The Shot That Scores 65% Of All Goals

A Well Placed Soccer Shot

I remember when I was a teenager and one of my club coaches I had played striker for Arsenal. He was pretty tall guy who was known for scoring hat tricks on Manchester United, which I thought was awesome. He told me some advice that I live by when it comes to scoring goals on the field.

65% of goals are scored from a certain kind of shot. I couldn’t wait to hear what he was going to say it was like the holy grail of soccer information. Needless to say his answer surprised me. So what kind of shot is it? The “placed shot.”

Ok at the time it kind of confused me too. He said, the key is when your in the penalty box (or 18 yard box) you don’t need to have this laser rip of a shot upper 90 because the harder you kick the ball the less accurate your shot will be. Interesting huh? But it makes sense.

So he said when you get the ball, the only thing you want to do is put the ball in the net. He said, “Nobody is going to see how you scored your goal in the paper. They’re just going to see that you scored.” Brilliant.

This was the advice that led me to scoring over a hundred goals in 3 seasons of my high school varsity soccer team including 69 goals in one season shattering previous records, as well as scoring the most goals while I was in college. Placing the ball was the key.

Bending the ball around the goalie is how you need to think. Don’t think in terms of I want to score an upper 90 shot or side netting. Not to get all mathematic on you but think in terms of geometry and spacing.

If the goalie is too far to the right, then bend it around to the left. Now I’m not saying to kick the ball like a whimp. But begin shooting the ball like your passing to a teammate. And as you start getting accuracy then start attempting to kick the ball with more pace.

I got to the point where I could scream a bending ball side netting that was nearly impossible for a keeper to stop.

If you want to practice this set up some cones about 3 yards from each goal post and start from 5 yards away and practice putting the ball in between the cone and the post. As you gain accuracy work on your speed you kick the ball. Once you’ve kicked the ball successfully through the cone and the post on both sides of the goal (and with both feet – always be practices right and left leg kicks) then move back a few yards. If you miss then just start over.

I used to do this drill a lot and it was great for me to focus and really trying to gain accuracy and speed on my kick. And it was a game I’d play against myself to see how far back I could move and still bend the ball in the corner of the goal.

Tags: keeper, manchester united, placed shot, shooting