SQUADGOD Back to BlogThe New MatchDay UI — A Cleaner, Smarter Live Match Tracker
We rebuilt the most important screen in SquadGod from the ground up — a calmer look, new action buttons, assists that flow from goals, ambient commentary, and live timers that stamp every event to the minute.
The MatchDay screen is where SquadGod earns its keep. It's the one place a coach is actively managing a game — logging goals, tracking momentum, keeping parents updated — all while watching the pitch. So when we redesigned it, we had one rule: add more capability, but make it feel simpler.
The result is the new MatchDay UI — cleaner to look at, faster to use, and packed with new ways to tell the story of your match. Here's everything that changed.
A Cleaner, Less Cluttered Look
The first thing you'll notice is the look. The old MatchDay screen worked, but it had grown busy — score bands, stacked controls and action buttons all fighting for space. We've stripped that back. The new design breathes: a clear match header, a focused scoreline, and a single tidy row of action controls that wrap gracefully on any screen size.
The colour palette is calmer, the spacing more generous, and every element has room to do its job. On a phone propped against a water bottle on the touchline, that matters — you can find what you need at a glance without hunting through clutter.
Streamlined to Use — More Features, Less Friction
Here's the tricky part: we added features, but the screen got simpler to use. That's not a contradiction — it's the result of rethinking the flow. Actions that used to take multiple taps now chain together naturally. The most-used controls sit front and centre; the advanced ones tuck neatly behind a toggle so they're there when you need them and invisible when you don't.
The net effect: a coach can log a goal, pick the assist, add context and move on in a few seconds — all without leaving the match view. More capability, fewer taps, less mental load while you're trying to watch a game.
New Action Buttons: Chances, Corners, Subs, Injuries & Cards
The new MatchDay adds a full set of match-action buttons that were previously missing or fiddly to reach:
Chances — log a missed opportunity and, when it's your side, attribute it to the specific player who fashioned it. Corners — track set-piece pressure from either side. Subs and Injuries — record substitutions and injury stoppages with context, tucked behind a '+' menu so they stay out of the way until you need them. Yellow and Red Cards — log bookings and sendings-off, each with a reason-based commentary flow that writes itself into the feed.
Every one of these feeds the live commentary feed, so parents and supporters following from home see the full picture of the match — not just the goals.
Assists Flow Straight From Goals
Logging an assist used to be a separate step. Not any more. When you tap a goal, the assist selection now flows directly from the goal action in one continuous motion — the dialog title animates from goal to assist, and you pick the provider straight away.
No extra button, no lost context, no forgetting to come back and add it later. The goal and its assist become one smooth entry, which means your assist stats are finally as reliable as your goal stats — and your season leaderboards reflect the full picture of who creates the chances, not just who finishes them.
Ambient Commentary That Reads the Match
This is the one we're most proud of. The new MatchDay includes an ambient commentary engine that quietly reads the state of the match — the score, the clock, the run of play — and drops in relevant, mood-setting lines during the quiet moments.
It's not noise. It's text-only, never forced, and it fills the feed with the kind of colour a good radio commentator adds between the big moments: "The visitors are enjoying a spell of possession here", "Half an hour gone and it's still anyone's match." For parents following along from work or the other side of the world, it turns a bare scoreline into a living match.
Them / Us: Context for Every Action
Save, Tackle, Corner, Chance — these aren't neutral events. A tackle by us is very different from a tackle by them. The new Them / Us step means every action can be attributed to the right side, with opposition-themed commentary generated automatically.
It's a small tap that adds a huge amount of context. The feed now reads like a real match report — "Great tackle by Smith to break up the counter" — rather than a list of abstract events that could belong to either team.
Match Lengths & Live Timers — Time Stamps on Every Action
You can now set the match length — 40, 60, 80, 90 minutes, or a custom value — and run a continuous live clock. Every event you log is timestamped to the match minute, so the feed reads "Goal — 23 mins", "Corner — 55 mins", "Yellow card — 78 mins".
The benefits are real. Parents following from work see exactly when things happened, not just that they did. Post-match, you get a proper timeline of the game — when the goals came, when the pressure built, when the cards were shown. Cup matches can run into extra time and penalties, with the clock carrying cleanly through each phase.
For youth football, where match lengths vary wildly by age group, you finally have a timer that fits your game — not a one-size-fits-all 90 minutes. Periods stay open until you manually close them, so injury time is never cut short. The clock serves the match, not the other way around.
What This All Adds Up To
Taken together, the new MatchDay UI is the biggest single-screen redesign we've shipped. It's cleaner to look at, faster to drive, and it tells a far richer story of every match you play — all while being easier to use on a phone, on a touchline, in the rain.
The goal was always to give grassroots coaches a live match tracker that feels built for them — not a pro tool squeezed onto a phone. The new MatchDay is a big step closer to that. More updates are always in progress.
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Try the New MatchDay — Free
SquadGod is free to get started for any grassroots football team. Set up your squad, build a lineup, and run a live match with the new MatchDay UI — all from one app.
Get Started at SquadGod.appFree to get started. No credit card required.
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