Mystery Kit Box Reviews

I picked up a few kits over time, mainly from teams I support, but in recent years I've widened my collection.  One of the ways I've done this is through "mystery kit" boxes.  That accelerated a bit through the pandemic and I've now gotten kits from a number of different companies, so I figured now was time to do a review of them.

What is a "mystery kit" you ask?  Well while every company has its own twist on things but the basic idea is that you order a kit from one of these companies, tell them your size, tell them any rival team you want to avoid (so no Burnley for me, or no FSL if the company does MLS kits), and they go off and pull something from their collection and ship it to you.  Its a mystery what kit you get until it shows up in the mailbox.  Generally, because you're not ordering a specific kit and taking a risk you're getting a brand new kit for significantly less than it would cost you from something like World Soccer Shop.  Of course, you have to be open-minded about what you're interested in, if you don't like wearing a shirt from a team you don't directly support or a style you don't like this isn't your thing.

If you're wondering about sizing or duplication, most of these sites know which manufacturers run small or large and adjust your requested size accordingly.  They also include a text field on the order where you can list the kits you've already received.  And if you're concerned if these shirt are legitimate, they all come with tags or if they don't they're guaranteed genuine. 

I've got reviews of 4 different companies I've gotten kits from below, along with a 5th I follow on Twitter but haven't yet ordered from.  These companies all offer other items as well, either different type of mystery kits, non-mystery kits, or other gear.  I'll list some of them in the details.  I've been happy with all my orders and dealings with these companies and would recommend any of them, its really a matter of what you're looking for and what you want to spend. 

Away Days Football: 

Mystery Kit Price: $30 + $6 shipping

Kits Received: Brentford (then English Championship), Sunderland (then English League One), Lyon (France Ligue 1), Olympiacos (Greece Super League), Fenerbahçe (Turkey Super Lig), Rapid Wein (Austria Bundesliga), plus Montpellier (France Ligue 1) and AC Milan (Italy Serie A) child kits for my nephew.

Other Offerings: Mystery kits by year, Mystery scarves, lower-league U.S. kits (non mystery), plenty of other things

Away Days was the first of these companies that came to my attention.  As far as I can tell they were the first of this group to get started but don't take that as verified fact.  They were also the only one, until recently, to be based in the U.S. with the shipping benefits that provide.  As you can tell because of that and their low prices I've ordered multiple kits over the last few years and my sister gave me a 3 month subscription for Christmas one year.  

Away Days' selection seems to be largely "big" teams, either top level teams or bigger lower league teams like Sunderland.  You do get the occasional second tier team like Brentford or Montpellier but don't expect some small club you've likely never heard of.  Martin started the company as a one-person operation a few years ago and is super-responsive to questions.  Before Christmas a couple of years ago I wanted to get a second kit for our nephew but he hadn't re-listed kids kits yet, when I reached out he set me up with an order a week or so before he got them relisted on the site.

Non-League Football Shop: 

Mystery Kits Price: £30-£35 + £15 = $57-$63 including shipping

Kits Received: Hinkley AFC (United Counties League Division One; Level 10)

Other Offerings: Non-league shirts (non-mystery)

As you can tell from the name and pricing, Non-League Football Shop is a UK-based site that focuses completely on non-league teams.  If you're wondering what non-league is, its everything under the top 4 fully professional leagues in England, Level 5 all the way down.  When I say all the way down I mean it.  My mystery kit from them was Hinkely AFC, a 10th-level club outside of Leicester.  Certainly one I had never heard of before.  

Non-League Football Shop offers two slightly different mystery kits.  The more expensive 35 pound offering is their New Mystery Box, a brand-new with tags (if it originally came with tags) shirt from a non-league team.  The 30 pound offering is their Collectors Mystery Box, a kit that's not guaranteed to be brand new, but will be pre-worn.  Also along with that shirt will be a piece of football memorabilia.  I went with the latter option for my order because I was curious about the piece of memorabilia (and I liked the lower price), in my case I got a program from the 80's from lower league and now defunct side Princes End United.  Also of the three kits I've ordered from the UK they had the fastest shipping, but that could just be luck.

I love non-league football so they will definitely be getting another order from me at some point.

