Hand Of Pod

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 their good starts to the season continue (Estudiantes made it through to the Libertadores third qualifying round shortly after we finished recording), and some Argentina travel tips for one of our listeners!

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.

We're back! In the first HOP of 2022 Sam and Santi preview Argentina's World Cup qualifying double header, which will see a trip to Chile followed by a home match against Colombia. Lionel Messi isn't involved, and nor are various others (even manager Lionel Scaloni will be missing against Chile due to COVID), but the team will have a familiar look all the same.

There are still a couple of matches left in Argentine football this year, but recording seems unlikely next week so Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Santi got together on Friday to look back on 2021. Which clubs enjoyed the year the most, which individuals stood out in the league campaign that's just finished and, of course, do we think it was a successful year for the national team?

On this week's Hand Of Pod Sam, English Dan and Tony discuss a couple of weeks of action which included Boca Juniors lifting the Copa Argentina after a shootout win over Talleres, River Plate's long unbeaten run finally coming to an end in a thrilling game against Defensa y Justicia and the highest scoring clásico platense ever, as Gimnasia and Estudiantes drew 4–4.

This week's Hand Of Pod was recorded late in the week, because it made little sense to record before Thursday night, when River Plate did just about enough to scrape the result they needed at home to Racing to claim their thirty-seventh Argentine league title. Sam, Andrés and English Dan look back on a thoroughly convincing title win, ask what comes next for Marcelo Gallardo and tell you about Argentina's National Monument to the Football, which Sam unexpectedly saw on holiday last month as a result of a car breakdown.

This week, Sam's voice sounds ridiculous for the first half of the episode because Santi and Andrés didn't say anything about it until the half-time break. The three of them discuss Argentina's two recent World Cup qualifiers – a 1–0 win away to Uruguay and a 0–0 draw at home to Brazil – which (together with Ecuador claiming a 2–0 win away to Chile on Tuesday night) confirmed Argentina's place at the 2022 World Cup.