MLS Matchday 2011 delivers video highlights, scores, and more... BUT...

Platform: Android

RATING
2 out of 5

PRICE
FREE

TASTY
Soccer fans, rejoice! Live scores, play by play coverage, video highlights, and in-depth team information is now just a finger press away on your Android device.

BUMMER
Lacks live match streaming capability. Video isn’t rendered to play perfectly on the Android platform. App requires a large download, and is cannot be moved to your SD card. Some users report crashes in this initial version, requiring multiple reloads.

COOL
The app makes it easy to choose your favorite club so you can jump right to the news, rosters, photos, and scores that matter the most to you. (That is, if it doesn’t crash when you select yours.)

SIMILAR APPS IN THE MARKETPLACE
Soccer Scores – FotMob
Soccer LiveScores
Goal.com Mobile – Football

Read all of my Apple iPad and Google Android application reviews at Appolicious and Yahoo! Tech.

The first release of any app can make early adopters feel as if they’re beta testing an imperfect product. That’s certainly the case with MLS Match Day 2011, which seems to be a quick port of the iOS version with the live match streaming capability removed.

Add in some random crashes when trying to select your favorite team as the default view, video rendered to fit an iPhone and not your DROID, and a huge download that can’t me moved to an SD card, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for some pretty serious footie frustration.

That said, diehard Major League Soccer (MLS) fans will find overcoming these issues to be worth their time. The developer is actively working on fixes to many issues, and has promised that live match viewing (for a fee of course) is coming in a future version.

Today I recommend grabbing the app (after cleaning off some unused apps to make some room internally), and using it in its default view mode. Club news, images, rosters (some fresh, others stale), and scores are easily accessed. No-cost video highlights are available within a few minutes of each match ending, along with complete game roundups. Of course, there’s no missing the fact that live match streaming is missing. For many, that alone will be a deal breaker.

If you can live with poorly formatted video, live scores and textual play by play of every MLS game, and special video channels that sometimes play, and sometimes don’t, then this app will fill a void in your sports-loving world.

Here’s hoping the manifold issues with the app are fixed quickly so soccer lovers can get back to doing what they do best – watching their favorite teams play real football from the comfort of their beloved Android devices!