Hand Of Pod

This week on Hand Of Pod, Sam, English Dan, Tony, Andrés and Santi bring you up to date with the Copa de la Liga as the group stage enters its final weekend, and also look at the Copa Libertadores group stage so far. It's news to Sam, but this year the Copa Sudamericana also has a group stage!

This week's Hand Of Pod sees Sam, English Dan and Santi review the last few weeks' main talking points in the Copa de la Liga Profesional, including Godoy Cruz's return to their own stadium and a woeful – but controversial – clásico de Avellaneda.

In this week(end)'s HOP Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Santi look back on the last couple of weeks of Copa de la Superliga action, including the superclásico of two weeks ago and two matches which saw the winning team hit six goals.

In this week's HOP Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Santi look back on two more weeks of Copa de la Liga Profesional action which have seen Colón and Estudiantes – who meet on Saturday – continue to impress, with Aldosivi and Central Córdoba (who are playing each other in Mar Del Plata as this episode is uploaded on Friday evening) also intriguing us early on. The big headline-grabber this weekend is the superclásico in the Bombonera, as we eventually remember, so we have a bit of a preview of that too.

On this week's Hand Of Pod, Sam, Tony and Santi look back on the first two weeks' action in the Copa de la Liga Profesional and three poor showings from Argentina in the SheBelieves Cup, as well as looking forward to the Copa América, which apparently is going to be played this year and may or may not be the first Copa América since 1991 to feature only CONMEBOL member nations.

There's sad news this week, as we kick things off with talk of Godoy Cruz striker Santiago García, who died by suicide at the weekend. Afterwards, Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Tony preview the Copa de la Liga 2021, which was changed to a cup competition rather than a league championship shortly after we recorded HOP392. We look at the summer transfer activity (such as it's been) of the Big Five and some others, explain the structure of the competition and more.

In this week's HOP, Sam, English Dan, Tony and Santi review three finals – the the Copa Diego Maradona, in which Boca Juniors beat Banfield on spot kicks, the women's championship final, in which Boca thrashed River Plate 7-0, and the Copa Sudamericana final, in which Defensa y Justicia claimed their first major trophy (and Hernán Crespo's first as a manager) by beating Lanús 3-0 in Córdoba. We also look at Vélez Sarsfield's 3-1 win over Rosario Central in the participation final of the Copa Maradona, which sets up a playoff against Banfield on Wednesday for a spot in next year's Copa Sudamericana.

This week, Sam is joined by English Dan, Tony and Andrés to look forward to Sunday evening's Copa Diego Armando Maradona final between Boca Juniors and Banfield (and at how they got there) and to review Boca's and River Plate's eliminations from the Copa Libertadores.

Happy new year! In this week's HOP Sam is joined by English Dan and Santi for a quick roundup of the most relevant action in the Copa Diego Maradona over the Christmas and new year period (including a very entertaining 2-2 draw between Boca Juniors and River Plate), and a look back on the first legs of the Copa Libertadores semi-finals, which saw River get humped by Palmeiras and Boca involved in a cagey draw at home to Santos (since we recorded it's been reported that Santos goalkeeper John was positive for COVID-19 during the match).

This week's HOP is our last episode of 2020, but Argentine football isn't quite done yet – unusually, matches continue throughout the summer in the Copa Diego Armando Maradona, Copa Sudamericana and Copa Libertadores. Sam, English Dan, Santi and Andrés look back on the action since we last recorded and set the scene for what's to come. We'll be back in the new year to update you on what's transpired between now and then, but our Patreon supporters will be getting short updates from Sam every week during our break – if you'd like to join them (or to give someone a subscription for Christmas?) get on over to www.patreon.com/handofpod/. See you in the new year!