“Route One Soccer” is a seldom used tactic that happens professionally once every blue moon and actually works even less of the time. The strategy is often seen in U.S. youth games when the goalkeeper punts the ball as far as he can and the fastest kid on the team tries to outsprint all the opponents to the ball. Route One style of play is the exact opposite of tiki-taka.
Despite the critics, a team in Japan’s third-tier gave any Route One haters the finger and perfected it to a tee. Why bother stringing together 20 passes over the course of two minutes if you can minimize that time to six seconds? Observe as Japanese club Roasso Kumamoto goes from one goal to another with the ball only touching the ground once.
【7/29第7節鳥取】
2位同士の直接対決となったガイナーレ鳥取戦は、 #谷口海斗 選手の素晴らしいゴールで先制するも追いつかれ、1-1引き分け、勝点1を互いに積み上げる結果となりました。
GK #内山圭 選手からのロングフィードから谷口選手が決めたゴールをお届けします #ロアッソ熊本#繋続 pic.twitter.com/Lrivbir9aE— ロアッソ熊本(official) (@roassoofficial) July 29, 2020
Goalkeeper assist! Extra credit though to the goal scorer Kaito Taniguchi for a thunderous strike that Jamie Vardy would have been proud of.
The only disappointing thing in this video is that the goalkeeper didn’t run the length of the field to celebrate with Taniguchi like Alisson did with Mohamed Salah after Liverpool’s victory against Manchester United.
Roasso Kumamoto would end up drawing 1-1 to Tottori with the two teams tied for second place after seven games played. Both sides are chasing after current league leaders Blaublitz Akita, which has a ridiculous 7-0-0 record with 15 goals scored and only one goal conceded.
