Kicking Shoe Should:

• Fit Very Tight. If your normal walking or running shoe is size 10, your kicking shoe should be size 8 to 9. It has to be tight but not so tight that it restricts the movement of your foot. In other words, you should not have much or any room in front of your toes, but you should be able to walk normally.
• Be Made of High Quality Leather. Leather stretches and forms to the shape of your foot. This allows you to get a smaller, tight-fitting shoe that is still comfortable. If you wear a shoe with plastic or synthetic parts, it is a lot more difficult or impossible to break it in.
• Have a Clean Contact Area.  Top of the instep and top of the foot should have nothing but leather and shoe laces. There should be no straps, folded over tongue, shoe lace cover, etc. I prefer flat shoe laces over round ones. They are a lot more comfortable when tied tightly.
• Be a Soccer Shoe. They are designed for kicking. Few football shoes are OK for kicking. But most are not.
• Be Different From the Shoe on Your Non-Kicking Foot. Plant foot shoe can be a regular football cleat. On your plant foot, you want a shoe that has good ankle support and good grip on the playing surface.

Kicking Shoe Breaking-in and Adjustments:

• Cut the Tongue. I usually fold the tongue over and cut it off where it folds. Part of the tongue that is under the laces stays intact. Part that lays on top of the laces is gone.
• Shave Down Front/Interior Molded Cleats. This is more important for guys who are kicking off the ground. I recommend using a filer out of your dad's tool box or simply dragging the molded interior studs over a rough pavement. They do not need to be filed down all the way. I recommend shorthening them to about 1/2 of their original length.
• Stretch the Leather. You can use a shoe stretcher insert or simply stuff as many crumpled up newspapers as you can inside your shoe and tighten shoe laces. It usually takes about 2 weeks to fully break the shoe in.
• Check Heel Support. If the back of the shoe is high and rigid so that you are not able to point your toe as much as you would be able to when barefoot - cut the top portion of the heel support off.

Recommended Shoes:

1. Pele Sport. Model: 1970 FG MS or 1962 FG MS.

These are excellent kicking shoes. You might have not seen them around because they are fairly new on the market. They are the shoes that I wear. Shoe is made of a single piece of high quality K-leather. It is soft but very durable. Contact area on the inside of the shoe is "clean". Nothing in the way - no logos, plastic, straps, etc. Even laces are slightly offset to the outside of the foot. Sizes run pretty true. I wear a shoe that is 1.5 sizes smaller than my normal shoe. I recommend that you get 1 size smaller than your normal shoe size.

2. Adidas. Model: Copa Mundial

These are classic. The design has been unchanged for 30+ years. I wore these for several years. K-Leather is very soft. They break in really easy and leather will stretch significantly. I have heard of guys wearing Copas 2.5 to 3 sizes smaller than their normal shoe. One downside is that interior of the toe box will come apart from the sole after a while. This is a very comfortable shoe that will likely last you about 1 year. I recommend getting a shoe that is 1.5 sizes smaller than your normal shoe size.

You can find these or any other kicking shoe under the sun at EuroSport (soccer.com). Just click on the logo.