Weekend Fútbol Viewing

It’s the first morning of the weekend in late summer or fall. After a long five days of working, class, or both, one may imagine sleeping in and taking it easy. But not you. You are football fan. You have made the conscious decision to wake up early, prepare food — perhaps even have an adult beverage or two — and watch football.

That’s right, as a football fan you are willing to sacrifice sleep in order to be entertained by the biggest sport in the world. Perhaps more accurately spelled fútbol, the beautiful game has gained popularity here in the United States thanks in no small part to USA’s win against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup, the entirety of the women’s World Cup 2011 — especially the USA/Brazil match — as well as the improbable escape of the men’s team in the so called “Group of Death” in this year’s World Cup. For many casual soccer fans these major events put the sport front and center. Even at the club level, not even a month ago we set a US record for the largest crowd to view a live soccer game when two storied clubs, Manchester United and Real Madrid, faced off against each in the University of Michigan’s Big House.

Time zones notwithstanding, the primary obstacle for myself as well as millions of other Americans seems to be accessibility to European matches. This year NBC/Sports Extra has done a magnificent job of showing more English Premier League fixtures, assuming of course you have a compatible cable subscription.Those of us with stand alone internet packages have been seemingly left out in the cold:

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Fortunately — and without the assistance of any shady web sites — FOX Soccer 2Go has the makings of a godsend. One year after Fox canceled their Fox Soccer channel in the wake of NBC winning broadcasting rights in the US, Fox moved in a different direction. The company followed in the footsteps of MLB.tv and shifted to a direct streaming platform. The similarities of S2Go and MLB.tv begin with an easily sortable index of live games as well as previous matches. Fox has done a magnificent job of lining up a wealth of strong leagues, particularly UEFA Champions League, FA Cup and at the national level, qualifiers for Euro 2016 as well as international friendlies for England.

Similarly convenient is the upcoming matches tab which again sortable by specific league and date. A minor quibble would be the lack of a long term stream scheduled, though Fox addresses this directly:

Due to programming and TV rights we can only confirm streamed matches shown live and on demand 14 days in advance, therefore we are unable to tell you the games we show further than 14 days out.

Given time is a factor for almost everyone, Fox has the foresight to bring match highlights, just like MLB.tv’s condensed games. Match highlights are of course goals, but also great tackles, saves, shots and build ups.

It isn’t all roses and sunshine as both the English Premier League and La Liga are left off the list of competitions. Even the German Bundesliga and the French Ligue 1 are not included. Yes, there is considerable overlap between the EPL as well as La Liga clubs playing in the UEFA matches, however not being able to view Arsenal taking on Chelsea or El Classico despite the hefty 119.99 price tag is disappointing. Neither the full match archives nor the highlights have the clock or scoreboard on the stream, something that is more annoying than one would think. While the highlights can be toggled in low/medium/high quality, the full matches cannot. Live games tend to buffer from time to time — as I mentioned, S2Go is similar to MLB.tv — and the frame stutters at random at least once per half while on the computer and even more frequently on my mobile. The iOS version is free to download (S2Go isn’t out for my Kindle Fire, though it is also freely available for select Android devices) and does not require an active subscription.

The iPhone version home page shows upcoming fixtures, news, videos and scores tabs. A feature I found particularly convenient is the Score Ticker located near the bottom of the screen. Rather than isolate the results solely to the scores tab, you can read news while still viewing the scores in real time.

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Fox Soccer 2Go has the makings of something special. The layout and interface is as much as anyone could ask for, however there are real limitations. Not including every European league is dismaying albeit understandble, as is the buffering and stuttering. Of course even MLB.tv, in its 12th year of service still hasn’t worked the kinks out, so perhaps I’m being overly harsh. If you find yourself pining for top tier club and national level play, 120 bucks for over 1,200 viewable matches is a steal, particularly when weighed against the monthly recurring cost of a cable TV bill. For me, S2Go will become an annual purchase.

(Header photo via Stig Nygaard)





You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.

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Max
9 years ago

Wait, I’m confused. So can you watch ALL Champions League, or only one’s that do not include clubs from England/Spain?

Can you give a run down of the leagues they have? I realize FOX has rights to CL, Europa Lg, and will soon add Bundesliga and MLS, but what additional leagues are available through the app?

David Wiers
9 years ago
Reply to  Max

It’s every Champions League match., I apologize if that was unclear.

The leagues available are all listed on their “Competitions” tab, but the big hitters, at least for me, are UEFA CL (duh), CONCACAF League + Gold Cup, FA Cup, Europa, and of course qualifiers for Euro 2016.

sharpchicity
9 years ago

Hard to imagine paying $120 a year for unlimited football being from the US. I pay $7 a month for unlimited shows and movies on Netflix and $7/month for NFL Redzone. Most big UEFA, FA Cup, and International friendlies are already broadcast as part of NBC Sports or ESPN, so i’d be paying extra to see Barca and the likes play bad teams, or the occasional early round Clasico.

If they brought the price point down or included EPL/La Liga/or even MLS, games that I already want to watch, i’d consider purchasing so that i can stream on my computer.

David Wiers
9 years ago
Reply to  sharpchicity

The 10 bucks per month is great value. Perhaps not as much as Amazon Prime/Netflix, but I’m not complaining. Of course I agree that including EPL/La Liga would be even better — and I’d be willing to pay more for it — but it just isn’t the case yet.

The free app along is amazing to follow games though. If nothing else, definitely give that a download.

Max
9 years ago
Reply to  David Wiers

EPL is available on NBC Sports Extra Time app, which is terrific and optimized for Chromecast on my iPhone. You will need a cable login, but that’s what friends and family or for! 😉

La Liga and Serie A right go to BeInSports, so I wouldn’t expect those to be available on this app unless FOX somehow acquire the rights.

Next year FOX will add the Bundesliga, and then they will also have a number of WC qualifiers for 2018 once those get going. They will also have MLS games, although I believe ESPN retained the digital rights.

Ryan S
9 years ago

Come on you Spurs!

Please tell me FanGraphs is going to be writing about futbol. If not, just lie to me.

David Wiers
9 years ago
Reply to  Ryan S

Spurs? Get out!

Go Hoops! I know QPR gets a ton of hate — and probably somewhat rightfully so — but it was the last EPL team my boy JI Sung Park played for, so despite his awful season there, I still root for them!

Ryan S
9 years ago
Reply to  David Wiers

Haha. You’ll enjoy very much the faces of one Harry Redknapp, especially the matches where he sucks on his ENTIRE fist. Simply splendid. Though if he continues to insist on playing a back three anchored by the “slower than George RR Martin writing a book” Rio Ferdinand, this season may be a long one for QPR supporters indeed.