Goals from direct free kicks

[DavidWaters]

Do you see many on your save?

[XaW]

A fair few, seems about right from the eye test, but haven't looked at the stats.

[rp1966]

Not as many since I switched from a West Ham save with James Ward-Prowse on set-pieces to my current Sapporo save without a set-piece expert, but still see my fair share of direct free kick goals for and against.

[SaintEtienne]

In 200 matches on FM24, I've not seen a single goal from a direct free kick.

Kai Havertz hit the post with one for me last night. Endrick drew a routine save from my GK in Der Klassiker. On both occasions, the crowd got very excited -- understandably so, because in my universe in 2033 all we have are YouTube videos of Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi et al. demonstrating the lost art of scoring from a direct free kick.

[Prej]

Yes, but not a noticeable difference to FM23.

[rp1966]

2 hours ago, SaintEtienne said:

In 200 matches on FM24, I've not seen a single goal from a direct free kick.

Kai Havertz hit the post with one for me last night. Endrick drew a routine save from my GK in Der Klassiker. On both occasions, the crowd got very excited -- understandably so, because in my universe in 2033 all we have are YouTube videos of Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi et al. demonstrating the lost art of scoring from a direct free kick.

That's surprising.  Free kicks, left-footed, about 20 yards out right of centre always seem to be really dangerous - they either fly into the top corner or the goalkeeper flies like superman to tip it away with his fingertips right in the corner.  You can always tell it's going to happen because the wall looks fractionally too far to the left.

[SaintEtienne]

14 minutes ago, rp1966 said:

That's surprising.  Free kicks, left-footed, about 20 yards out right of centre always seem to be really dangerous - they either fly into the top corner or the goalkeeper flies like superman to tip it away with his fingertips right in the corner.  You can always tell it's going to happen because the wall looks fractionally too far to the left.

Indeed, I am surprised. I saw a fair few during the FM23 portion of my save. I retain faith that I will see one again at some point. Hopefully, it won't require me luring a 44-year-old Aaron Cresswell out of retirement.

[SaintEtienne]

On 28/11/2023 at 16:05, rp1966 said:

That's surprising.  Free kicks, left-footed, about 20 yards out right of centre always seem to be really dangerous - they either fly into the top corner or the goalkeeper flies like superman to tip it away with his fingertips right in the corner.  You can always tell it's going to happen because the wall looks fractionally too far to the left.

After four seasons on FM24, I finally saw one, and in the exact way you described: Kai Havertz curling in a perfect 20-yarder for my Borussia Dortmund side against Hamburg. This demonstrates two things: (1) they can still happen in the game; and (2) Havertz gets to become a very good footballer by the age of 34.

[Cometdude]

Last season my freekick taker scored 4 direct freekicks. The season before he scored 4 direct freekicks. 

 

Can't say if that is excessive or not but I am definitely happy to see them go in.