What is a corner kick?
When the defending team knocks the ball out behind their own goal line, attackers restart from the corner — usually a curling cross into a crowd fighting to head it in.
Explain further
Here is when it happens and why it matters. A corner is awarded when the ball wholly crosses the goal line (the short end of the field) outside the goal and a defender was the last to touch it. Had an attacker knocked it out instead, the defense would get a goal kick. So a corner is essentially a reward: the attacking team gets a free restart from the corner arc, and crucially, no player can be ruled offside directly from the kick.
The kicker places the ball in the quarter-circle marked at the corner flag and plays it in while teammates jostle for position in the box. Most deliveries are in-swinging or out-swinging crosses curled toward the goalmouth, where tall players try to head it home and the keeper tries to punch or catch it clear. Some teams play it short instead, passing to a nearby teammate to open a better angle rather than launching it in blind.
A point that trips up newcomers: corners are very common but rarely produce goals, with only a small fraction leading to one. Television loves to flash a corner count as if it were a scoreboard, yet it measures pressure, not points. Still, a well-delivered corner against a vulnerable, poorly organized defense remains one of the game's most dangerous set pieces.