Episode 252: Bye-bye Bauza, Sampaoli next? And a domestic roundup

The two hundred and fifty-second episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, Andrés and Peter meet to discuss the AFA’s sacking on Tuesday of Edgardo Bauza as Argentina manager, and who might the next candidate be – with news filtering out shortly after we’d recorded that, as suspected, Jorge Sampaoli is the only serious candidate. Is he the right man for the job? Would he take it? And if he doesn’t, who might the other options end up being? All these questions and more are debated. As well as this, we’ve got a look at a Primera weekend which was so action-packed, even Independiente found their shooting boots – and how!

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Mystic Chris’s twentieth round predictions (last week Mystic Sam got 8/14, with Racing v Tigre postponed due to rain):
Huracán v Arsenal
Lanús v San Martín
Newell’s v Estudiantes
Belgrano v Talleres
Independiente v Atl. Rafaela
Olimpo v Vélez
Sarmiento v Racing
Godoy Cruz v Banfield
Atl. Tucumán v San Lorenzo
Boca v Patronato
Quilmes v Colón
Tigre v River
Unión v Defensa y Justicia
Temperley v Central
Gimnasia v Aldosivi

Episode 251: Boca extend their lead, River hit form, and more stuff on Bauza’s future

The two hundred and fifty-first episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, English Dan and Andrés discuss a weekend with a fair number of thrillers, including a 4-2 clásico win for Lanús over Banfield, a 3-2 win after being 2-0 and one man down for Racing away to Quilmes, and a controversial 4-3 victory for Tigre at home to San Lorenzo. That last result means Boca Juniors are now five points clear at the top of the league, and we also look at their 1-0 win over Defensa y Justicia (who are involved in continental football for the first time ever) and at River Plate’s 2-1 away win over Godoy Cruz which seems to confirm that River are rediscovering their best form under Marcelo Gallardo. All this as well as the first machinations of Claudio Tapia as AFA president, in the form of him desperately hoping Edgardo Bauza resigns some time soon as national team manager.

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Mystic Sam’s nineteenth round predictions (last week Mystic Vincent got 8/15)
Aldosivi v Estudiantes
Central v Atl. Tucumán
Colón v Godoy Cruz
Arsenal v Newell’s
San Lorenzo v Sarmiento
Atl. Rafaela v Huracán
Racing v Tigre
Talleres v Lanús
Banfield v Belgrano
Patronato v Independiente
San Martín v Unión
River v Quilmes
Vélez v Boca
Defensa y Justicia v Olimpo
Gimnasia v Temperley

Episode 250: What’s wrong with Argentina, and how to fix it, with Jonathan Wilson

This week’s episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, English Dan, Andrés and Tony joined by the man who literally wrote the book on Argentine football, because Jonathan Wilson’s in town just for our two hundred and fiftieth episode (okay, not just for that). We have two awful performances from the Argentine national team to discuss – a win over Chile and a defeat away to Bolivia – as well as Lionel Messi’s suspension for saying some naughty words to a linesman, Edgardo Bauza’s future job security now the AFA (hours before we began recording) finally has a new president and board of directors, and a nearly full round of Primera División matches, since the summer delay meant the AFA is obliged to play through the international break in order to catch up the season a bit in terms of how far it ought to have progressed by now. Enjoy.

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Mystic Vincent’s eighteenth round predictions (last week Mystic Dez got 10/14!)
Atl. Tucumán v Gimnasia
Independiente v Vélez
Newell’s v Atl. Rafaela
Temperley v Aldosivi
Quilmes v Racing
Belgrano v Colón
Boca v Defensa y Justicia
Estudiantes v Arsenal
Lanús v Banfield
Sarmiento v Central
Tigre v San Lorenzo
Huracán v Patronato
Godoy Cruz v River
Olimpo v San Martín
Unión v Talleres

Episode 241: We are six! From despair to relief for Argentina, and returning to league action

