Goalie tips – Preparation on corner kicks

Corner kicks are one of the most dangerous situations in a football game. All sort of mishaps occur in the box that can result in loosing a game. Your heroic save may be overshadowed by a soft goal because you get yourself in a mess when the corner kick is taken. We’ve put together some quick goalie tips to be more effective at corner kicks and avoid you a bad moment.

• Position yourself just off center towards the back post. Don’t stand in the middle of the goal, running backwards is harder than moving forwards. If you are too close to the front post, and the ball is heading to the back post, you won’t be able to move as fast. When you run backwards you are also likely to trip with obstacles that you couldn’t see.  
• Tilt your body angle so you are in a open position. Stand in an open stance at about 30 degrees to watch the corner being taken and the players around you. 
• Get help from your team mates.  Make sure you have a player standing on the front post and one player on the back post. Use your tallest players for this. Having the posts protected will reduce the area you have to cover.
• Make a decision and stick with it. A goalkeeper should assess the flight of the ball before they begin to move. If you move too early you may lose momentum from your jump or get caught underneath the ball making it harder to make a catch.

For more goalie tips like this, have a look at our other post: A goalkeeping masterclass

Pablo Matamoros

I am a software engineer with 25+ years of experience across diverse industries. I've climbed the corporate leader over the years, which has some benefits but means I moved away from my love for tinkering with technology. So, I build the odd website or application to keep learning and stay in touch with technology. FootballTechniques allows me to combine my programming knowledge with my passion for football.

To find out more about my professional experience, visit PabloMatamoros.com

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