A free kick won near the sideline is a rehearsable chance that most teams squander. The reason is that it gets treated as an ordinary cross with a stationary ball.
The advantage is time, and time is usually wasted
Unlike a cross from open play, the taker can choose the exact moment of delivery and everyone in the box can be positioned before it happens.
Teams that use that window well arrange runners, decoys and a screen for the near-post attacker, all of which take several seconds to set.
Teams that do not simply put the ball down and swing it in, surrendering the one thing that made the situation different from open play.
Defenses get the same preparation time
The stoppage lets the defending side organize its zonal wall inside the box, set the offside line and assign markers to the biggest threats.
A deep delivery into a set defense is one of the least productive balls in soccer, which is why raw counts of wide free kicks correlate poorly with goals.
Attacking sides that recognize this look for ways to disturb the arrangement rather than to beat it in the air on its own terms.
The productive routines move the ball before crossing it
A short pass to a supporting player forces the defensive line to shift and breaks the fixed relationship between markers and runners.
The cross then arrives from a slightly different angle against defenders who are moving, which is a materially better proposition than the original position offered.
It also opens the option of a cutback along the ground, which bypasses the aerial contest entirely and produces a shot from a central area.
Height of delivery matters more than distance
A flat, driven ball reaches the box before the goalkeeper can leave his line, turning the contest into a flick rather than a jump.
A floated ball gives the goalkeeper time to claim it, and the taller side usually wins that exchange regardless of who is attacking.
Which means the choice of trajectory is a tactical decision about which duel the attacking team wants, rather than a matter of the taker's preference.
Rehearsal is cheap and rarely done at youth level
Wide free kicks recur several times in every match and require no unusual athleticism, which makes them among the best returns on training time available.
Most youth sessions never cover them, partly because the situation looks like a cross and coaches assume crossing practice has already addressed it.
Teams that spend twenty minutes a week assigning roles from these positions tend to notice the difference within a season, without changing a single player.