Kubo—“I knew our semifinal was going to be against Spain”

Real Madrid and Japan winger Takefusa Kubo recently spoke about the upcoming Olympics semifinal against Spain in an interview with ESPN.

“Ever since the draw was made, I’ve known all along that if we got there, our semifinal was going to be against Spain.

I’ve been taking it one game at a time so far, but this is where I bring it 100 percent—no, 120 percent, 150 percent. I’m going to lead us to victory.”

“I have a lot of teammates in Spain,” said Kubo. “In fact, I spoke to Eric Garcia before [the New Zealand] match and we both wanted to meet in the semis.

“And it happened. We were friends, now we are rivals and we will give it our all. It’s going to be a great match and hopefully, we can win.”

The 20-year-old is tied for fourth in goals at the Olympics 2021 tournament with three goals scored so far in his native Japan.

Kubo has spent the majority of his young Real Madrid career on loan with various Spanish clubs. He spent the first half of last season with Villarreal before concluding the rest of the 2020-21 season with Getafe.

He will likely look for a role within Real Madrid this coming season as returning manager Carlo Ancelotti has yet to send the Japanese international out on loan again during this summer transfer window.

Kubo and Japan take on Spain at the Saitama Stadium on Tuesday as one of these two countries look to advance to play either Mexico or Brazil in the the final of these Summer Olympics.