Goal.com – Ultimate Android App dedicated to Football (Soccer)
by Paul Wilks
May 18, 2012 8:49 AM –
Install
Goal.com is a dedicated football (some call it soccer) news app for mobile devices. Featuring a responsive UI, lots of regularly updated news stories, offline reading and the ability to select favourite teams, the Goal.com is the ideal app for European football fans.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Regular updates of Football (Soccer) news!
- Big world leagues included!
- 18 different editions of the site!
- Select favourite teams to follow!
- Offline reading available!
- Great widgets!
Cons
- Lacks ability to alter font size, no night view.
Features:
Goal.com is a football news resource for your Android, deriving updates from the hugely popular website of the same name. The app makes it very easy for fans to keep up to date with the latest news, scores and rumours from European soccer. The Goal.com has a relatively simple format where the menu is along the top, and you can sweep from side to side to explore.
The main menu areas are positioned at the top of the screen, choose between: Latest, Live Scores, Standings, My Teams, More (which includes the Goal.com Twitter feed). Under each there are sub-menus, for example in the English UK edition, beneath Latest you can choose from (and slide between): All, Exclusives, Premier League, Transfer Zone, Rumours, Champions League, Europa League, Euro 2012, Go Global and Features. Stories are listed vertically- much as most other news sources. The wealth of news, spread across 18 different editions is staggering and is updated all the time.
Story view is quite slick-looking with high resolution photos and bold text, so it’s easy to get stuck in and read. Pages often feature links to others- so if you’re interested in ‘Barcelona’ you can link to stories on that team (this doesn’t link to the web page rather than in-app but it works well). I was a little disappointed to see there is little in the way of customisation- it would have been nice to have the option to change font sizes or switch to night viewing. This aside however, I was impressed with the content and the intuitive navigation.You can however ‘Download All’ stories in the settings to allow for offline reading, which is a great feature some news apps neglect to include.
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Goal.com – Splash page
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Goal.com – Standings
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Goal.com – Live scores
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Goal.com – Latest news, all
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Goal.com – Latest new, exclusives
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Goal.com – In-story view
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Goal.com – Share and favourite stories
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Goal.com – Rumours
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Goal.com – Twitter feeds
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Goal.com – Share options
Usefulness:
For staying up to date with the latest news from the whole world of football, there’s few news sources that are as detailed, regularly updated and as comprehensive as Goal.com. I was continually impressed with the sheer wealth of content and how easy it was to use. You can even add a 4×1 and and 4×2 widget to your homescreen to get the latest news relevant to you while out and about.
Ease of Use:
Goal.com is easy to use. Simply choose the heading and sweep your finger sideways to access other parts of the sub-menu. Stories open smoothly and responsively and are mostly easy to read. The app does lack the ability to increase font size but this aside it is intuitive and user-friendly for the most part.
Frequently Used:
Breaking stories update all the time so, if you’re keen, you could even check the app on an hourly basis. Personally I dip in every day to see what the latest news and rumours are, the league here in the UK is coming to a close so it’s good to follow the latest transfer gossip in readiness for next season.
Interface:
The interface isn’t the best to be fair but it is still smooth and functional and looks ‘good’, just perhaps not ‘great’.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
EPL,
ESPN,
Football,
Goal.com,
MLS,
News,
Soccer,
Sport
Categorised in: News & Weather, Sports
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