Soccer.com

Full review
I've been an avid soccer player for about 25 years now.

Although I'd admit that I'm certainly more a fan than a player now, I still feel the need to pull on my boots and trot out on the pitch now and again.

I don't buy any of my playing gear online, as I shop at the same store I've been going to all my life. I like to know the feel of the cleat as I wear it -- I'm not ready to take the store out of this particular transaction yet.

But for anything related to soccer: balls, fan t-shirts, DVDs, etc -- I go to soccer.com. I've actually been buying from this company since high school. Eurosport (the company that runs Soccer.com) bought TSI, which was a cataloger that I used a lot at that time. TSI had great deals on equipment like shin guards and socks.

I originally went to soccer.com to find a Roy Keane tshirt from Manchester United. Keane was a popular (though controversial) player on this team for almost a decade. He recently left the squad over differences with his teammates and his coaches, so that moved me to look for some gear.

The site was easy to find -- all my google search queries pointed to soccer.com as the place to buy.

Using the site is also pretty easy, though it's definitely a site designed by the same folks who run the catalog division. First, the homepage is very busy, but it manages to list all the product categories on the side. The front middle of the page is the merchandising area, where you can see the latest products. The left side of the page highlights popular purchases and new releases, as well as an exhortation to subscribe to the catalog. If you're not sure what you're looking for, this page might terrify or engage you -- I'm not sure which. Let's assume it works, just for the sake of this review.

The top of the left side of the page contains three very helpful links:

# Shop by Brand
# Shop by Player
# Shop by Team

Clicking on any of these links allows the dropdown list behind it to show. Since I was looking for Roy Keane, I chose Shop By Player, but shop by Team would have worked as well.

Once I clicked on Keane's name, I was taken to a page of merchandise featuring him. I chose the Irish national team replica t-shirt by Adidas. I was able to size the item and place it in my shopping cart on one page -- checkout was a three page process after that.

The site's posted shipping policy is as follows.

All orders from SOCCER.COM are processed between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. (EST), Monday through Friday.

Regular ground shipping takes from 3 to 10 business days, depending on your distance from us (within the continental U.S.)

GROUND SHIPPING RATES

Order Total Shipping Rate
$0.00 - $10.00 $4.99
$10.00 - $25.00 $5.99
$25.00 - $50.00 $7.99
$50.00 - $100.00 $8.99
$100.00 - $150.00 $9.99
$150.00 - $200.00 $10.99
$200.00 - $250.00 $11.99
Over $250.00 By Weight

There are also express shipping options available.

The site has a pretty good return policy, and I've never had any problems with the merchandise from this company.

RIP George Best

Thanks for reading, BHWEB22