Hand Of Pod

This week Sam and English Dan look back on Atlético Tucumán once again rising to the challenge of maintaining their league leadership, wonder which players have made a case for inclusion in Lionel Scaloni's World Cup squad during Argentina's 3–0 wins over Honduras and Jamaica, and review the Copa Argentina quarter-finals, which we didn't want to turn into just talking about River and Boca's matche...

This week, Sam and Andrés are joined by English Dan, who's back from holiday. We fill him in on what he's missed – including several changes of leadership in the league, even though Atlético Tucumán currently lead the title race just as they did when he left. We also give a preview of Argentina's chances in their friendlies in the United States against Honduras and Jamaica (we're sticking our neck...

This week Sam and Santi look back on both Copa Libertadores semi-finals, one of which was rather more dramatic and closely fought than the other, and preview Sunday's superclásico at the Bombonera. We also discuss a tightening title race, as Atlético Tucumán have picked up just one point from two games since we last recorded, allowing Gimnasia to go dead level with them at the top of the table.

This week, Sam, English Dan and Andrés look back at last weekend's matches – which included a 4–0 win with two golazos included for league leaders Atlético Tucumán – and ask how much sense it really makes for the AFA to (reportedly) be considering remodelling Mar Del Plata's Estadio José María Minella to use as a home ground for the national team.

This week Sam, English Dan and Santi look back on not one but two weeks of Liga Profesional action, with Atlético Tucumán still leading the way, Gimnasia giving chase and River Plate looking like they'd sparked into life before falling back to Earth again against Arsenal. There's also a look at the possible structure of the top flight during 2023, which is set to be discussed in an AFA board meeti...

This week Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Tony are visited by listener Tommy to discuss a week of action that's seen Atlético Tucumán remain top of the table with an unlikely chasing pack, and Vélez Sarsfield emerge as the only Argentine (and indeed non-Brazilian) semifinalists in this year's Copa Libertadores, after they beat Talleres pretty comfortably over two legs and Estudiantes got hit by the m...

This week, Sam and Dan look back on a weekend which saw Atlético Tucumán remain four points clear at the top of the league, a six-goal thriller in Avellaneda and both River and Boca lose. In the Copa Libertadores, the first leg of Vélez Sarsfield v Talleres was an absolute humdinger, and our listeners' questions include one about the chances of Ricardo Caruso Lombardi catching monkeypox.

It's only been a week since our last episode, but this week felt particular packed, with plenty of stuff to discuss both on and off the pitch in the league and Tigre being shocked in the Copa Argentina by Deportivo Madryn, as well as a Copa América Femenina update. Sam, English Dan and Andrés talk you through it all.

This week, Sam, English Dan and Andrés look back on almost two full rounds of action that included Carlos Tevez's Rosario Central winning the clásico rosarino against Newell's Old Boys, and reflect on a top five that currently includes exactly no teams we'd have predicted would be in the top five after nine matches. We also ask whether Rodrigo De Paul's place in Argentina's World Cup squad could b...

This week, Sam and English Dan look back on last week's league games, including a whole load of 3–2s and a 1–0 win for Racing over Independiente, consider the main runners in the title race and more bad results for River Plate and Boca Juniors. The title is already out of date, because thanks to a 1–0 win over Aldosivi on Friday night, at the time of uploading this episode Atlético Tucumán(!) were...

This week, Sam, English Dan, Santi and Andrés catch you up with last weekend's league action but spend the bulk of the podcast talking Libertadores, and in particular going over the eliminations of Boca Juniors, who reacted by firing Sebastián Battaglia, and River Plate, who (unsurprisingly) did not react by firing Marcelo Gallardo. Vélez Sarsfield, Talleres(!) and – confirmed after we finished re...

After a planned week off followed by an unplanned bout of COVID for Sam which forced a second week off (hard to record a podcast when you've got a slight fever and your throat hurts too much to talk), Sam, Santi and English Dan are back – over Zoom – to look back on the four rounds of Liga Profesional action we've missed and the start of the rounds of sixteen in the Copas Libertadores and Sudameri...