Bundesliga Boxes: 

Mystery Kit Price: £59 + £24 = $105 including shipping

Kits Received: Alemannia Aachen (Germany Regionalliga West; Level 4)

Other Offerings: Non-mystery kits, other Bundesliga merch

As you can tell from the name Bundesliga Boxes focuses on one country, Germany.  They also have a slightly different model in that they do their mystery boxes in waves.  They just about to open up ordering for Box 21 on Saturday morning (UK time).  Each wave tends to feature a small number of kits in the boxes, so everyone who orders gets kits on a theme.  They also have surprise boxes in the wave with player-worn or other rare kits.  All boxes include merchandise along with the shirt, thus the higher price.

I had been following them on Twitter for a while but not yet pulled the trigger on an order when I won one of their contests for a box of goodies, including a Sports Club Map, socks, pins, stickers, etc.  I figured if they were going to ship that to me from the UK I should make it worth their while and order a shirt along with it.  It was a great package that you can see here, the shirt and everything on the right came as part of the purchased box, the stuff on the left of the shirt and the two prints below it was the prize I won:

Obviously you're making a larger investment if you go with Bundesliga Boxes, but you're getting more than just a shirt for your money.  If you're interested in German football, especially outside of the top level, this is the way to go.

Surprise Shirts:

Mystery Kit Price: £35 + £20 = $69 including shipping from their UK site OR $68 + Free shipping from their U.S. site

Kits Received: Samsunspor (Turkey TFF First League; Level 2)

I was getting ready to write this review post as we came into the international break and I was lucky enough to win a free mystery box from Surprise Shirts, who I follow on Twitter but had not yet ordered from.  So perfect timing to include them.  But it is a little different in that I haven't really been their customer yet, just gotten a prize.

That said, they did just as well as any of the other companies.  All they do is mystery kits, with nothing additional, but they do send a small Haribo treat with every order.  They also include a sticker on the box with details about the shirt and team, which isn't something the other companies do.  I will say, following them on Twitter, that they seem to have the widest variety of shirts of any of the companies.  They regularly have people post pictures of their mystery shirts that include clubs from smaller European leagues, African leagues, and Asian leagues (they had one from a Singapore club they were sending out for a while that was one of the better looking shirts I've seen).  So if you want a good chance at a club you've never heard of from outside the "big" countries, this is who you should go with.

They've just recently opened their U.S. site which means shipping is much cheaper for us Americans.  I mentioned to them that I was writing this post when I won the shirt and they gave me a discount code to share with my readers.  If you order through their U.S. site (linked above) you can use the code FRIENDS20 for 20% off your order.

Mystery Football:

Mystery Kit Price: $45 + $18 shipping

Mystery Football is another company doing mystery kits but I haven't ordered from them yet.  They seem to have a good selection following them on Twitter.  They also have two different boxes at the $45 price point. a club box and a national team box.  So if you want a mystery National Team they may be a good choice for you.  Their site also handles pricing in U.S. dollars, which is nice.

If I had to rank my top 3 mystery kits I've gotten, in no particular order, it would be the Rapid Wein kit from Away Days, the Hinkely AFC kit from Non-League Football Shop, and the Samsunspor kit from Surprise Shirts.  I have no complaints about any of the kits I've gotten though and would gladly order from any of these companies again.  Hopefully if you're interested in a mystery kit you've found a good option here.  

Book Reviews: 'And sometimes the dog was busy!' and 'Bloody Confused!'

Over the last few weeks of staying at home I've finished two books about the beautiful game.  They're both about the game in England, but on opposite ends of the table.

First up is 'And sometimes the dog was busy!', an autobiography written by Fergus Moore, with help from his co-author Roger Slater.

You say you've never heard of Fergus Moore?  That's not a surprise.  Moore has spent his rather long career playing non-league football, and the book is a recap of his, technically still continuing, career.  He was originally signed to Brentford's youth team in 1989, but after a little over a year he was told he was being released.  For the next 30 years he played for 16 different teams, many of them multiple times, and currently he's the manager, and still a player for, Edgware Town FC.

All of the teams he's played for have been between level 7 and level 10 of the English pyramid.  For comparison's sake, if you read my recap of my visit to England last April, you'll remember I went and saw non-league Wealdstone FC.  They play in the National League South (for now, their official promotion to the National League will likely come this week) which is level 6 in the table.  The pyramid is rather straight forward through the first 5 levels, each tier is one nation-wide league.  Level 6 splits into two leagues, north and south.  Below that the leagues expand rapidly, with four leagues at level 7, seven at level 8, all the way down to level 20.  Some levels have over 50 leagues assigned to them.

