Hand Of Pod

This week Sam, English Dan and Chris look back over last weekend's Copa de la Liga quarterfinals and forward to Sunday and Tuesday's semifinals as the first 'half' of the Argentine season nears an end.

This week Sam, English Dan and Chris review an entertaining end to Group B in the Copa de la Liga and a really thrilling climax to Group A. They also look ahead to this weekend's quarterfinals, which include a superclásico between Group A winners River Plate and Group B fourth-placers Boca Juniors on Sunday.

The Copa de la Liga group stage ends this weeke— well, in the first half of next week, actually, and Sam, English Dan, Santi and Chris are here to run down which teams need which results to make it into the quarterfinals, with only runaway Group B winners Godoy Cruz already knowing which position they'll finish in. We also look at the first couple of rounds of Copa Libertadores group games and have a bumper postbag of listeners' questions.

This week Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Santi look back on Argentina's two comfortable friendly wins over El Salvador and Costa Rica in the United States, which included Alejandro Garnacho's first start – a performance Sam has some thoughts about. There have been a bunch of Copa Argentina games since we last recorded, and listeners' questions include who's playing in this year's edition and how the very bottom league of the pyramid has gone so far.

This week's pod was delayed by two days due to rain, so Sam, English Dan, Andrés, Chris and Santi met up on Friday evening to talk about last weekend's Copa de la Liga matches – including a win for River Plate, defeat for Independiente and not much else of real note – and to have a look at Argentina's squad for their friendlies against El Salvador (played right after we finished recording) and Costa Rica, as well as the Copa Libertadores group stage draw.

This week Sam, English Dan, Chris, Andrés and Santi look back on a Copa de la Liga weekend that saw an awful lot of draws, including one between Independiente and River Plate that gives us a chance to discuss both managers' 2024s so far. Wednesday evening saw River claim another (minor) trophy, and we also discuss national team news, including new kits and Lionel Scaloni's decision to call up Lisandro Martínez even though he's not back from injury yet.

This week Sam, Dan and Andrés round up the last couple of rounds of Copa de la Liga action, which saw Godoy Cruz lose for the first time (domestically) this year, leaving River Plate – who ended a run of four straight draws by beating Independiente Rivadavia on Wednesday – as the last unbeaten side in the competition. Boca Juniors aren't much good, Carlos Tevez is a conspiracy theorist and we have a short roundup of the lower leagues so far, now that they've mostly kicked off.

This week's episode follows one that we recorded last week and that, due to a combination of tiredness and busyness, Sam never uploaded. You'll be able to hear it if you head over to patreon.com/handofpod. Here, though, Sam, Chris and Andrés review last weekend's clásicos, which saw a draw between River and Boca, away wins in Rosario and Avellaneda and plenty more besides.

This week we look at two rounds of Copa de la Liga action that saw Racing score eight and concede only one, River have a good game and a bad one, and Vélez Sarsfield win late on not once but twice. And Javier Mascherano's quest for a third Olympic gold medal is still alive, because Argentina Under-23s have qualified for the football tournament at Paris 2024.

This week Sam, Dan and Andrés discuss a long 'weekend' of Copa de la Liga action that saw two thrashings, one fine turnaround and not an awful lot more excitement. There's also chat about Franco Mastantuono, who on Wednesday broke Javier Saviola's record as River Plate's youngest ever goalscorer, and an update on how the Olympic qualifying competition is going.

This week Sam, Andrés, Dan and Santi bid farewell to Tony, who's hosting us as he appears on his final episode (at least as a regular panelist). We discuss the opening two rounds of the Copa de la Liga, which included two wins from two matches for Santi's team Independiente, who had a chaotic/hilarious/mysterious story in preseason that we forgot to tell you about last week.

This week Sam, English Dan, Andrés, Chris and Tony preview the Copa de la Liga, which kicked off moments before we started to record. We take a look at the main moves in the transfer market, tell you the acceptable ways to shorten club names (and how to tell all the Central Córdobas apart), ask whether Argentina's Under-23s are rubbish or not and answer some listeners' questions.

This week's episode is our last one of 2023, and Sam, English Dan and Andrés meet to discuss the Copa de la Liga semis and final, which saw Rosario Central emerge victorious, and the Copa Argentina, which was won by Estudiantes. Boca Juniors have finally held their elections, as have Tigre, San Lorenzo and Colón, and Sam is worried about whether he'll be older than every player in the top flight when the 2024 season kicks off.

This week Sam, English Dan and Chris review last weekend's Copa de la Liga quarterfinals, which saw three ties decided by shootouts. We also discuss Riestra's promotion to the top flight and the ongoing court wrangling that continues to delay Boca Juniors' presidential elections.

This week Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Chris look back on the final weekend of the Copa de la Liga group stage action and Colón's loss to Gimnasia on Friday evening in the relegation tie-breaker. There's also a lower division update and some chat about Boca Juniors' presidential election, which currently looks unlikely to happen.

This week Sam, Dan, Chris and Andrés discuss a mixed international break for the Argentine national team, as their perfect start to World Cup 2026 qualifying came to an end with a loss to Uruguay on Thursday but they followed up by handing Brazil their first ever home defeat in WCQs on Tuesday night. After that match Lionel Scaloni hinted he might not hang around much longer, and we also consider some of the possible reasons behind that statement.

We're back! Sam's returned from Europe, and Dan, Andrés and Chris fill him in on the main points of everything he's missed during the Copa de la Liga group stage. We also discuss the Copa Libertadores final (which Sam did watch), in which Boca Juniors lost to Fluminense, and preview Argentina's two upcoming World Cup qualifiers at home to Uruguay on Thursday and away to Brazil on Tuesday.

First, sorry for the poor sound in this episode. Second, sorry for the fact that Sam had to scat the theme tune. In the middle of Sam's holiday, we have a catch-up episode in which he, Dan and Andrés review the recent round of clásicos and the Copa de la Liga group stage so far and take a look at how the early qualifying stages of Argentina's World Cup defence are going.

The Copa de la Liga got underway last weekend, but because Sam's phone app lied to him a couple of weeks ago about when it would be, we'd already penned this week in to record the preview episode, so here it is. Recorded along with Chris, Andrés and English Dan. We also look back on the first leg of Boca Juniors v Racing in the Libertadores quarter-finals, among other things. This will be the last regular episode for a little while, as Sam's off on a trip, but regular (much shorter) episodes will be going online during his time away for Patreon fans over at patreon.com/handofpod.

It's a short episode this week, with Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Chris reviewing the Copa Libertadores exits of River Plate and Argentinos Juniors and the qualifications of Boca Juniors and Racing. The latter two will meet each other in the quarter-finals, which start next week.