Hand Of Pod

In the 23rd episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan, Seba and Dan return to guide our listeners into the closing rounds of the Torneo Clausura. We cover the Nigeria v Argentina match last week which is being investigated by FIFA, Sam suggests Daniel Passarella might like to sell his body to help fund River Plate's transfers this winter, and Seba learns a couple of new English words. English Dan teaches us about a Mexican hairless dog, and Australian Dan gets all mystic on us as usual. Oh, and we talk about some football as well! Vélez and Lanús are left fighting it out for the Clausura crown with two games to go (thouh Vélez exited the Copa Libertadores last week), and River are sweating on relegation. All this and much more lies in wait...

In this second special edition of Hand Of Pod, Sam and Australian Dan (sorry, Daniel Colasimone) are joined from across the Andes by the voice of lovely Chilean journalist Cecilia Lagos. She fills us in on her nation's hopes for the 2011 Copa América, what she thinks of former Boca Juniors manager Claudio Borghi as Marcelo Bielsa's replacement, and tells us of a positively John Terry-esque scandal involving national team stars Mauricio Pinilla and Luis Jiménez. We also ask her about European transfer hot property Alexis Sánchez, and how likely he is to shine in the Copa.

This week in Hand Of Pod, Sam, Seba, Dan and Dan give their opinions on Javier Mascherano's sterling job at centre back in recent weeks for new European champions Barcelona, and discuss whether he might also be a good option in the role for Argentina. We run the rule over Carlos Tevez and the other names in Argentina's Copa América squad - announced right before we started recording - and consider the latests developments in the domestic league as usual. We also want your votes in a poll to find the man our listeners feel has been the best Argentine in a foreign league during 2010-11. Please send them (just the one each, please) to awards@hastaelgolsiempre.com. We've suggested a few names for you, but the list is by no means limiting.

In a special edition of Hand Of Pod, Sam and the Dans are joined by Ralph Hannah, an English expert on Paraguayan football who was kind enough to drop in on us when visiting Buenos Aires with his wife for the weekend from Asunción. We discuss Paraguay's chances in the forthcoming Copa América, who the key players in their team will be, and how the Paraguayan public are likely to view the tournament, as well as the amazing story of the side's former star striker Salvador Cabañas, and his fight to return to normal life after being shot in the head early last year. We find the time to discuss Cerro Porteño's chances of overturning their first leg defeat to Santos in the semi-final of the Copa Libertadores, as well. Hand Of Pod will be online as normal later in the week, discussing the Argentine league action with Seba.

We had difficulty shutting up this week. A full 45 minutes of actually quite good stuff (if we say so ourselves) was cut, and the podcast still comes in at over an hour. Diego Maradona is the focus of much of the early part, his ongoing wars of words with AFA president Julio Grondona and Argentina manager Sergio Batista the main reasons, and his unlikely alliance with River Plate president Daniel Passarella. The latter leads us on to more dodgy refereeing in the weekend just gone, before we consider the key fixtures in the run-in as the races for the Clausura title and to avoid relegation approach their defining points. You'll find a full diagram of the relevant bits of those tables, and the fixtures to come for each team, on the HOP blog (handofpod.wordpress.com). Oh, and we run the rule over potential new Arsenal man, Vélez's 'Ricky' Alvarez.

For the 20th episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan, Dan and Seba welcome special guest Asli Pelit to the show. Asli's a Turkish TV presenter who was at La Bombonera to see Boca Juniors beat River Plate 2-0 in Sunday's superclásico, and as well as giving us her impressions of that game, she also shares her thoughts on the most intelligent interviewees by position on the pitch, Julio Grondona's Argentina mafia connections, and the sandwiches at Colón (worth remembering if you're heading to a Copa América game in Santa Fe). We consider Diego Maradona's prestigious new managerial position, and offer to act as underwear models for a well-known Argentine brand. Oh, and we debate the age of Racing striker Teófilo Gutiérrez. He turns 26 today (17th May), so well done Aussie Dan.