So, needless to say, Fergus Moore hasn't been playing for the riches or the fame.  In fact, quite often he's playing for free, or if he's lucky for expenses like gas money to get to games.  Its pretty clear he plays for the love of the game.  In some ways, as he says, he plays because he's addicted to the game. He doesn't know what he'd do otherwise.  Much of the book is a chronological recap of his playing seasons. He clearly either took good notes or has a great memory, as more most games he can remember goals and major incidents, going back to the early 90's.  All of his teams have been based around London, where he maintains a 40 hour a week job on top of playing soccer.

In-between chapters about various seasons he inserts chapters more focused on a specific aspect of the game.  Referees, Cup competitions, balancing soccer and family, etc.  He has won some fame at this point, being the oldest player to play in the FA Cup in multiple years, and his ongoing career has caught the attention of die-hard football fans.  Overall its an interesting look at non-league soccer.

The book can be a bit repetitive, 30 years of a career can get that way, especially when you're not building to any one event, its just one year after the next. Moore also has a lot of concerns about his place in the squad over his career, and hearing him doubt himself again can get a bit wearing.

I would give the book 4 (of 5) stars if, like me, you're interested in non-league soccer.  I picked it up while ordering a Wealdstone kit from the club shop (Fergus had three different stints at Wealdstone while the club was in leagues lower than they are now, and is a bit of a club legend). You'd probably have a hard time finding a physical copy on this side of the Atlantic, but I noticed a eBook version is available through Amazon. If you're not much of a non-league fan I'd probably lower the rating to three stars. Interesting in that case, but it might feel a bit long.

My second book is 'Bloody Confused!' by Chuck Culpepper.

Culpepper is a long-time sportswriter, currently with the Washington Post.  In the mid-2000's he took time away from his career and moved to London, where he re-discovered being a fan by following an EPL team. That team was Portsmouth. The book is a retelling of the first year and a half of his trip into English fandom, .  He arrives in London in early 2006 and spends the rest of the 2005-06 season just getting a feel for the EPL.  Over the summer he decides he's going to pick a team to root for, and eventually settles on Portsmouth, for a number of reasons, early in the 2006-07 season.  The rest of the book recaps his experiences following Portsmouth from Fratton Park and away day trips to Newcastle and Blackburn among others.  Portsmouth would have its best season in 50 years that year, but since have fallen down three leagues, though recovered and made it back up to League One a couple of years ago.

Its a fun recounting of trips from London to Portsmouth, and Portsmouth away matches.  As an American who's done just a little of that there are some parallels to my experiences. His friendship with a trip of guys who are die-hard fans (one of which wears an blue bear mascot suit in the stands each game) includes some great stores.

He does lay the "clueless American" on a little thick. Multiple times he manages to not go to games because he's not able to get a ticket, having no buying history with the club, but doesn't figure that out until he gets to the stadium. As somebody who's first game in England was a local derby (Blackburn hosting Preston) I had no issue planning ahead, contacting the club, explaining that I was flying over and thus would have no buying history, and still managing to get a ticket.  He also manages to screw up getting from London to Blackburn for a Portsmouth match, something I had no issue with.  May times he talks about places "no American has heard of", like Fulham.  Fulham, in 2006.  Fulham, who earned the nickname Fulham USA in 2006 for having Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra on the roster and adding Clint Dempsey midseason. If there was any EPL team American soccer fans knew in 2006, it was Fulham.

Despite that, It was a good read.  Nothing amazing, I'm not going to keep the book in my collection, but I certainly don't regret having read it. I'd give it 3 stars.

Review: The Beckham Experiment

The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America by Grant Wahl

If you've been following MLS in the last month you've heard about the uproar that this book has caused. Donovan calling the world's most famous player a poor teammate and a cheapskate, Beckham calling the book "unoffical" or "unauthorized", and MLS trying to stay out of the way. The publishers were nice enough to send me a copy of the book for review and I dug right in. Simply, this is the best book I've read about Major League Soccer (admittedly a short list). Anyone who's followed American soccer for a few years knows Grant Wahl, who may be the best soccer journalist in the country. When news of Beckham coming to LA was announced Wahl got a leave of absence from his job at Sports Illustrated to follow the team for a year (which was extended to 16 months after Beckham's injury in 2007) and write a book about the interaction of the circus that is Team Beckham with the young MLS. The LA Galaxy and the rest of the league were happy to grant him the access he needed, and what resulted was a very interesting look at life in MLS.