The two hundred and forty-first episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam and Andrés celebrate the podcast’s sixth birthday by discussing two Argentina matches; last Thursday’s awful defeat to Brazil in Belo Horizonte, and Tuesday’s much-improved win over Colombia in San Juan. Does the national team need a clearout? If so, who should be the new names coming in? We also round up some of the main stories from the last week, including Argentinos Juniors arguing with River Plate over youth recruitment, and suggestions that Argentina’s next World Cup qualifier, at home to Chile in March, could be played at La Bombonera. Oh, and there’s a return to league action this weekend to look forward to.

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Mystic Chris’s round 10 predictions (two weeks ago Mystic Hugh got 5/15)
Arsenal v Banfield
Estudiantes v Colón
Godoy Cruz v Tigre
Lanús v Atl. Tucumán
Unión v Temperley
Huracán v Racing
Quilmes v Aldosivi
Belgrano v Sarmiento
Independiente v San Lorenzo
Boca v Central
Atl. Rafaela v Talleres
Newell’s v River
Olimpo v Gimnasia
Patronato v San Martín

Episode 236: What is wrong with Argentina?

The two hundred and thirty-sixth episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam and Peter convene to discuss the recent World Cup qualifying double-header: like the midfield on Tuesday night in Córdoba, there’s not an Argentine in sight. We give our thoughts on two bafflingly below-par performances which saw Argentina gain just one point and lose a home World Cup qualifier for the fourth time ever, consider which names we would (and wouldn’t) like to see in the national team setup, and more. And at the end, Peter provides his predictions of what will happen in this weekend’s Primera matches, because Sam forgot to ask any listeners to do the same.

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Mystic Peter’s sixth round predictions (two weeks ago Mystic Liam got 8/15)
Defensa y Justicia v Banfield
Belgrano v Aldosivi
Vélez v Colón
Atl. Rafaela v Racing
Huracán v Temperley
Estudiantes v Central
San Martín v Talleres
Independiente v Atl. Tucumán
Lanús v Godoy Cruz
Olimpo v Tigre
Boca v Sarmiento
Newell’s v Gimnasia
Arsenal v San Lorenzo
Patronato v River
Unión v Quilmes

Episode 235: Central hit form, a dull La Plata clásico and upcoming World Cup qualifiers

The two hundred and thirty-fifth episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam, English Dan and Andrés convene to discuss a weekend of Primera action which saw a very dull derby in La Plata and, at almost the same time, a considerably more dramatic showdown in Banfield, where the hosts came back from an early 2-0 deficit to win 3-2. There was an impressive, if not uncontroversial, win for River Plate over Vélez Sarsfield, yet another failure to win away from home for Boca Juniors, and a first home win for Ricardo Zielinski as Racing manager. As well as all this we discuss why plans to force Liniers to get a football pitch which actually fits the regulatory definition of the phrase ‘football pitch’ are a great loss for Argentine culture, and turn our attention to less important matters such as Argentina’s upcoming World Cup double-header, and how they’ll do without Lionel Messi.

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Episode 234: Estudiantes maintain their lead, Bauza names his second Argentina squad & more

The two hundred and thirty-fourth episode of Hand Of Pod is a two-man job, with Sam and Andrés discussing yet another win for Estudiantes, who’ve now won four out of four at the start of the league season, and two more points dropped for River Plate in a thrilling match, as well as an impressive Darío Benedetto-inspired win for Boca Juniors among plenty more. We then turn our attention to Tuesday’s announcement by CONMEBOL of some exciting (and long overdue) changes to the Copa Libertadores which should prove a great step forward for football across the continent, and look over Edgardo Bauza’s list of call-ups for Argentina’s upcoming World Cup qualifying double header against Peru and Paraguay, the first of which to Sam’s surprise is next Thursday.