In the nineteenth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan, Seba and Dan greet a couple of special guests to preview this Sunday's superclásico in La Bombonera. Samuel (no, not Sam) is our tamed River Plate fan, and the four of us try to keep him from attacking Boca Juniors fan Ariel. The team discuss the key players, our guests' memories of previous superclásicos, predictions and more, as well as looking over the action from the weekend just gone and contemplating Vélez Sarsfield's status as the only Argentine side in the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores. On the Hand Of Pod blog (handofpod.wordpress.com) you'll find a couple of bonus videos, as mentioned in the podcast.

In the eighteenth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan and Dan have to make do without Seba, but attempt nonetheless to sum up an action-packed weekend in the 2011 Torneo Clausura. As well as four clásicos and a seven-goal thriller in Banfield, we discuss Vélez Sarsfield's and Estudiantes' diverging form (and their Copa Libertadores chances for Thursday night), the news that Ángel Cappa and Gimnasia La Plata have parted company (as Sam guessed at a week or two ago), and Erik Lamela's possible move before long to Europe. There's also a Juan Román Riquelme TV ad (which we've got for your viewing pleasure over on the HOP blog), and a cautionary tale of what happens when a footballer thinks with his balls rather than his head.

In the seventeenth episode of Hand Of Pod, Seba rejoins Sam, Dan and Dan. He's not happy with the way referees have been treating his club, and he's not afraid to make his anger heard, but a little surprisingly it's another HOP-er who drops an expletive, for which we of course apologise unreservedly. We also discuss Quilmes' recent upsurge in form, and English Dan tells us of an Argentine playing in Brazil who could be the next Messi (if it weren't for the fact he turned 27 the day after we recorded). Seba, meanwhile, reminds us of José Sanfilippo, the man who was never known as the old Fernando Torres. We recorded on Monday, since when Vélez have won their Copa Libertadores first leg against LDU Quito 3-0, and Estudiantes drew theirs 0-0 at home to Cerro Porteño. Lanús and Olimpo, in Monday night's game, drew 1-1.

In the sixteenth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan and Dan discuss the weekend's footballing action in Argentina, which included a hat trick at La Bombonera from a visiting forward you may never have heard of, a double strike from - are you sitting down? - Cristian 'Fat Fab' Fabbiani, and of course the clásico de Avellaneda which we previewed last week, and which was won 2-0 by Racing. We also talk about whether River can sustain their title challenge (Vélez won the game in hand 2-0 to move top just before this episode went online) and discuss the pointlessness or otherwise of the 'local national team', who played a 2-2 draw with Ecuador shortly before this episode was uploaded.

In the fifteenth episode of Hand Of Pod Sam, Dan, Dan and Seba discuss what we can only term a startling revelation from Racing full back Iván Pillud. We round up all the salient points from the Torneo Clausura in the weekend just gone, discuss Ariel Ortega's latest indiscipline (and wonder how much longer he's got left of his playing career), and look forward to the decisive matches for Argentine clubs in the Copa Libertadores. And of course, we couldn't possibly overlook the fact that this weekend one of the country's biggest and fiercest derbies will be fought out down in Avellaneda, as Racing Club host Independiente. All this and more on your weekly dose of HOP.

In the fourteenth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan and Dan are once again back on the fernet (after an alcohol-free episode 13), whilst Seba is dry as ever. We discuss the two giants of Argentine football; Boca Juniors, who had another Riquelme-inspired win, and River Plate, who scored an absolutely fantastic goal which their latest wunderkid was at the heart of. We also take in the rest of Argentina's 'Big Five', and Seba gives us some historical context on why they're called that. We also look at how just six points separate the leaders from the team in sixteenth, halfway through the season. As well as warning us why you should never venture to Boca's stadium without a massively overpriced tour guide, Mystic Dan is back with his predictions - place bets on four of these results this weekend, we just can't tell you which four - and Zombie, once again, is chasing his own tail. One day we'll get that on a videocast for you all.

