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How to Take a Free Kick

First, you need to measure where the wall is going to be setup and the positioning of the keeper. The free kick taker has a number of different options, whether to bend the wall around the wall, over the wall, under or through the wall (anticipating the wall jumping or splitting) and or a combination of those options. 

Ronaldinho has done this on occasion, surprising the keeper, by striking the ball low and hard under the wall as it jumped up or catching the keeper with a long distance strike, when the goalie was thinking it would be a cross, to the regret of the English goalkeeper Seaman.  So, there's an important element of surprise in hitting good free kicks.  You could take a quick free kick or before the wall is entirely setup, just be alert.  Overall, no matter what you do, the key is to hit the ball with the right weight and pace.

• Outside of the left foot, ball bending into the goal:  Roberto Carlos
• Inside of the right foot bending into the keeper:  David Beckham
• Inside of the right foot bending away from the keeper:  Juan Riquelme
• The surprise shot - catching the keeper:  Ronaldinho

Normally, you went to bend the ball around the wall so the ball bends into the goal rather than away from the goal and the goalkeeper—that way the goalkeeper has less of a chance of reaching the ball. If the ball is bending away from the goalie then the keeper still has a chance to get to the ball, even if it’s moving at a great pace. Of course, there are a number of exceptions, if the ball is hit sweetly, and at a good pace, the keeper will have no chance, and that’s the trick—hit the ball with pace and touch.  Beckham is a master of this, swerving into the goal, the ball bending away to the keeper at such a fast pace he can't get his hands on it.

Develop Your Shot

To develop a smooth strike of the ball and take good free kicks, where you can control where the ball is going to be placed, it's the same old refrain, you need to practice.  Hitting a free kick is much like taking a corner kick or hitting a good cross, it’s all about bending the ball into the goal, an in-swinger, or bending the ball away from the keeper, an out-swinger.  And, hitting a driven ball, and in the case for free kicks, so the keeper can't get their hands or finder tips to the ball.

For instance, if the wall is setup at the top of the box, towards the right, a player can bend the ball around the wall on the right, with his right foot, so the ball comes into the goale’s upper left corner. The other option is for the free kick taker to take the shot with his left foot, but then the ball will bend away from the goalie, which is fine, but leaves a chance for the keeper to get a piece of the ball. But again, the key is in the striking of the ball, if the ball is hit well, the keeper will have little chance of getting to it.  You have to decide what's the best option.  Maybe the wall isn't setup close enough to the right, so it's easier to bend the ball around the wall.

The Sweet Spot

The deftness comes in lifting the ball over the wall but also having enough pace to dip down into the corner of the goal. The same goes for bending the ball around the wall, the ball still has to have enough pace on it to hit the back of the net before the keeper can reach the corner.  And, there are times when you might hit the hit the ball so it dips down into the goal, relying more on power than deftness, smacking the sweet spot much like Cristiano Ronaldo. 

There's also the free kick taken with the outside of the foot, which Roberto Carlos immortilized in the World Cup in France.  It's hard to get enough power behind the ball usually when striking the ball with the outside of the foot, most free kicks are taken with the inside of the foot, where the foot is sort of wrapped around the ball.