2011 Torneo Clausura
The end of season special of Hand Of Pod is an epic an hour and three quarters for which I
apologise, but there's good reason: South American football broadcasting legend Tim Vickery was
talking to us in person over ... Continue reading →
Sunday afternoon was bright and sunny in Buenos Aires, but there's a metaphorical black cloud
hanging over the Estadio Monumental as, against what everyone expected back at the start of the
Apertura, the unthinkable has actually come to pass: River ... Continue reading →
There's only one topic for this week's Hand Of Pod, and we make no apologies for that. Dan, Dan,
Seba and River fan Sam try to make some sense of what none of us quite thought would come to pass:
... Continue reading →
Wednesday saw two key clashes in the relegation struggle in Argentina's Primera DivisiĂłn. First,
in La Bombonera, Huracán and Gimnasia La Plata faced off in a one-match, winner-takes-all (or
rather, loser-gets-nothing) tie-breaker to decide who was relegated and who gets ... Continue
reading →
Monday saw River Plate's squad travel to CĂłrdoba for the first leg of their relegation playoff
against Belgrano de CĂłrdoba. River will be without Diego Buonanotte, who was given a plaque by
president Daniel Passarella before Saturday's game in what ... Continue reading →
Saturday's goals from the 2011 Torneo Clausura are online now, including Godoy Cruz's 1-0 win over
All Boys in the day's late game. There were seventeen goals in all over the six matches played, and
if you're not sure where ... Continue reading →
A dramatic afternoon's action in the Primera DivisiĂłn has left Quilmes relegated, Gimnasia La
Plata and Huracán having to play a tie-breaker to decide who goes down and who gets a crack at the
relegation playoff, and River Plate in ... Continue reading →
The final round of the 2011 Torneo Clausura is upon us in Argentina, and with it an historic day.
Never before since the short championships were introduced in 1992 have we gone into the final day
without a single one ... Continue reading →
The final round of the 2011 Torneo Clausura is upon us in Argentina, and with it an historic day.
Never before since the short championships were introduced in 1992 have we gone into the final day
without a single one ... Continue reading →
If Saturday wasn't already going to be a maddening enough day for fans of all the clubs involved in
the relegation dogfight in Argentina, events on Friday made sure it would become just a little more
nail-biting for fans of ... Continue reading →
In the 24th episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, Dan and Dan discuss VĂ©lez's title win on Sunday, and
offer their commiserations to LanĂşs. Sam gives an impromptu history lesson about Alumni, the first
side to dominate the Argentine top ... Continue reading →
The eighteenth and penultimate round of the 2011 Torneo Clausura ended on Monday night with Racing
storming into a 2-0 lead courtesy of two goals from the Clausura's new top goalscorer TeĂłfilo
Gutiérrez (his first came after just 43 seconds), ... Continue reading →
A dramatic weekend's action ended in Argentina with MartĂn Palermo's final match at La Bombonera
as Boca Juniors drew 1-1 with Banfield, but although that got more of the headlines and TV
coverage, Vélez Sarsfield are the biggest winners of ... Continue reading →
The penultimate weekend of the 2011 Torneo Clausura will probably see a few issues resolved with
the relegation dogfight as mentioned yesterday, a number of sides can, if the results go the right
way, escape the thread of the ... Continue reading →
With two matches remaining of the 2011 Torneo Clausura, there are six clubs currently fighting to
avoid the upper of the two relegation playoff spots in the notorious Promedio, Argentina's
three-season-long, points-average table which is used to decide which sides ... Continue reading
→
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 ... Continue reading →
Argentinos Juniors and Estudiantes de La Plata played out a dull 0-0 draw in La Paternal on Monday
evening, but the best entertainment of the night was, fittingly, to come later, when all of the top
three were in action ... Continue reading →
Sunday's Torneo Clausura matches saw MartĂn Palermo draw level with San Lorenzo legend JosĂ©
Sanfilippo as joint fifth highest scorer in Argentine league history, with 227 league goals (he'll
need four in his final two games if he's going to ... Continue reading →
Saturday's two games in the Torneo Clausura turned into only one game, thanks to a firefight
outside Newell's Old Boys' ground in Rosario which left one policeman wounded. The gunfight was
between members of Newell's barra brava, and it's not ... Continue reading →
