FOX Soccer 2Go is an online streaming service where sports fans can view not only UEFA Champions League games, but also view various matches from soccer and rugby leagues across the globe. While the online subscription site has encountered various growing pains over the course of the last few years, including a redesign, facelift and re-branding, the current FOX Soccer 2Go is one of stability, efficiency, reliability and most importantly of all, availability.

Soccer fans now have the opportunity to view live UEFA Champions League matches not only on their desktops or laptops, but also on their iPhones and iPads if they download the free Fox Soccer 2Go app available in the App store (Note, a paid FOX Soccer 2Go subscription is required to activate the streaming games on the iPhone and iPad apps). On a typical month, FOX Soccer 2Go offers over 100 soccer and rugby games, action from 14 different cup competitions such as the FA Cup and Champions League.

If you’re a massive soccer or rugby fan who is considering spending the $19.99 per month to subscribe to FOX Soccer 2Go, this definitive guide will outline all the features and benefits associated with the site, and various devices it’s available on, so a consumer can make an educated decision whether to sign up for FOX Soccer 2Go or not. Plus, for new or existing FOX Soccer 2Go customers, this guide serves as an independent user’s guide to better understanding how FOX Soccer 2Go works (since there’s no official user’s guide available, as far as we know).

FOX Soccer 2Go for PC or Mac

FOX Soccer 2Go has a user friendly, sleek and modern look to it. Once a subscriber has completed the log in process by providing their email address and a unique password, they can instantly access numerous on-demand matches or live games when applicable. A number of Europe’s most popular leagues are currently available on FOX Soccer 2Go including the UEFA Champions League and Bundesliga (in total, over 24 league and cup competitions are available). Note however that license rights are subject to change. For example, Serie A and Ligue Un rights have been acquired by beIN Sports for the 2012-13 season.

Other than being able to watch a huge selection of live (and on-demand) games throughout the season (the selection is quite incredible despite a few pitfalls; more on that later), the next best thing about FOX Soccer 2Go is the selection of in-game interactive features which take advantage of the World Wide Web’s ability to offer things that an average TV cannot.

Starting from the top, those features are:

Main Menu and Player Controls

To access the interactive features on FOX Soccer 2Go, cue up a live match. Once a live game starts playing, the main menu should appear on the screen (see screenshot below). To access the main menu at any time, simply drag your mouse (or finger) across the middle bottom of the screen. A small pop-up menu will then appear.

The main controls are what you’re typically used to on a DVR or similar device. You can pause live or on-demand action and then un-pause it to leave off from where you were. There’s a rewind button in case you want to missed something or want to see something again. After you press the pause or rewind button, you can access the fast-forward button (if you like) to skip or catch up to where you were. Or, you can simply press the ‘Live’ button which will take you to the live action in the game. Vice versa, clicking ‘Start’ will take you back to the beginning of the game.

The Main Menu controls will disappear in a few seconds after you move your mouse (or finger) away from the pop-up menu, so you can watch the game uninterrupted (see screenshot below).

If you decide to watch a game on-demand instead of live, the player controls offered are much more simplified (see screenshot below). You can choose between going back to the start of the game, clicking play or pause, skipping ahead or back in the game, selecting the pop-up player, and using the mute button.

The games that are available on-demand are the full match (including games that initially air live on FOX Soccer, but are available on demand on FOX Soccer 2Go after midnight ET of the day of the game).

Going back to the Main Menu for a minute, there are three other features I want to point out:

The first is the Bitrate controls (pictured below, to the left of the ‘Start’ button). Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, you may want to increase or decrease the bitrate to improve your picture quality. It’s pre-set to the ‘Auto’ setting, but you manually increase or decrease the bitrate, if you like.

The second option I want to point out is the pop-up player option that is immediately to the left of the ‘Start’ button (see screenshot below). After you click on it, a new window will open in your browser showing the game. This way, you can have the pop-up window open, resize it, and then continue surfing the Internet in your main browser window. If you like, you can always open up several different pop-up windows if you want to watch several FOX Soccer 2Go games at once.

