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This summer’s World Cup is made much more entertaining thanks to a cluster of new iPhone apps that can entertain soccer fans by letting them track games, watch highlights and fetch information on players and teams.

Apple’s United States App Store offers a collection of World Cup and soccer-related programs. As said, almost all of the apps some of which also run on the iPad, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Palm, Android (News - Alert) and other devices offer team-by-team analysis, match schedules, background on the stadiums being used for the tournament and a promise to provide real-time scoring updates once the tournament begins.

These app offerings include the ESPN (News - Alert) app, which has information on each of the 32 teams in South Africa. ESPN 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP is said to be the first free World Cup app at the iTunes store when it started last December, the ESPN app is one of the gold standards.

This app, according to reports, is particularly strong in tournament history, with long narratives and breakdowns of every tournament since the first, in 1930. The teams tab provides access to a summary, news and player biographies on each of the 32 teams. Also, ESPN is said to offer its power index of the top 100 teams in the world and a bracket predictor contest with the chance to win $5,500. And while the free ESPN app has only been available at Apple’s (News - Alert) United States-based App Store, the premium version will also include a much-requested international version.

FOX SOCCER CHANNEL TICKET TO SOUTH AFRICA, the Fox app, which was released on May 19, is thorough on stadium information and a bit sparse with information about past World Cups. One nice feature is the top-of-the-screen, game-by-game scroll that will be updated with scores, rosters and scoring information once the tournament starts.

“What we’re bringing in are our experts on TV and the Web and making those voices available,” Bhavesh Patel, the vice president for interactive media at Fox Sports International said. “We won’t have game video, so we have a different attack with our experts and from being a 24/7 soccer network. We’ll have original content, including video of interviews, that you can’t get anywhere else.”

ORBLIVE Not a dedicated World Cup-only app, brings live World Cup matches right to the handset for no additional charge as long as users have access to ESPN3.com. The OrbLive service also provides access to other TV fare, and access to the music and photos stored at home computer.

UNIVISION FÚTBOL COPA MUNDIAL 2010, the Spanish-language site launched in April has the usual tournament news and schedules. In addition to its World Cup coverage, the Univision app tracks leagues from around the world. The app also includes video, and, through it Mi Futbol feature, enables users to customize the app to receive minute-by-minute updates about their favorite team.

Goal.com is yet another interesting app, engineered by Handmark (News - Alert) U.S.-based, made available in nine languages including; English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Japanese, Turkish and Indonesian. The app’s World Cup component is only part of Goal .com’s offerings of news and standings for most of the top leagues and tournaments around the world.

TOTAL FOOTBALL 2010 is another app that can analyze every kick of the ball, every pass, every shot, and every tackle by comparing players and teams with real-time statistics provided by Opta Sports that will update live throughout games. SIRIUS XM APP will allow viewers to watch all 64 World Cup games for the iPhone (News - Alert), iPod Touch, and some Blackberry and Android smartphones. SOUTH AFRICA 2010 TRACKER enables useful stadium information, with pictures and the slate of games at each location. Game-by-game results and group is also provided.

2010 SOUTH AFRICA LIVE, SOUTH AFRICA 2010 WORLD CUP GUIDE, WORLD CUP FREE, 2010 WORLD CUP NEWS, and VUVUZELA 2010 are some of the other interesting apps designed for smartphones which offers extensive entertainment to the users.