Analysis of attacking corner kick strategies in the Chinese Women’s Super League 2019

To determine the effective attacking patterns of corner kicks in women’s football, this study used associate rule to analyse the corner kicks in the Chinese Women’s Super League 2019. A total of 343 corner kicks from 56 matches were studied to examine the effective characteristics of corner kicks and strategies of strong and weak teams using associate rule analysis. In total, 17 goals were scored via corner kicks, accounting for 9.4% of the total goals (180) of the Women’s Super League in 2019. The result of associate rule analysis showed that the pattern of indirect, outside the box and eight attackers was more likely to create shots when a strong team (top 4 teams) faced a weak team (bottom 4 teams; Lift: 2.9). When a weak team faced a strong team, it was easier to create a shot by delivering the corner kick through an outswing ball directly to the near post (Lift: 6.091). These findings can help coaches to understand the key successful patterns of corner kicks in women’s football and choose a more effective attacking strategy of corner kicks according to the quality of both teams.