Another control you can use in the Main Menu is the Volume/Mute option which is (pictured above) to the right of the ‘Live’ button. If you find the volume on the match commentary is too low, even if the volume on your computer is on a loud setting, you may want to check this option on FOX Soccer 2Go to ensure that the volume is set for as loud as it can go. You can also use this option to mute a game, which can be handy at times.

The fourth and final option on the main menu is the Expand to Full Screen button, which is immediately to the right of the ‘Live’ button.

Chat

To access the ‘Chat’ feature, click on first icon, on the left, above the player controls — the one that looks like a speech bubble.

Unfortunately, the only useless and frustrating feature on FOX Soccer 2Go is the Chat feature because it never works. You can always click on it, but the chat is always closed when I try it. Maybe in the future FOX Soccer 2Go will decide to have a moderator so they can enable live chats. However, I’m not sure how much of a demand there is for the feature. For me, it would be too distracting to have the Chat on during a game.

Nevertheless, here’s what the Chat window looks like during a game:

Stats

FOX Soccer 2Go’s ‘Stats’ feature includes the weekend’s fixture list with the availability to hide or view scores for those fans who are DVR-ing a match for later or who plan on utilizing the ‘On-Demand’ feature, which allows users to stream matches up to 7 days after their completion.

To access the Stats feature, click on the second button from the left above the player controls (the one that looks like a stopwatch, see screenshot below):

The following screenshot shows what FOX Soccer 2Go looks like when the live scores are turned on.

And the following screenshot shows what it looks like when the live scores are turned off — which is particularly helpful when you just want to see what the fixtures are in the other games being played.

If you click through to a specific game in the Live Scores, you’ll see the latest score and statistics for the match (see screenshot below).

In-Game Highlights

The most impressive feature of FOX Soccer 2Go is the ‘In-Game Highlights’ feature which allows users the ability to watch a live match while simultaneously reviewing match in-game highlights from other matches.

The controls take a little bit of time to get used to, so I’d encourage you to play around with them until you’re adept at all of the options.

There are a few different ways to use the In-Game Highlights. First, click on the third icon from the left, above the player controls (see screenshot below):

After clicking the icon during a live game, you’ll then see a drop-down menu listing all of the goals that have been scored in the live games that are currently being played. You can click the drop-down button (see screenshot below) to select the mini-menu of the games where goals have been scored.

Then, by clicking any of the ‘Goal’ images, the in-game highlight of that goal will be displayed on your screen (see screenshot below). If you want to see it in your main window, you’ll need to click on ‘Switch View.’

The video of the goal highlight will show the moments leading up to a goal and the goal itself, which then automatically loops over and over again. You can click ‘Switch View’ to return to the game you were watching before.

The ‘Switch View’ feature can be used for other things other than just goal highlights. You can go back and forth between all of the live games by using the ‘Event List’ (more about that later).

One more thing about the ‘Switch View’ feature is that you can move it (or any of the other widgets such as Chat or Stats) around the screen. See example below where I moved it from the right to the left side of the screen:

Alerts

The fourth and final icon in the row above the player controls is ‘Alerts’ (signified by the bell symbol). This is definitely a fantastic feature that can alert you (if you choose) when goals are scored in all of the live games that you want to monitor.

Clicking on the ‘Alerts’ icon will bring up a menu (see below):

From here you can set the alerts of the games where you want to be notified of goals. Plus, you can review the in-game alerts to review which alerts have been triggered.

Then, during a game, when a goal is scored in a different game than the one you’re watching, you’ll see a alert pop up in the bottom right corner. The alert signifies who scored the goal.

Tip: When a goal alert appears in the bottom right corner of the screen (see screenshot below), click it and you’ll automatically be taken to the goal so you can immediately watch it.

Event List

Last but not least, the Event List is a feature that I think you’ll find helpful. In many ways, it’s more accessible than the controls within the Main Menu. From the Event List, you can see all of the games throughout FOX Soccer 2Go that are currently being shown live. By clicking on any of the team names, a mini-menu will appear that allows you to either switch to watching the game live (first icon shown in screenshot below), seeing the in-game highlights (second icon), or to switch the alerts on or off.

