How to Set Up a Corner Kick

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Guillermo Gomez, and I coach youth soccer. And today I'll be talking to you about how to set up a corner kick. So first of all, a soccer corner kick is awarded when a team kicks the ball out from their own goal line. So, what the referee will do at that point--he will point at the corner with his hands down, indicating that there's a corner kick. The offensive team, which is the team that is actually going to kick the corner, will send one player to the corner, right, and normally the way I like to do corner kicks is that if the ball went out on the right side of the field, which would be--if we're looking at the board right here, so let's assume this is our right, the ball will go right here. I normally like to use a left kicker, because a left kicker can actually curve the ball going in this direction, right, and so it'll make it easier for the teammates to receive the ball and try to score while they hit the ball into the net. If the ball--if the corner kick is awarded on this side of the field, which is the left side of the field, I normally have my right kicker person try to take that corner kick, because again, we want the ball to travel in this motion. We don't want the ball to go outside because then the ball is out of bounds, and you lose the opportunity of scoring a goal. So, corner kicks are a lot of fund because they give you a high chance of scoring goals. A lot of goals are scored through corner kicks. And so, what I do with my players is I like to first of all put one of my tallest players--stand in front of the goalkeeper. That way it will curb the visibility of that goalkeeper, and so that it increases our chances of scoring a goal. I normally work a strategy with the team, so the kicker--for example, I can tell the kicker to raise one hand, and if he raises one hand that means that the ball is actually going out to the first post. So if this is the goal, this is your first post. Assuming that the ball is coming from this side--my marker is not working. So the ball is coming from here, this will be my first post, okay, and then this is my second post. So the communication goes by the person kicking the corner kick. So, I can say for example one hand up. The ball goes to the first post. Two hands up means that the kicker is going to put the ball on the second post. That way we can move the defenders away from that post so that we have an easier chance of scoring a goal. So, for example, if the ball is going to the first post, I'm actually going to have all my players stand on the second post, which is back here. That way we move all the defenders to the back, and as the ball comes in, we move forward to try to score on the first post. Again, that depends on coaching--coach, how they would want the strategy to work for scoring a goal on a corner kick, but essentially that's how you do a corner kick setup."