Hand Of Pod

The two hundred and forty-third episode of Hand Of Pod couldn't be solely about Argentine football, given events earlier in the week. Sam, Andrés and guest Lex meet up to discuss some of the Argentine reaction to the tragic plane crash on Monday night, with tributes planned across Argentina - and the rest of the continent - this weekend. There's also a look at a surprisingly entertaining clásico de Avellaneda, a very good performance from Boca Juniors and a rather fortunate win for River Plate, as well as Estudiantes' first defeat of the season, among much more.

The eighty-first episode of Hand Of Pod is another bumper one, with a look back on Argentina's 3-0 dispatching of Uruguay last Friday and Tuesday's hard-fought 2-1 win away to Chile, as well as the main World Cup qualifying results in the rest of the CONMEBOL region, including an impressive Radamel Falcao García- and James Rodríguez-inspired win over Paraguay for Colombia. We then move on to the domestic scene, where the main story is Juan Antonio Pizzi's confirmation as San Lorenzo manager, before answering a veritable barrage of listeners' questions. Next week: the superclásico preview. Enjoy!

The seventieth episode of Hand Of Pod brings a preview of the new season, which for the first time sees the Torneos Apertura and Clausura renamed Inicial and Final, and will see only one champion at the end of the season. Well, that was how it was going to be when we recorded. AFA have since decided there will be a champion at the end of each. Hmm. We discuss the main transfer ins and outs of the winter break, as well as new boys Quilmes' and River Plate's chances of surviving in the Primera, among other things. And this week's Q&A section was conducted live on Twitcam! It's a bumper episode for the season, so enjoy.

The forty-fifth episode of Hand Of Pod is introduced by Queens Park Rangers star Alejandro Faurlín, and sees Sam, Seba and English Dan reflecting on Boca Juniors' title win - the media bias, the key players, the impressive record and more. We reflect on Racing's failure to satisfactorily challenge them, Teo Gutiérrez's chances of getting a transfer to Europe, the political machinations behind the postponement of San Lorenzo v Tigre and the challenges awaiting Tigre during the coming Clausura. There's an aside on the stupidity of the three different tables used in Argentina to decide the title, continental qualification and relegation, and we also talk about River Plate's 'hilarious' weekend loss to Boca Unidos and subsequent midweek recovery in the Copa Argentina. We finish with a fairytale story from the Copa, about the president of fourth division Atlético Policial, who on Wednesday beat Nacional B (second division) leaders Instituto 4-1.

In the final episode of 2019, Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Tony look back on the last few games of the year, which tidied up a couple of the Superliga matches postponed from earlier rounds, and decided a couple of trophies of varying importance.