When I say the "rest of the league" granted him access there was one notable person that did not go along with it. David Beckham himself. Beckham's people told Wahl that he would need to pay a minimum of a million dollars and give Beckham's people editorial control in order to get the same access he was getting from the rest of the league. Not surprisingly, he passed. This has been the basis of the "unofficial" claims from Camp Old Spice and others, but there is plenty of commentary from Beckham in the book. David was made available in press conferences before and after every match and numerous times after training during the week so Wahl had plenty of chances to ask him questions. He was not able to sit down one-on-one with Beckham and ask him about some of the things other people said, but he gave Beckham that chance and they turned it down, Wahl shouldn't be faulted for that.

There's been some talk that Wahl wrote this book to take Player A down a peg or to get on Player B's good side. While the excerpts may lead you to believe that, once you've read the book you realize that nobody comes out of it looking good (except maybe Alan Gordon). There's enough blame and questionable decisions to go around, from Beckham himself, to his teammates like Landon Donovan, to the coaches (Frank Yallop and Ruud Gullit), to the front office (GM Alexi Lalas) and all the way to the head of AEG soccer operations, Tim Leiweke. Wahl does a good job of laying out what happened from multiple points of view and while he draws some conclusions from it all of them are reasonable based on the evidence presented.

The only drawback to the book is that it can be a bit repetitive. Wahl mentions the same information 2-3 times, or tells variations of the same stories in multiple places. Its a light read so having to go through the same information multiple times isn't a big deal, but by the third time you're being told that Alan Gordon shared a locker room with Beckham while only making 30K a year, it gets a bit annoying.

If you are interested in MLS outside the play on the field I'd recommend reading this book. For Rapids fans there's a nice chapter on the aftermath of Ruud Gullit's first game in charge of the Galaxy, which was that 4-0 beat-down the Rapids game them at the Dick to start the 2008 season, and a "what could of been" moment when we find out Lalas vetoed trading Pete Vagenas and a draft pick for Kyle Beckerman (Ballouchy was a better trade than that at least). I'll be keeping this on my shelf next to John Harkes' Captain for Life, which is one of the better looks at the u.S. National Team in the 1990's.

Review: The Game of Their Lives (aka The Miracle Match)

The Game of their Lives (retitled The Miracle Match for the DVD release) is a 2005 film telling the story of the 1950 U.S. World Cup team that shocked the world by beating England 1-0. If Al Michaels were covering the match in 1950 he would have used his "Do you believe in miracles? YES" line for this team instead of the 1980 Olympic Hockey team.

The story is told from the perspective of the lone American reporter cover the World Cup, Dent McSkimming. Scenes of a older McSkimming (played by Patrick Stewart) being interviewed by MLS announcer and son of the 1950's team goalkeeper Ty Keough before the start of a MLS All-Star game. bookend the movie.

The movie spends the first half showing us the formation of the team, starting in St. Louis where most of the players lived and then moving to New York where other team members join the team, including Haitian Joe Gaetjens. The rules about nationalities weren't so strictly enforced in 1950 as they are now, and Gaetjens was working on his citizenship when invited to join the team. After the typical Hollywood "team bonding" scenes the squad leaves for the World Cup in Brazil.

In Brazil we get to see how little the world thought of the Americans, from being denied hotel rooms with the other squads to having to travel more than other teams, the Americans were clearly disrespected and seen as no threat to the "giants" of the world. Meanwhile we see the heavy favorites of England, in their first ever World Cup, treated like stars and overlooking their game against the Americans. The movie culminates on June 29th, 1950 with the match between England and the U.S. Joe Gaetjens scored int he 37th minute and Harry Keough turned in a goalkeeping performance for the ages as the U.S. upset England 1-0. Some papers in England were so arrogant that they assumed the score that came over the wire was a misprint and reported an 10-0 England win.

Every American soccer fan should see this movie. While it doesn't have the high-gloss of GOAL! or the story that everyone remembers like Miracle, its the same feel of underdogs prevailing. The soccer action is actually pretty good as they got former college and professional players like John Harkes and Nelson Vargas to play the roles of the 1950 players. The movie gives you a glimpse into what soccer was before the evolution into the current professional game over the last 15-20 years. While any movie like this takes its liberties with the "true story" you at least get the general history of what happened in America's only World Cup appearance between 1936 and 1990. I saw this movie shortly after the Americans disastrous performance in World Cup '06. There were a number of people, including myself, who felt like the players didn't "give it all for the shirt" and after seeing this movie you'll get an idea for what that really means.

