Like the ideal point on your foot to make contact with the ball, there is also an ideal spot on a football to hit with your "shoe laces." If you point the laces toward the goal post ("laces out" from the movie Ace Ventura) there is a point on the opposite side from the laces, about one third of the way from the bottom -- that is the proper place to make contact with the football.

If contact is made above this point, the kick will have a low trajectory and will likely get blocked. Conversely, if contact if made below the "sweet spot" the ball will rotate really fast and get such a high trajectory that the ball will lose a lot of distance.