To make the Event List and player controls disappear, move your mouse (or finger) away from the controls for a few seconds.

FOX Soccer 2Go Mobile App on iPhone

Once you’ve subscribed to FOX Soccer 2Go and activated your account on a PC or Mac, you can download the free FOX Soccer 2Go app for iPhone and/or iPad.

After loading the FOX Soccer 2Go iPad or iPhone app, select the ‘Settings’ icon in the top left of the screen. You’ll then see a page asking you to login to your “FOXSoccer.tv Account.” Enter your login username and password that you used to set up your PC or Mac account. Without connecting your account, you can still use the app to view video highlights (see screenshot example below), read news and see latest scores. But with an activated (and connected) FOX Soccer 2Go account, you’ll be able to watch live Bundesliga games on your iPhone and/or iPad app. Moments after a game has completed, you can view match highlights (see example in the screenshot below):

As shown in the above screenshot, you can also select the ‘Stats’ and ‘Line-Up.’

Tip: Currently no on-demand capabilities are available on the FOX Soccer 2Go iPhone and iPad apps.

While the features on the mobile and tablet platforms are limited in regards to the more robust features on the PC and Mac, the simple fact that soccer fans can now watch live Bundesliga matches on these devices, whether on the go or at home, is a plus.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the FOX Soccer 2Go iPhone app includes a live ticker, results from games, an option to select your team and – most importantly of all — live streaming. Clicking on the game will bring up the live streaming video. If the game is not available to be streamed, the video highlights will be available (see example below).

Tip: An Android format of Fox Soccer 2Go is currently in the works.

FOX Soccer 2Go Mobile App on iPad

If you’re looking for more functionality than the FOX Soccer 2Go iPhone app, the iPad app is highly recommended. The layout of the app takes advantage of the wider screen size of the iPad. The main screen (pictured above) features a ticker, schedules, scores, video excerpts, news and live streaming. No on-demand games are available, though.

By clicking on any of the games highlighted in the ‘Live’ section of the main app screen, a game will appear (similar to the above).

On the iPad app, the features you have control over appear at the bottom of the screen. You can switch the live ticker on or off simply by pressing the ‘Live Ticker’ once to turn it on, and another time to turn it off (see above screenshot).

You can also display the team line-ups (see above).

And last, but not least, you can pull up the major events from the game such as goals scored by clicking on the ‘Events’ button.

Programming

FOX Soccer 2Go’s programming is subject to change depending on rights deals. Check the FOX Soccer 2Go website for the latest offerings.

Conclusion

As you can hopefully see from this definitive user’s guide to FOX Soccer 2Go, there’s more than meets the eye with both the web and mobile apps. The level of features is incredible, and it’s certainly a wonderful experience for soccer fans who enjoy watching their games on the Internet. If you’re the type of person who loves to watch as many Bundesliga games as possible, FOX Soccer 2Go is a must-have.

While FOX Soccer 2Go is an essential tool for die-hard soccer fans, it doesn’t come without its frustrations. From time-to-time, the On-Demand feature doesn’t work. I’ve often still experienced a black screen that keeps on spooling but doesn’t load the game. Plus, the On-Demand functionality has sometimes infuriated viewers by cutting off the last few minutes of a game, especially if it goes into significant added time.

Overall, though, FOX Soccer 2Go is a wonderful asset for soccer fans. Importantly, it’s also a wonderful and reliable alternative to pirated Internet streams.

Pricing

As of press time, a monthly pass to FOX Soccer 2Go is $19.99 An annual pass is available for $169.99

You can pay via PayPal, Visa or Mastercard. FOX Soccer 2Go is only available to residents in the United States.

Customer Service Contact Info

FOX Soccer 2Go‘s support team can be reached via e-mail at FoxSoccerSupport@Performgroup.com

 

Thanks to Jesse Chula for contributing to this definitive guide. Full disclosure: EPL Talk has an affiliate relationship with Perform, whereby a small percentage of each FOX Soccer 2Go order goes to EPL Talk. However, please note that the above guide has not been influenced in any way by FOX Soccer or Perform, and EPL Talk continues to uphold its strong editorial integrity when reviewing or analyzing products or services.