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Ilan. They look back over the fourth round of the Torneo Final, which saw some wonderfully entertaining games: two golazos from Gonzalo Castellani as Godoy Cruz beat Rosario Central 3-0; a 3-2 thriller in La Fortaleza where Lanús ousted Vélez; a frankly slightly silly 2-2 draw in the round's final match betwe...

In the hundred-and-thirty-second episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam is joined by English Dan, Peter and Rob, and we discuss not one but two rounds of league action, with the third round having been played in midweek. San Lorenzo have started looking like the defending champions with back-to-back victories, Estudiantes have started with three straight wins to top the table early on, Racing look like... we...

The hundred-and-thirty-first episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, Andrés and Rob look back over the opening weekend of the 2014 Torneo Final, which featured better than expected (better than we expected, at least) performances from River Plate and Boca Juniors, champions San Lorenzo starting as they don't mean to go on with a defeat away to Olimpo in Bahía Blanca, an impressive win for Racing - who en...

Episode 130 of Hand Of Pod is the best-sounding ever, thanks to a new microphone paid for by the enormous generosity of HOP listener Doug Hart. Sam is joined by Santi, Mariano, Andrés and new HOP cast member Peter Coates to look back over a relatively quiet summer in the transfer market, and look forward to a hectic-looking Torneo Final. Éver Banega's move to Newell's Old Boys, River Plate's and R...

The hundred-and-twenty-ninth episode of Hand Of Pod is also the last of 2013, and Sam is joined by English Dan and Joel to look back over a Torneo Inicial that was settled in an entirely predictable manner; with all four of the title hopefuls failing to win, meaning San Lorenzo took the trophy by default with the lowest points total of the three-points-for-a-win era. Lanús have the consolation of...

The hundred-and-twenty-eighth episode of Hand Of Pod was recorded two days before the start of the final round of league fixtures, and we still have no idea who out of San Lorenzo, Lanús, Newell's Old Boys and Vélez Sarsfield are going to be champions - Vélez host San Lorenzo and Newell's host Lanús in the last round, but those matches won't be played until Sunday the 15th. That's due to Lanús' pa...

In the hundred-and-twenty-seventh episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Andrés and guest Ilan are invited round to English Dan's swish new pad. We discuss the fallout of last weekend's clásico, which saw Racing beat River Plate 1-0, and look at how and why the title frontrunners dropped points yet again (to be fair to them, in four cases it's because they were playing each other). We also bring the latest...

In the hundred-and-twenty-sixth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Andrés and Santi are joined by Rob Brown, an Englishman who's in Buenos Aires for a few months almost entirely in order to watch Juan Román Riquelme play. We discuss another weekend of surprising results and exciting matches - not least a five goal thriller in Sarandí, where Santi and Rob watched Arsenal beat Boca Juniors 3-2 - and look...

The 125th episode of Hand Of Pod was recorded on our third birthday, and Andrés and Sam raise a glass to that fact before getting stuck in to last weekend's action, which saw Boca Juniors make up some ground on the top two, Newell's Old Boys and San Lorenzo, after they'd drawn against each other. The biggest winners of the last few weeks, though, have been Copa Sudamericana semi-finalists Lanús, w...

The hundred-and-twenty-forth episode of Hand Of Pod is one of our shortest ever episodes, but hopefully we've still got enough to be going on with. Racing, having won twice in a row, are officially no longer rubbish, and English Dan celebrates by returning to the pod. He and Sam run the rule over Racing's sudden improvement, and contrast it with River Plate's absolutely awful form, which plumbed n...

The hundred-and-twenty-third episode of Hand Of Pod was recorded on Diego Maradona's 53rd birthday, and after giving that fact the amount of coverage it deserves, we move on to a review of the last two rounds of Torneo Inicial action. Central shocked Newell's in the clásico rosarino, River Plate still can't score and Manu Gigliotti's in fine form for Boca Juniors. Oh, and RACING HAVE WON A MATCH!...

The hundred-and-twenty-second episode of Hand Of Pod gave us a lot to talk about, and it was quite an achievement to have got the final thing down to an hour and a half. Santi hosts in his new home for the first time, and Sam is also joined by German/Chinese/Relevant Dan and HOP debutant Jonathan Gilbert, author of a recent New York Times piece previewing this weekend's clásico rosarino. We discus...

The hundred-and-twenty-first episode of Hand Of Pod sees Andrés welcome Sam and Mariano to his living room for the first time, as we look back on Boca Juniors' 1-0 win away to River Plate in Sunday's superclásico. That was far from the only talking point of the weekend; we had wrongly-given red cards for diving, two managers left their jobs, another two seem to be on the brink, and Racing, of cour...

The hundred-and-twentieth episode of Hand Of Pod is the first appearance of Fede González, and it's timed perfectly - he works on one of the most popular unofficial Boca Juniors Twitter accounts around, and has arrived just in time for our big superclásico preview episode. We discuss bad times at Racing and second division giants Huracán and consider another impressive performance from leaders New...

Hand Of Pod episode 119 sees Sam and Andrés discuss the very low number of away wins so far this season, as home sides continue to get by far the better results. Maxi Rodríguez scored a fantastic winner to get Newell's one of the few away wins last weekend, and Newell's are one of only three sides to have managed more than one away win in the league this season. We also discuss River Plate's ongoi...

The hundred-and-eighteenth episode of Hand Of Pod is recorded unusually early in the day, and features only two voices: those of Sam and English Dan. We discuss River Plate getting upset by refereeing (and why they've only themselves to blame for not winning the match anyway), Boca Juniors being perhaps a tad better than we've given them credit for - at least at home to crap opponents - and the cr...