This weekend, no issues can be resolved, but a lot might become a little clearer. Two of the
title-chasers meet on Monday, when VĂ©lez Sarsfield, licking their wounds from their Copa
Libertadores semi-final elimination, host Godoy Cruz. Gimnasia and Racing ... Continue reading →
The weekend's games in the 2011 Torneo Clausura have left things very tight at the top of the
Clausura table, thanks to Tigre's home victory over league leaders VĂ©lez Sarsfield. VĂ©lez rested
a lot of their first-choice players ahead of ... Continue reading →
A key weekend in the relegation battle in the Primera arrives. No matches were played on Friday
evening, but Sunday sees a critical clash, as River Plate visit BahĂa Blanca to take on one of the
title challengers and ... Continue reading →
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 ... Continue reading →
For the second match in a row, River Plate goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo made a howler to blow his
side's chance of a win, making a complete hash of pushing a seemingly harmless long-range shot over
the crossbar to gift ... Continue reading →
Saturday's games in the 2011 Torneo Clausura saw relegation-threatened pair Olimpo and
Independiente both win their matches. Olimpo's win over Argentinos Juniors, in particular, shifts
the pressure to one of Argentina's giants, River Plate, who go into Sunday's clásico against San
... Continue reading →
Friday evening's games in the 2011 Torneo Clausura saw the recent brouhaha over refereeing
standards in Argentina deepen. Godoy Cruz were playing away to Banfield and needed a win to keep up
the pressure on league leaders Vélez Sarsfield. They ... Continue reading →
This weekend brings another clásico for River Plate, who take on San Lorenzo on Sunday in the
Monumental. Boca Juniors, flush from the success of last Sunday's superclásico win, travel to
Sarandà to take on Arsenal. An English club of that name ... Continue reading →
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 ... Continue reading →
Sunday's biggest match in Argentina saw MartĂn Palermo a goal from a brilliant header in his final
superclásico, and Boca Juniors win 2-0 aided by an uncharacteristic error from River Plate
goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo in La Bombonera. Sunday's most ... Continue reading →
The 2011 Torneo Clausura superclásico is almost upon us. Long-term HEGS readers will be aware I
normally do a live update post here during the game. This time, though, I'm changing things
slightly. Posting to the blog is more time-consuming and means ... Continue reading →
The 2011 Torneo Clausura edition of one of the world's biggest football derbies kicks off in an
hour and a bit, with River Plate traveling south to La Bombonera to take on Boca Juniors in the
superclásico. Boca have been ... Continue reading →
Racing Club won for the second match in a row to put their recent bad form well and truly behind
them on Saturday, with Teófilo Gutiérrez bagging a double in a 3-0 win over Newell's Old Boys in
Avellaneda. Gimnasia ... Continue reading →
The fourteenth round of the the 2011 Torneo Clausura has arrived, and that, of course, means it's
superclásico time. Don't forget the Hand Of Pod preview episode. There are nine other games taking
place this weekend though or rather ... Continue reading →
In the nineteenth episode of Hand Of Pod, me, 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 ... Continue reading →
VĂ©lez Sarsfield extended their lead in the Torneo Clausura to four points over second-placed Godoy
Cruz on Monday night with a comfortable 2-0 win over Banfield in Liniers. With the first team
recovering from last Thursday's high-altitude long-distance trip to ... Continue reading →
One week to the day before they meet in La Bombonera in the first competitive superclásico of the
year, River Plate and Boca Juniors had very different weekends in the 2011 Torneo Clausura. River,
needing a win to keep up the ... Continue reading →
Godoy Cruz recovered from their 4-1 mauling at the hands of Arsenal de SarandĂ last weekend by
beating Newell's Old Boys 3-1 in Rosario on Friday night to move back into contention in the Torneo
Clausura. On Saturday, Quilmes failed ... Continue reading →
This weekend sees one clásico on the menu, as San Lorenzo visit Avellaneda to take on
Independiente on Sunday evening. Arsenal de SarandĂ host Racing in a game only the home fans will
be thinking of as a clásico, and Newell's ... Continue reading →
Monday evening's matches in the 2011 Torneo Clausura ended with LanĂşs fifth in the table, and Boca
Juniors and Independiente getting a 1-1 draw in La Bombonera that won't really satisfy either team.
MartĂn Palermo scored for Boca and youngster ... Continue reading →