The thirteenth episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, Dan, Seba and Dan discussing things in a remarkably sober manner. We look back on the USA vs Argentina friendly on Saturday, considering the performance. Seba has a few words he wishes he could say in Ángel Di María's ear, and they're not complimentary. Looking at the local league, we discuss the laughable idea that Boca Juniors might still win the title (they're 17th), and the brilliance of Juan Román Riquelme's goal for them at the weekend. And for some reason Seba and English Dan aren't eager to talk about Racing this week. You'll have to listen to find out why.

In the twelfth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, English Dan and Seba welcome back Australian Dan from his sojourn around Mendiza and Córdoba. There's a big discussion on the main issue of the weekend, the death of San Lorenzo fan Ramón Aramayo at the apparent hands of the police force, and we talk about some of the issues surrounding security in Argentine stadia. As well as this, there's talk of four disallowed goals last weekend in the league, Boca Juniors' ongoing crisis, and the Argentine representatives in the Copa Libertadores de América.

In the eleventh episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Seba and English Dan discuss the last decade or so of Racing Club's history, and what it says about club ownership issues in Argentina. They also tackle the thorny issue of racism in the country's stadia, and talk about some of the possible reasons for Sergio Agüero being overlooked again by national team manager Sergio Batista. Aussie Dan, a.k.a. Mystic Dan, is off getting drunk in Mendoza this week, but managed to put down his wine glass for long enough to send us his predictions for the coming weekend. And Zombie is as distracting and irritating as ever.

In Episode 10 of Hand Of Pod, Sam introduces you to his new home, where he's joined by the Dans and our special studio guests Katie and Jenny (Seba couldn't make it this week). We discuss rumours that Javier Pastore might be set to move to Manchester United or Barcelona, as well as Matías Almeyda's interesting statement that River Plate are set to soon become a South American version of the latter. Aussie Dan fills us in on the first clásico at the newly-opened Estadio Único de La Plata, and there are also questions from Twitter on why Racing have suddenly improved so drastically, and whether the Argentine league is slowly 'decentralising'. And there's the usual rundown of the local action, and Mystic Dan's predictions for the weekend ahead.

In the ninth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan, Dan and Seba talk about River Plate and Olimpo, the league leaders who are also battling against relegation. The non-Argentines also field a question on how they came to support the teams they do (and Dan and Sam provide a quick potted history of Ferro Carril Oeste, Hand Of Pod’s local club). Mystic Dan now has his own theme tune, and we use his powers to look forward to two clásicos at the end of this week, one in the Zona Sur of Greater Buenos Aires and the other down in La Plata.

In the eighth episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan, Dan and Seba examine the recent (and ongoing) feud between Carlos Tevez and Argentina's national manager Sergio Batista - and AFA President Julio Grondona. They also look back on an interesting clásico clash between Racing and Boca Juniors in Avellaneda, and look forward to the coming weekend's matches, including a big derby clash between River Plate and Independiente. And Sam's got confirmation of a controversial rumour from late last year that was discussed in a 2010 episode of the show.

In the seventh episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan and Dan welcome new team member Seba García, of Mundo Albiceleste, to the show for the first time. Zombie expressed his displeasure at Walter Perazzo's Under 20s, and we discuss the events of the opening weekend, including Boca getting thrashed and Racing's Giovanni Moreno getting severely injured, prior to this weekend's clásico between the two sides.

Sam, Dan and Dan return for the first Hand Of Pod of 2011. As well as discussing the summer transfer action in Argentina, they also take a look at Argentina's performances in the Sudamericano Sub 20, as the national Under 20s attempt to qualify for the Youth World Cup and the London 2012 Olympic Football Tournament (this episode was recorded an hour before the 1-0 loss to Uruguay which rendered qualification for the latter all but impossible). There's a preview of sorts of the Torneo Clausura, which gets underway on Friday, and a debut for our new feature, 'Mystic Dan', in which horoscope ghostwriter Australian Dan (no, we've not made this up) predicts the results of the weekend's Primera División matches.