Soccer/football question: Corner kick scoring oddities

Factual Questions
1

Forgive me if these questions sound odd, as they’re purely fabrications of my admittedly American (though, I’d like to think, educated about the game) mind. But as I watch David Beckham take corner kicks for Real Madrid against Sevilla, a couple of questions about possible corner kick strategies come to mind:

  1. Is it possible to score directly from a corner kick? That is, can anyone “bend it” into the goal itself from the corner flag? Has it ever been done? Is it legal anywhere (that is, are corner kicks ever considered direct kicks)? If not, surely it’s been done in practice or as a showoff move by a team winning 5-0 or something?

  2. Perhaps the most exciting corner kick strategy is a long, high kick into the middle of the box, right in front of the goal, to an exceptionally tall forward who heads it into the net just out of reach of a diving goalie. But what if the forward, instead of taking a crack at the goal himself, heads the ball to another forward who slams it in on a 1-2 header or a one-touch volley? Has this been done? Are there teams known for doing this? Or is it just some crazy concoction of my own messed-up little head?

I’m sure we can figure out the answers to these questions if we put our heads together! :smiley:

2

  1. Yes; a corner kick is a Direct Kick. Plenty of players are capable of getting a corner kick to be “on-goal.” The better ones can probably do so rather reliably, but I’m sure there have been cases where this happened inadvertently, too. I know it has happened, in official (and not necessarily “blowout”) play, more than once, but I’m at work and haven’t the time to hunt down any specific cases, sorry.

  2. Dunno about actual cases, but this is certainly legal, and as such I’m almost sure somebody with more time and resources on their hands (see previous caveat) will come up with an example. Of course, while due to its placement it’s kind of difficult to be caught offsides during a corner kick :), in a 1-2 header type play as you suggest the recipient of the head pass could theoretically find themselves in an offsides position!

3

As Noone Special said, it’s both yeses.

Although, not being much of a soccer fan, my favourite corner-goal is when the guy kicks it in the direction of a teammate, who does this backwards acrobatic jump and kicks the ball (which is over head height) into the goal. Those are cool :slight_smile:

4

I just have to take a brag moment and say that once when I was 10 I kicked three corner kicks directly into the goal in one game(one half even).

A 35 mph wind did have a little to do with it though. :wink:

5

Ryan Giggs did it a few times when Manchester United were at their height, IIRC.

6

The feat’s not that difficult; even I can bend a corner kick straight into the goal. The trick is to do it at a pace and a height and on a trajectory that will beat the defence - that’s the part I can’t do. There are invariably defenders on the line as well as the 'keeper and so usually the direct kick at goal isn’t an especially profitable tactic compared to the cross into the area for a hard header or volley.

7

For (1), see here (Macedonia scoring directly against England from a corner) :mad:

For (2), I think just about every combination of moves ever has been tried from a corner. It’s far more exciting to drift the ball to a forward waiting outside the 18 yard box who volleys it straight into the top corner, IMHO (Rooney seems to do this quite a bit).

8

Stupid, unlikely, exceedingly improbable scenario but -

last minute of the game, red team down 0-1, red team goalie is up in the attacking box trying to make an unmarked man, red team corner gets taken,slices off the outside of the boot, gets caught by a freak gust of wind, blown up field and rolls into the red team goal… 0-2?

mm

9

Yes. It’s a Direct Kick…

10

The best goal I remember seeing from a corner was by Uruguay against Denmark in the 2002 World Cup. Not direct from the corner, because Denmark did manage to deflect the corner away from goal, but it fell to a Uruguay player who juggled it for a bit and then knocked it sideways to Rodriguez who volleyed it in from about 20 yards. In the entire move the ball never touched the ground.

11

See the last Newcastle Premiership game, where the opposing goalkeeper was stranded in the box, leaving Martins the run of the field to score in an open net.

12

Funnily enough, I was just reading a reportwhich said that a couple of weeks ago, a player in a very minor Welsh league managed to score a hat trick of direct goals from corners. The football stattos reckon that’s the first time it’s ever happened.

13

One minor point: there is no such thing in soccer as a “Direct Kick.”

There are “direct free kicks.” These are covered by Law XIII.

All other restarts are governed by their own laws. In each law will be a statement as to whether or not a goal can be scored “direct” from such restart.

Law XVII, Corner Kicks, states, “A goal may be scored direct from such a kick.”

Although one can classify the restarts by whether or not a goal can be scored directly from them (and you should know the ones that can’t be scored direct from; inevitably when refereeing youth games you end up pointing out at some time to disappointed youths that their goal kick did not result in a goal, even though it managed to make its way untouched into the opposition’s net), the use of the term Direct Kick as a word of art should be discouraged, being both confusing (with direct free kick) and unauthentic (not found in the laws).

14

The youths were right and you are wrong. FIFA’s website states clearly (Law 16) that a goal *can *be scored directly from a goal kick. I’ve seen this done.

15

Huh, beat me to it (and with a cite yet, I was going on memory).

And yes, DSYoungEsq, you’re right about the terminology – sloppy on my part; sorry.

16

You can’t score directly in to your own goal on a corner kick. The ball would have to deflect off of a player.

But it would be fun to see somebody try a kick of that sort!

17

A corner kick is known as a ‘set piece’ play, and teams practice different drills and strategies, the options usually come down to,

Crossing the ball somewhere deep inside the 5 yard box.

Crossing the ball to the back of the 5 yard box.

Tapping the ball short, to a nearby player who will then use the differant angle to put it into the 5 yard box, or maybe draw an opposing player to him, and pass it to another in the hope of releasing that person so they can make more creative use of the ball.

It really depends on the abilities of your own players and those of the opposition as to what you do.

A real favourite is to put the ball somewhere in the air to one of your own players somewhere at the nearest side of the goal area to the corner taker, and the ‘recieving’ player will glance it off their head to another part of the 5 yard box who may gain space from the sudden switch and so have time to set up and score.

The goal keeper will try to ensure that any ball that zips across the goal mouth around a couple of yards away will end up in his hands, and the trick is to try get the goallie to move further away from the goal line than is wise, by making the ball curve slightly away from him. This may leave the goallie too committed to getting the ball, and if he misses, then the goal line could be very vulnerable.
They call this one, ‘creating a zone of uncertainty’ - if the goallie gets it, he’s a hero, but if he overcommits and misses, and the opposition scores, he’s a turnip.

Generally speaking, the ball will not be put high sky into the air as in American Football, it will be floated across with or without pace and maybe with some swerve left or right, as I say, the idea is not to allow the opposition much time to work out what is happening and give them less time to react.

A defending team will obviously be well drilled and aware of these strategies, and unlike American Football, there is no such thing as a specialist team, and so they will also have been in the same attacking position too and will understand all the possibilities.

18

Bruce Grobbelaar (sic?) once scored off a goal kick for Liverpool in a Premiership (or more likely, First Division, back then) match sometime around 1990.

19

I was surprised to see from that FIFA link that a goal can only be scored “against the opposition” from a goal kick - an own goal direct from the goal kick would not count.

20

Good link.

The goalie takes some (justifiable) heat from the commentators. But what about the defender stationed at the far post, who more or less ducks as the ball comes his way?