How to - Corner Kicks
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Penalty Spot Corner – This type of corner involves the kick taker trying to hit the ball so that it falls somewhere around the penalty spot area. Usually, a quality cross should land in the 5 yards between the goalkeeper's protection box and the penalty spot and it's this area that will be attacked. The goalkeeper will have a hard time coming out to clear the cross so far away from his goal and the slightest deflection can easily push the ball inside the net.
Near Post Corner –
As the name suggests, the corner taker will
hit the cross so that it lands at the near post (the post closer to the
corner
kick taker), where a teammate will rush in and flick the ball with his
head,
either towards the goal, or towards the same area mentioned in the
example above.
Adding that extra pulley in the player who flicks the ball from the
near post
creates chaos in the opposing team's defense system, which is why this
type of
corner can be pretty tricky to deal with.
Far Post Corner – The same principle is applied as with the near post corner, however a player will rush out to the far post, where he will try to head the ball back to his teammates in the penalty spot area for the decisive blow.
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Short Corner – The short C.K involves two players standing near the flag, with the kick taker passing the ball to the second player and developing the play from there. The advantage is that the cross can be taken further away from the goal line, so a player can imprint an inwards swirl to it, which would otherwise take the ball out of bounds if tried straight from the corner.
You could also end up having 2
players against one in the corner, allowing you to create offensive
superiority
on the flank, followed by a penetration in the penalty box by one of
the two
players taking part in the short corner.
Long Shot Corner –
Don't be confused by the name, this won't
require you to shoot at the goal straight from the corner. Instead,
you'll want
to lob the ball somewhere around 18-20 yards, just outside the penalty
box,
where a player will come in unmarked, unleashing a volley. This type of
corner
is hard to execute, since it requires a perfect pass and a perfect
volley, but
when it does work, it will most likely be a great scoring opportunity.
Obviously, there will be a lot of
combination between these tactics and a coach might even want to make
up his
own tactics derived from these "standard" ones, in order to surprise
the
opposing team. In any corner kick strategy
you use, you'll want to have
two
players with special jobs. One will be the "garbage player", positioned
on the
other side of the penalty box from where the corner is being taken. His
main
role will be to collect the cross in case it passes through or over all
the
players in the box, re-crossing it if possible.
The other player will be the "safety
net" and will be positioned around 25-30 yards from the
other team's
goal, centrally. His job will be to collect any balls that are
deflected from
the penalty box and stop the other team's potentially deadly counter
attacks.
If the safety net player can shoot the ball as soon as he gets it, even
better,
but it's advisable to simply clear it in order to allow your teammates
to get
back to their defensive positions.
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