Hand Of Pod

This week Sam, English Dan, Chris and Andrés look at a round and a half of matches that have seen everyone who'd played up to the start of recording get mixed results (with the scores that came in after we wrapped up continuing that trend). One Argentine team who do have some consistency are the national under-20s, who've secured qualification for the U-20 World Cup later this year and have a showdown with Brazil on Thursday night to effectively decide the South American title. And what on earth is going on at Estudiantes?

Estudiantes beat Racing 2–0 in round 3, and as such are the only team with a 100% (winning) record. Sam, English Dan and Andrés run the rule over that match, River Plate's iffy 0–0 draw with San Lorenzo and Boca Juniors' 2–1 win over Huracán, among other games. We also have a review of the Sudamericano Sub 20 in the last week and answer some listeners' questions.

This week Sam, English Dan, Chris, Santi and Andrés look back on the first two rounds of the 2025 Apertura, in which the two Avellaneda giants took maximum points, River and Boca both looked rather iffy and champions Vélez Sarsfield lost twice, including managing to let in two goals against Tigre before the season was even ten minutes old. There's good news from the Sudamericano Sub 20 and plenty more besides.

We're back! The 2025 Liga Profesional de Fútbol season kicks off on Thursday evening, and Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Chris are here to preview it for you. How many teams are there this year? What will the format be? What's happening to the Copa de la Liga? All these questions and more are answered here ...

Vélez Sarsfield became the champions of Argentina on Sunday, and in this episode Sam, English Dan, Santi, Chris and Andrés review the final weekend of Liga Profesional matches and look at why Vélez deserved their title and where their rivals – most obviously Talleres and Huracán – fell short. We also ask how River Plate and Boca Juniors need to rebuild for 2025, among other matters.

On Wednesday Central Córdoba de Santiago del Estero became the first club from their province to win a major national title, beating Vélez Sarsfield 1–0 in a controversial Copa Argentina final. Sam, English Dan and Santi meet to review that match and to preview Sunday's two matches, which will decide whether Vélez ultimately finish a very impressive year empty handed, as they host fellow title hopefuls Huracán with Talleres eager to pounce as well should they slip up.

On Saturday afternoon Racing Club beat Cruzeiro 3–1 in Asunción to lift the Copa Sudamericana, and this week Sam and Andrés are joined by not one but two Racing fans who were in attendance, as English Dan and Seba tell us what their experiences were like and help us review the match. We also look back on Argentina's recent World Cup qualifying double header, which saw a defeat away to Paraguay and a narrow win at home to Peru.

When we recorded this week's podcast – before Vélez Sarsfield's 1–0 win over Tigre – it looked like Racing might somehow be in the title race. They're still not exactly out of it, and Sam, English Dan and Andrés discuss why that's the case, back-to-back wins for River Plate and Aldosivi securing promotion back to the top flight.

This week Sam, English Dan, Chris, Andrés and Santi look back on a week that saw Racing reach their first continental final in 32 years by beating Corinthians 2–1 in the Cilindro (in front of Dan and his son) for a 4–3 aggregate win in their Copa Sudamericana semi. In the other semi, Lanús lost (Chris was there), while Tuesday night's astonishing firework show at the Monumental was much more spectacular than the football River Plate served up as they slumped out of the Copa Libertadores against Atlético Mineiro.

This week Sam, English Dan, Andrés, Chris and special guest Chris Lee discuss this week's Copa Libertadores and Sudamericana semifinal first legs, then move on to last weekend's Liga Profesional fixtures and the midweek Copa Argentina matches (of which there were two, in two different rounds of the competition), among many other things.