Corner kick
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In association football a corner kick is awarded if the defensive team is the last to touch the ball before it crosses its own goal line (goal line of the end of the field it is defending) outside of the goal itself (whether by kicking or off the hands of the goalkeeper).
The corner kick is made from an arc which has been chalked or othewise painted on the corner of the field, and occurs after the referee has blown his whistle to restart play. If the player kicking is skillful, this can result in a good scoring opportunity, either directly (rarely), or by getting the ball to teamates in front of the net, known as a "cross", where it is often played by a header. It is also common to play a short corner to a player located between the corner and the goal area. The defenders may elect to form a "wall" to attempt to force the ball to be kicked to an area they deem to be readily defencible.
The opposite play is the goal kick, which occurs after the offensive team is the last to touch the ball before it crosses to goal line at the end that it is attacking but outside of the goal.
The number of corner kicks awarded to each team has been suggested as an alternative method of tie-breaking to the sudden death/golden goal, silver goal, and kicks from the penalty mark method of breaking ties. The theory behind this suggestion is that the team which during the course of play has been awarded the most corner kicks is likely to have dominated play, forcing their opponents to make more high-risk tackles and their goalkeeper to make more saves in which he was not able to gain possession of the ball but rather merely deflect it across the line outside of the goal or over the crossbar. Some suggest that this is considerably fairer than the current methods employed, but as of 2004 it has not ever been adopted, at least at any high championship level of competition, and seems to be less discussed than it was at one time.