A corner kick is a method for restarting a soccer game and is awarded your team when the ball is out of play.

For example: Let’s say that you are playing a soccer match and are on your way to shoot the ball at opponent’s goal.

Just before the ball find its way into the net, the opponent’s goalkeeper touches the ball and you see the ball flying outside the soccer field.

I know, it’s really frustrating, I don’t score often but when the goalkeeper makes the save of century on my shoot then I am wondering if it’s just bad luck or am I a poor soccer player.

I think it’s the first one! Yea sure, you think…

Awarding

A corner kick will be awarded to your team anytime an opponent player kicks the ball over the goal line (either the ball is rolling on the ground or flying in the air :-).

The line referee will use his/her flag to signal that your team has been awarded a corner kick.

He will do that by first raising the flag and then point at the corner arc on his side of the field.

If you are the player who takes corner kicks in your team you have to follow some directions.

First of all you have to place the ball within the corner arc. The corner arc is the intersection of the goal and touch line. The radius of the corner arc is 1 yard.

Placement of Opponents

Your opponents should be 10 yards (at least) from the ball. If you find your opponents being too close to the ball just wink to the referee and tell him to move your opponents 10 yards from you.

As soon as you kick or move the ball outside the corner arc it will be in play. If you have a strong shoot you can try to score directly from the corner kick.

As mentioned before, your opponents must retire 10 yards otherwise they may constitute misconduct and referee could also punish them with a warning (yellow card).

In some cases the referee can punish the opponent with a red card, but this usually occurs when your opponent already have a yellow card from some previous situation in the match.

As the kicker, you may not touch the ball until the ball has been touched by another player; in the case it doesn’t matter if the ball is touched by your opponent or a teammate.

If you forget about this and touch the ball one more time, the referee will probably punish your team by awarding your opponents with an indirect free kick from the spot where the offence occurred.

However, if the second touch of the ball was also a handling offence; the referee may punish you and your team with a direct free kick or in worst case a penalty kick.

Great for Scoring Goals

A corner kick is a good opportunity for scoring goal. My coach use to say that if my teammates and I only touch the ball with our forehead the ball will probably find a way into the goal.

But, most of my team mates like their hairstyle to much so they don’t even jump for the ball 🙂

Another strategy you could use is to execute a short corner, in which you pass the ball to the nearest player.

Sometimes, your defenders may form a wall and force you to get the ball over them (which will require special kicking skills).

However, they must still remain 10 yards from where the ball is spotted.

Tips: Make your opponents think that you will kick the ball into goal area, instead of doing that pass the ball to the nearest player.

Believe me, your opponents will not how a clue of how to react.

Make sure to check our other laws of the soccer game as they will help you understand the overall game better!