football freekicks

[silax]

watching the local derby the unwashed won it through a freekick which got me to thinking about these things and how players score from them. if a team have a freekick from 25 yards out the curl the ball round the wall to score now as the goalkeeper is gaurding the other end. what would happen if there was no wall i reckon the goalkeeper would be able to save more then 90% of them. For a start the ball is at a standstill so the kicker has to use a lot of force to get power into the ball. the more power the less acuracy maybe a couple of defenders by the posts. what do you reckon

[Win2Win]

I don't think any manager in footy has used a statistician to work out the best of everything, as it would give the team an advantage, but I guess most footballers can't even add up :)

[MattR]

I've wondered the same thing Silax. It would take a hell of a shot to beat the keeper if he has a full sight of the ball I think. I also wonder how many more goals would be scored if all those free kick shots were actually crossed into the box instead as it must be under 3% of direct shots from free kicks that actually go in, probably a lot lower than that even.