A solid set of a turf soccer shoes requires their design to put sturdy construction over fashion, as opposed to firm ground boots, where you can get away with less-than-spectacular construction and still keep your boot for a few months. Nope, on turf, a relatively poorly constructed boot will unravel very quickly. If you’re in the market for a new pair of turf boots, I suggest giving the adidas Mundial Team shoes a go.
I know, I know. There’s nothing visually exciting about these boots, but you can’t deny the classic look, which is an adjusted Copa Mundial design. Sure, it’s a simple black and white design with the tried and true 3-stripe design on both sides of the mid-food; it also has the easily recognizable strip of white leather over the heel with “adidas” stamped in black. Add in the white band of rubber running along the sole, and you have the classic Mundial Team look. It’s relatively unexciting when placed next to a flashy firm ground boot, but that’s not a big deal. Turf can be murder on your feet in the improper shoe, so the top priority is finding a boot constructed with top quality. The Mundial Team delivers such construction.
The boot’s upper is made out of Kangaroo leather, which for my money, is the best material for boots. It’s durable, soft, and flexible. Once you break the boots in, they’ll keep getting more comfortable over time. Some boots suffer from poor reinforcement at tension areas, but that isn’t the case here. The tension points are reinforced by crisscrossing fabrics (felt and leather), with one overlapping the other. Adding to the durability department is the stitched toe with a piece of felt fabric stitched above, so you end up with plenty of protection on one of the areas that sees the most abuse. At the other end of the boot is plenty of heel protection in the form of the white rubber strip extending from the sole plate and the resistant heel cup. The heel cup isn’t necessarily rigid when putting your heel against it, but is resistant to force applied from the outside. The leather over the heel is a single piece that wraps from mid-foot to mid-foot and is stitched as such, so you won’t need to worry about splitting. The rubber studs are as numerous as any other turf shoe, but they’re longer, which will add to their lifespan. On the whole, this boot is very well put together and is a workhorse; as far as turf shoes go, this is the top of the food chain in my mind.
Normally the frequency of playing affects what kind of shoe suits you best, but I think anyone playing even a small amount of turf games should look into this shoe. It’s worth the $94.99 investment even if you play a few games a season on turf; the worst case scenario is that you have quality turf shoes for several years to come.
Written by: Kris Dyer, contributing editor, soccerprose.com
