The second that we start taking weekly greatness on European pitches for granted, it gets taken away for an international break (Curse you non-major tournament impacting international soccer!!!). Still, this weekend still provided us with some fantastic action and some great boot spots. Whether you were zipping around the Premier League’s drama (how much rain was on the field at the King Power this weekend?) or seeing Juventus continue to roll on (is it even fair at this point?), there was some really good stuff on show. Let’s lace ’em up!

adidas X 16.1

David Silva (Manchester City)
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Manchester City and the other teams with new coaches should scare the mess out of the rest of the BPL and the teams they drew in the Champions League. Despite major changes and overhaul in the summer, the results are already flooding in with 3 steady points at a time. David Silva always makes everything look so easy and may still go underappreciated for his role in City’s rise to the top of the pile. Expect to see adidas rolling out the carpet for these blue adidas X 16 beauties very soon, despite us just getting used to the red version. Slow down a bit adidas?

Nike Hypervenom Phantom II

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund)
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Who is sitting in an office at Nike deciding who got to use the Elite Pack? Aubameyang showed that his season in 2015/16 was definitely not a fluke (and also made every team that has wanted to buy him shed a few tears) when he put a goal in the back of the net this early in the season. With a jump back and forth between the Mercurial silo last season, it’s interesting to see “Batman” start the season in the Nike Hypervenom Phantom II …and, we’ll say it again, somehow not in the Elite Pack. Who decided this!?!?!

Mizuno Morelia Neo

Unai Bustinza (Leganes)
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There’s quite a bit of anguish over on the striped size of Madrid. Two draws to start the season isn’t terrible, but, when Real and Barcelona are your biggest competitors, every single point is going to cost you at the end of the year. Bustinza and Luganes piled on the pressure for Atletico, and we wonder when the pain will end. Simeone regretting staying yet? Still, we never miss the chance to gush over the Morelia Neo. Put the Neo in a pile of speed boots, and we’ll quickly show you why it sits on top.

Under Armour Clutchfit II

Granit Xhaka (Arsenal FC)
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The Arsenal and Under Armour new man will have calmed a lot of nerves over the weekend as Arsenal pulled out the win with a convincing performance. Considering how popular Nike’s “Volt” was, it’s no surprise seeing other brands using the eye-searing neon yellow to good effect (ask the other guys at SP, and they’ll tell you I’m the biggest Volt fan in existence). The match up with the dark Arsenal kit is fantastic, and it looks amazing with the Puma evoTouch. What else can other brands do to peel fanboys away from Nike and adidas?

adidas X 16.1

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)
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We’re still continuing to be blown away by the number of professionals choosing the standard X 16.1 over the X 16 Purechaos. It continues to confound us especially after wearing both (and, while we enjoyed the standard version, the Purechaos was a fair bit above the other). Adidas will be thrilled that Bale, one of their biggest assets, is finally in the newest version…but, would make more sense in the headline version. Bale seems to already be the “hot foot” for Madrid, and we’ll be anxious to see if he continues to be the top man for such a potent attacking line.

Nike Hypervenom Phinish II

Arkaduiusz Milik (Napoli)
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With Nike rolling out their “Anti-Clog” gear on their boots this last week, we’re really wondering if all the pros have either been using this tech for a bit or if Nike is starting to roll it out for the pros. SO, being the pro-conspiracy nuts we are, we checked every major Nike boot on major European pitches we could find. The results make us think that either A) the fields these players play on are just supremely amazing, OR B) Nike has the anti-clog rolling out to their guys on the payroll. Milik didn’t need much help in the new Phinish as he continued to show Napoli on the rise and AC Milan attempting to work their way back up.

Puma evoSPEED 1.5

Steven Pienaar (Sunderland)
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Did you realize Pienaar was still in the Premier League? So much promise when he was paired up with Baines on the left wing for Everton, a potential move to greener pastures with the move to Tottenham, and then some tough times befell the Puma man. He now rocks the newest Puma evoSpeed (Pienaar has rocked the big cat since the before the original evoSpeed), and will be a key cog in hoping that Sunderland stays up. Considering how they have used some intense voodoo to avoid the drop for a few years now, we wouldn’t put it past them. Best of luck to Steven…

As we said, the bright light of European soccer gets dimmed a bit for the next week or so as international teams play for no real reason at all. There will still be some great boots on offer, but it just won’t be quite as exciting. Still…we’ll tune in, and will hopefully give you guys the best of what was on offer! Did you find any great spots that we need to know about? Let us know in the comments!

 

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