General soccer question... why are there so many goal kicks???
Wouldn't a team be much happier just throwing the ball and advancing the ball past the midfield line? Little defense is played before midfield anyway. Teams that goal kick seem to get the ball back less than half of the time.
First off, not every team has defenders that have the skill to pass a ball straight over more than 20 yards. So some teams choose to goal kick, simply because that's their best chance to get upfield.
Then there's the time factor. Slowly advancing takes more time.
There's the 'let them battle it out, we're tougher than they are'-tactic. A lot of teams believe in duels on the midfield and winning the second ball (the first ball is the destination of the goal kick, mostly in favor of the defensive player, but the header will land somewhere, and that's the second ball). Instant pressure on opposing teams.
And, very importantly, imagine a defender with bad passing skills. He tries to reach a midfielder but makes an error. That will mean that there's only a couple of defenders left to take away the counter attack, since all the other players were upfield waiting for the initial pass. When you goal kick, the goalie kicks it over the defenders, over the midfielders, and aims for a forward player. That means that when the ball hits the ground, at least 7 players of his team will be behind the ball, thus taking away any chances of an easy counterattack.
DCR you can just start at the halfway line if you want 
