chaunceyd
Member
Splash screen when loading GMC
What is it?
Goal.com Mobile (GCM) is your one stop spot for all your soccer/futbol/football news - and while it provides information about all the major leagues (English Premier, Champions, Europa, Bundesliga, etc), there is clear focus on the FIFA World Cup.
Usefulness & Features
For someone who wants to keep up-to-date on all things in the world of soccer and the FIFA World Cup this app is incredibly useful. It provides you with the latest scores to all the recent matches (including live matches), as well as delivering exclusive articles, commentaries, and photos.
But in a field filled with similar 'sports-scores' oriented apps, how does GCM differentiation itself in order to stand out? Below I've listed several features I wasn't able to find on similar apps:
- Exclusive Content -- from the writers at Goal.com with corresponding photos
- Save articles, lineups, play-by-play recaps, etc in order to read later offline!
- Share articles, lineups, recaps, etc through Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, Email, Text Msg, etc.
- Gives you player specific info - including Position, Height, Nationality, and Weight
- Customizable News Widget for certain clubs and leagues.
Series of images showing the Save and Share features, as well as the Player Specific Info for Blaise N'Kufo future forward for the Sounders FC!
Your also able to save your favorite clubs - which will compile all the specific news and scores for that team.
Showing your Favorite Teams Section - as well as the Club page for Sounders FC
However, when compared to similar apps, one feature that is surprisingly missing is notifications for scores to live matches. Which may or may not be a deal breaker for some, but is something that will hopefully be included in a future update. Also, it would be nice to see an option for a widget that shows scores from a specific club or league.
UI
The interface for this app is very slick - it was one of the first things I fell in love with, though I think it could use a little more organization (or maybe customization?). The main navigation is laid out in 5 main tabs: World Cup, Live Scores, Featured, Club News, and More.* This makes it easy to move around, however it feels like the some of these tabs are not as useful as others - namely 'Featured', which lists a number of apps you can download (and feels completely out of place). And while 'Club News' is very useful it only lists the US National Team, England, Mexico, Italy and Spain. So if you want news about the other teams in the World Cup your out of luck - and therefore it would make sense to use the tab for another purpose (maybe favorite clubs?).
Main Tabbed Interface - also showing useless Featured Tab
Once within a specific tab, you swipe left and right in order to move to the sub-tab or sub-section. This was not obvious at first, and I first started clicking each of the sections to move to them. However, once you get that portion down its a breeze moving through the whole app.
* While reviewing this app the tabs actually changed on me. I searched through the settings menu and wasn't able to do this myself - and have determined it must have been done by Goal.com after it loaded up (as I didn't receive an udpate).
Performance
The app loaded fairly quickly, and I suspect this might be different depending on both your phone and your coverage. When I navigated through the menu, their seem to be a little sluggishness on my Droid. But I suspect if your on anything like an Evo or an Incredible it'll be pretty smooth.
Conclusion
If you need the best news and coverage for soccer and specifically the World Cup, and can settle with getting your live score notifications else where, then you should look no further than Goal.com Mobile.
Pros
Exclusive-and-Quality Content and Coverage
Integrated Social Sharing Capabilities
Offline/Save Mode
Cons
No Live Score Notifications
Interface could be more customizable
Rating
4 out of 5