Goal Kicks-Tips, Tricks and How to
Goal kicks are an important form of restart in the game of soccer. A team should aim to have goal kicks taken by the goalkeeper. Young goalkeepers who have an outfielder take their kicks should practice regularly as the eventual goal should be take the kicks themselves. How many professional goalkeepers do you see not taking the goal kicks?
Technique
Most of the time a goal kick should be driven with height. The following technical points should be used when taking a goal kick;
- Standing foot next to ball.
- Toes of kicking foot pointing down, ball struck with laces.
- Strike ball below mid line.
- High and powerful follow through to add distance and height.
- Toes of kicking foot point to intended target after follow through.
Distance
Distance can be an important factor when taking goal kicks. The most important factor is obviously accuracy, aim to take a goal kick and get the ball to your own teammate. This obviously is dependent upon the movement of, and options presented by your teammates. If no options are available, aim to take goal kicks wide and to the halfway line, this gets the ball away from danger.
Possession
Your primary focus when taking a goal kick should be to keep possession for your team. Look immediately to your full backs and if they are open roll . the ball to them without any hesitation. This gets the game going and the full back can dribble or pass, having more options than you have from a stationary ball. As the game progresses doing this consistently will force the opposition to put high pressure on your full backs. This will create more room central and higher up the field. Be careful of playing a ball to a defender if he or she in under pressure, this will put your team in trouble.
If you cannot play an immediate pass to a defender, communicate to your midfield and forwards to provide movement and options for you. If you kick a ball and it is turned over, it is of little use to complain about having no options after the fact. After you communicate look to pick out an accurate driven pass, balls that slow down before reaching the target have a high chance of being intercepted. Any turnover from a goal kick creates pressure for your team, as it is typically in the opposition half.
Typical options for a goalkeeper to decide when delivering a goal kick are;
- Quick pass to full backs if they are under no pressure.
- Roll into feet of central defender if they are under no pressure.
- Driven pass to midfielder under no pressure.
- Lead pass to midfielder away from pressure.
- Ball in front of wide midfielder to chase on to.
- High ball for forward to flick on, or chest and hold up.
If no options are available, it is best to aim goal kicks high and wide where a potential turnover will be least threatening.
Set Play
A goal kick is an opportunity for teams to use structured play against the opposition, something not common in soccer. To take advantage of these opportunities a goalkeeper must possess distance and accuracy from goal kicks. An example of this is Trinidad during the 2006 World Cup in their group stage game against England. Trinidad used goal kicks as an opportunity to provide an aerial ball for their 6 foot 2 inch forward Kenwyne Jones, who matched himself up against England’s 5 foot 7 inch left back Ashley Cole. This tactic not only caused problems for Cole, but it also dragged central defender John Terry out of position to cover for the struggling Cole. This meant a matchup problem for England every time Trinidad were awarded a goal kick.
Teams can also stack an area from goal kick looking to flick the ball on and attack. Examples of this are stacking the left midfielder and another forward on the same area, creating a 2 v 1 advantage when contesting a high driven ball from the goal kick. The central forward should be looking to react to the flicked on ball and penetrate the opposition back line.