This week Sam, English Dan, Santi and Andrés look back on the opening weekend of the 2022 Liga Profesional and Racing's shocking (but not really that shocking, perhaps) Copa Argentina exit against Agropecuario Argentino. We also talk about Santi's experience last week at Wembley for Argentina v Italy and look back on Argentina's 5–0 win over Estonia, in which Lionel Messi scored all five goals, go...

This week, Sam and English Dan look back on South American champions Argentina playing European champions Italy off the Wembley pitch on Wednesday night in the revived Artemio Franchi trophy match, look at the last sixteen draws of the Copas Libertadores and Sudamericana, and celebrate the fact that the long Argentine winter break is over after all of twelve days since the Copa de la Liga ended, b...

This week, Sam and English Dan look back on the semis and the final of the Copa de la Liga, which saw Boca Juniors lift the trophy but NOT, after all the fuss at the start of the competition about how it would count as a league title, being crowned the champions of Argentina for some very AFA reasons. We also look back (and into the present, as we were recording) on the final round of matches in t...

The Copa de la Liga knockout stage has begun, and after Tuesday's two matches brought the expected home wins for Racing and Boca Juniors, who'll meet in the first semifinal on Saturday, Wednesday saw two shock results, as Argentinos Juniors outplayed Estudiantes before putting them out on spot kicks and Tigre took advantage of a howling defensive error to beat River Plate, in spite of a Puskás Awa...

This week, Sam and English Dan look back on last week's action and (most of) the midweek Sudamericana and Libertadores results, as well as looking forward to this weekend's last group stage matches in the Copa de la Liga.

This week's HOP sees the return of a prodigal son, as Sam, English Dan and Andrés welcome Seba back to the studio, and it's an epic chat taking in Racing's fine form, the Estudiantes machine, racism in Argentina (including a very brief history lesson on the colonisation of Patagonia) and more.

We've got plenty of catching up to do now Sam and Dan are back from their (separate) holidays, and they're joined by Andrés, Tony and Santi to dive deep into the waters of the Copa de la Liga, including Racing's magnificent form, a surprising win for Talleres against River Plate and Independiente's deep, abiding, lustful love of a sweet, sweet draw.

This week, Sam and English Dan review the weekend of clásicos, which saw away wins for ... well, quite a lot of teams actually, including Boca Juniors over River Plate and Racing over Independiente. We then switch our attention to Thursday night's upcoming CONMEBOL WORLD CUP QUALIFYING FIGHT TO THE DEATH which, erm, actually probably won't finalise things, but Uruguay v Peru should be tremendously...

This week on HOP, Sam, English Dan and Andrés discuss last weekend's matches and look forward to this weekend's glut of clásicos, including most notably Saturday's clásico de Avellaneda and Sunday's superclásico.

In this week's episode Sam, English Dan, Santi and Andrés are back in the same room. We look back on last weekend's Copa de la Liga action, with Estudiantes dropping points for the first time. It's hard not to admire Lionel Scaloni trolling Italy and (especially) Spain by calling up a plethora of dual nationals for Argentina's final two World Cup qualifiers, too.

On this week's Hand Of Pod, Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Santi look back on a weekend which saw two all-Big Five clásicos both end 2–2: Independiente v Boca Juniors, which was played in a deluge of Biblical proportions (and saw some atrocious refereeing) and River Plate v Racing, which was a classic game of two halves. There's plenty of love for Defensa y Justicia and Estudiantes, as well, as thei...

This week's HOP is the first since the 2022 domestic Argentine season began, so Sam, English Dan and Tony look back on the first three rounds of the Copa de la Liga. Unión, Platense and Estudiantes have started well, Racing aren't looking terrible and most importantly for everyone who likes sexy football, Juan Fernando Quintero is BACK.

Domestic Argentine football is back! In this week's HOP Sam, Andrés and Tony look back on the main transfer moves (and one big transfer remaining-in-place-for-now) and ask which clubs, if any, will be able to keep up with River Plate this year.