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Mystic Liam’s fifth round predictions (last week Mystic Chris got 10/15!)
Quilmes v Olimpo
Godoy Cruz v Unión
Central v Arsenal
Aldosivi v Talleres
Temperley v Newell’s
Racing v Patronato
River v Vélez
San Lorenzo v Atlético de Rafaela
Belgrano v Lanús
Banfield v San Martín
Gimnasia v Estudiantes
Sarmiento v Independiente
Colón v Defensa y Justicia
Tigre v Boca
Atlético Tucumán v Huracán

Episode 231: Reviewing Edgardo Bauza’s start as Argentina boss and more

The two hundred and thirty-first episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam joined by Andrés and Tony to look back over two weeks of action: the first round of Primera División season, the highlights of which were a 3-0 away win for Estudiantes over Tigre and 4-1 home victory for River Plate against Banfield, and Edgardo Bauza’s first two matches as Argentina manager, a 1-0 home win over Uruguay and a 2-2 away draw to Venezuela in two rather different performances. Tony predicts this weekend’s matches and other topics up for discussion are why Boca Juniors don’t seem to have improved much at all, and (very briefly) some news about Daniel Passarella.

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Mystic Tony’s second round predictions (two weeks ago Mystic Sam got 5/15)
Patronato v Gimnasia
Huracán v Quilmes
Olimpo v Lanús
Banfield v Colón
San Martín v Racing
Unión v Aldosivi
Defensa y Justicia v San Lorenzo
Independiente v Godoy Cruz
Newell’s v Tigre
Vélez v Central
Estudiantes v Sarmiento
Boca v Belgrano
Talleres v River
Arsenal v Atlético Tucumán
Atlético de Rafaela v Temperley

Episode 229: a review of all the winter madness

Hand Of Pod is back from a long, dark, at times a little bit chilly winter break! Rejoice! We were planning to preview the upcoming season this week, but since it’s been put back by a week, Sam and Fran instead take the opportunity to bring you up to speed with at least some of the stuff that’s happened off the pitch in Argentine football in the last couple of months – and there’s a lot to get through, from Lionel Messi’s international retirement (and decision to keep playing after all) to Gerardo Martino and his coaching staff standing down en masse, and from the introduction of a FIFA Normalisation Committee to run the AFA to the temporary hiatus on the introduction of the long-awaited SuperLiga because they couldn’t get a statute written and approved in time. We’ve got all this and more this week, so enjoy!

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Episode 205: Boca & Central fight for a domestic double, two managers step down on one day and more

The two hundred and fifth episode of Hand Of Pod sees Sam and English Dan joined by Tony, a long-time listener and first-time caller. It’s a bumper edition, as we stick our teeth into last Friday’s Copa Argentina semi-finals, which leave Boca Juniors and Rosario Central – the top two in the league – going head to head in the final next Wednesday in Córdoba. San Lorenzo’s Edgardo Bauza and Racing’s Diego Cocca both announced they’ll be leaving their managerial positions at the end of 2015 mere hours before we recorded, and Bauza in particular will surely have the pick of the continent’s clubs. As well as this, we knew before recording that River Plate and Huracán were in the Copa Sudamericana semi-finals (Independiente played after we recorded, and went out), and there’s an Argentina squad to consider as the team prepare to take on Brazil and Colombia without Lionel Messi in two weeks’ time. All this and much more… HOP is sponsored by Argentina Independent, a fine English-language source of news from Argentina and across Latin America.

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Mystic Sam’s twenty-ninth round predictions
Godoy Cruz v Colón
Sarmiento v Chicago
Gimnasia v Atl. Rafaela
Belgrano v Estudiantes
Newell’s v Lanús
Racing v Crucero del Norte
Vélez v River
Unión v San Martín
Banfield v Central
Boca v Tigre
San Lorenzo v Temperley
Aldosivi v Independiente
Quilmes v Huracán
Arsenal v Defensa y Justicia
Argentinos v Olimpo