Review: How Soccer Explains the World

How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer

In How Soccer Explains the World the author uses a variety of situations around the organization of soccer clubs to show how the world is still organized by tribes. I would go more into the sociology aspect of the book, but to be honest I don't really care. If you want a book about the sociology of soccer this might be a place to start, but I'm sure you could find better. As a book about interesting stories around soccer its great. The subject matter ranges from Serbian supporters groups that became the special army of Serbia's dictators during the war through Pele's movement in and out of Brazilian politics. In between the history of the Rangers-Celtic rivalry is detailed and attempts by women to be fans of Iranian teams are covered. Its written in a way that makes it very easy to pick up and become enthralled in whatever subject the author is covering and avoids reading like a sociological thesis. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's interested in soccer outside the lines. There's very little talk of the game as played, but if you want to see the in's and outs of the way, for example, the Milan clubs are run along side the government, this is your book.

Review: Football Manager 09

To help fill some of the down time before the season I'm going to add some reviews of soccer games, books, and movies. First up is this year's Football Manager release.

The Football Manager(FM) series is the continuation of the legendary Championship Manager series by SI Games. It is the most complete sports management simulation in the market today, with only Out Of The Park Baseball (Now also a SI Games property) approaching it. This is the 17th version of the game, dating back to 1992, and the series now includes a handheld version and a Live version played on-line. The series, for trademark and marketing reasons, is known as Worldwide Soccer Manager in the U.S. and is distributed by Sega.

In FM the player takes over as the manager of a soccer club. The current database includes over 5000 clubs from more than 50 countries. You can also take over any of the National Teams if you prefer to try your hand at international management. Every player currently on these clubs is included int eh database, with each player having around 20 visible stats and a number of ones only the system sees covering his ability to shoot, pass, tackle, lead, etc. Players can choose to manage teams at the top of the heap like Manchester United, all the way down to the semi-pro levels of football in the country, like Bishop's Stortford in England. For the U.S. only MLS teams are available, but all 14 of the 2008 MLS teams are int he database and it includes MLS specific rules like the SuperDraft and the Designated Player rule.

As manager you control everything on a day to day basis. From player acquisition and staff hirings to training schedules and tactics. On game day you set the lineup and tactical formation, watch the game, and decide when to make subs and change tactics. You also have the option to apply for other management positions. Tried of coaching Blackburn? Maybe Man City wants to hire you. (That's the Mark Hughes career strategy). Eventually when you get tired of your success (or nobody will hire you after you've been fired) you can retire into the Hall of Fame.

SI put in a number of improvements for the 2009 version of the game. First and foremost is the addition of a 3-D view for games. Prior to this the best representation of the game was a 2-D version of a pitch with the players moving on it. Even that was fairly recent as for most of the game's lifetime all players hat to work with was text commentary! The 3-D version is a nice bonus, but so far doesn't provide that much more than the 2-D version did. Right now its got some great animations but I'm not drawing that much more information from seeing play players in 3-D than I already was.

SI has also added a number of frills to the game that range from the helpful to the "eh, who cares" level. Added feedback in game from the Assistant Manager is great, as is the new TV View that stretches the game to take your whole screen while matches are being played. The added press conferences and board confidence is nice right away but probably not a huge change long-term. Press conferences in particular get old quickly. Adding the ability for your manager to be female is probably a nice touch for female players of the game, but has no real effect overall.

The biggest knock against this year's version is that the tactical engine has become much harder to figure out. I'm having a hard time translating what I want to happen into the settings that the game uses. Most of the tactical settings are controlled by slider bars. You can set your team Mentality from anywhere between Ultra-Defensive to All-Out Attack, your Passing Style from anywhere between Short and Long, etc. The interface doesn't make it clear how these sliders interact with each other, so when you think you're going Defensive if you don't change your player's Closing Down setting there's very little change in tactic. Its taken a good deal of testing just to get the basics worked out. SI needs to dial back the detail a little in next year's version.

Overall I think its a great game but I'm coming at it after having played the series off and on over the last 9 years and 4 different versions of the game. If you've played the series in the past I highly recommend upgrading to the new version. If you're new to the series I'd recommend it if you are willing to be patient and learn the game. If you just want to be able to jump into something I'd stay clear of this one. Either find an older version of the game (I upgraded from the 2006 version , which is more newbie-friendly) or try EA's FIFA Manager game, which is reportedly designed for a quick start.