Lesson 7 · Angles of attack
The goal is 7.32 m wide, but you can’t use all of it. A ball aimed at the post is a post, or a yard wide. The honest target is the strip one metre inside each post — about 5.3 m of scoreable mouth. Every angle here is measured to that, not to the woodwork.
⟡ Drag the ball. The number is the angle of that scoreable mouth.
From in front of goal the two posts sit either side of you and the angle is huge — almost the whole mouth is on. This is why central chances inside the box are gold: geometry is doing the work before the keeper can.
Step out toward the touchline and the door swings shut. From the side of the box the scoreable mouth can fall below 10° — the near post is right in front of you, owned by the keeper, and the only real target is the far post. The shot you can see is not the shot that is on.
⟡ Slide the ball along the edge of the box and watch the angle collapse.
That is the rule for shots from a side: aim one metre inside the far post — the opposite post — and the keeper has the longest possible way to travel. The bright line is that shot. From wide, the move is to play across the goal, not to drill it at the near post.
Angle tells you how much goal is on; distance tells you whether the chance is worth taking at all. From Smith’s 3,175 goals: 87% are scored from inside the box, about 9% from 18–23 yards, and only 4% from beyond. Step back and both halves work against you at once.
of goals are scored inside the penalty area. ~90% within 23 yards of goal.
Smith 2016 · Table 4.64 · n = 3,175 goals
⟡ Drag the ball straight back from goal — watch the band drop 87 → 9 → 4.
Put them together and the final third lights up: brightest where the angle is widest, banded by where goals actually come from. Central and close is a different game from wide and deep. This is the picture every good attacking move is trying to reach.
⟡ Open the Board, turn on Shot angle and Chance map, and test your own positions.