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[Football] Scoring direct from a free kick



Giraffe

VERY part time moderator
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patreon
Aug 8, 2005
26,453
Is it just me or is this virtually dead. It wasn’t that long ago that they seemed to be flying in all the time in football. But now it so rarely happens. I thought it was just us, but other teams also have terrible direct free kicks. Even Ronaldo doesn’t do it anymore. Is it the ball? Is it better defending? What?
 




Swansman

Pro-peace
May 13, 2019
22,320
Sweden
Never been common, teams usually average about 2 direct free kick goals per season. Possible it has decreased even more now when there is data showing how utterly inefficient it is to shoot from free kicks compared to pretty much any other option.
 


Baldseagull

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
10,869
Crawley
Is it just me or is this virtually dead. It wasn’t that long ago that they seemed to be flying in all the time in football. But now it so rarely happens. I thought it was just us, but other teams also have terrible direct free kicks. Even Ronaldo doesn’t do it anymore. Is it the ball? Is it better defending? What?

Ronaldo has never had a better than average success rate from direct free kicks, and was even worse at Juventus, I wouldn't let him take shots at goal from free kicks if I was his manager.
 






A1X

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Sep 1, 2017
17,517
Deepest, darkest Sussex
They all try the dip with power. Ward Prowse still employs the curl, and that seems to be better.
 


hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,088
Chandlers Ford
Ward Prowse is indeed the best current exponent in the PL. but even he, has only scored 12 of them, in best part of a decade in the league. It’s a hard thing to get right.
 








Comrade Sam

Comrade Sam
Jan 31, 2013
1,552
Walthamstow
It's a bit like the corner debate last season. Compared with how many corners the average team get, the goal ratio is pretty poor. On the continent it is often considered more important to keep your shape in case of a counter attack, as a corner still leaves the defending side with the advantage of more men and a big guy that can use his hands. However, almost from the moment I started bandying about that wisdom, we started banging them in. I seem to remember Bissouma scoring a scorching free kick in his friendly debut, but now I always assume we'll miss and the opposition will score from free kicks.
 


Weststander

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Aug 25, 2011
63,385
Withdean area
Seems like a dip in numbers to me, following a renaissance up to 2017.

D7C0A563-2835-46FA-B96F-A0EAE74C059E.png
2020/21 - just 13.

A question - are teams now obsessive about targeting headed goals from freekicks instead?
 




Taybha

Whalewhine
Oct 8, 2008
27,135
Uwantsumorwat
Probably due to the cunning plan of having a player lay down behind the wall, I've no stats to back this up but I expect a fair few used to be scored as the wall jumped and the ball went underneath the wall, so with the player laying down those low free kicks have died out.
 


Yoda

English & European
Probably due to the cunning plan of having a player lay down behind the wall, I've no stats to back this up but I expect a fair few used to be scored as the wall jumped and the ball went underneath the wall, so with the player laying down those low free kicks have died out.

I doubt it, they seemed to be as rare as rocking horse crap
 


The Optimist

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Apr 6, 2008
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Lewisham
How good was David Beckham at direct free kicks? My memory says amazing but perhaps he didn’t really score as many as I think.
 




The Optimist

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Apr 6, 2008
2,579
Lewisham
To answer my own question he scored 18 direct free kicks over 8 full seasons at Man Utd (and for all I know might not have been on free kick taking duty in the first few seasons).
 




Nixonator

Well-known member
Feb 8, 2016
6,733
Shoreham Beach
Is it just me or is this virtually dead. It wasn’t that long ago that they seemed to be flying in all the time in football. But now it so rarely happens. I thought it was just us, but other teams also have terrible direct free kicks. Even Ronaldo doesn’t do it anymore. Is it the ball? Is it better defending? What?

Combination of a few things which have been mentioned already, but also because it is an immense skill and takes a degree of dedication that modern footballers are probably lacking.

The sheer repetition required to perfect it takes so much time outside of normal training. Not sure why Ronaldo has been mentioned, he was, on the whole, pretty terrible at free kicks. His method consisted of punting the ball as hard as he could on the valve and hoping the ball moved erratically enough to fool the keeper. He was just allowed to take about 1000 of them and therefore had to score a few spectacular ones that people thought were controlled strikes.

Beckham was a bit better, but he seriously practiced a lot. His lacked power as opposed to someone like Mihajlovic who practiced about 4 hours a day, every day throughout his career outside of normal training. In his youth, he used to do it all day. That's the kind of dedication we're talking about. There was a video knocking around of him smashing them in the top corner consistently aged 50.

Also, even if you manage to be of a consistent standard with power, accuracy and spin... you might not be a great footballer. See JWP.
 


keaton

Big heart, hot blood and balls. Big balls
Nov 18, 2004
9,630
As Swansman has said due to the stats about how few goals are scored like this, we probably see it as a great opportunity to work it back to Sanchez
 




Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
73,365
West west west Sussex
As Swansman has said due to the stats about how few goals are scored like this, we probably see it as a great opportunity to work it back to Sanchez

Keep up.





We're talking free kicks not corners!
 





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