Takefusa Kubo, who plays at Real Sociedad, had a conversation with Celtic legend Shunsuke Nakamura on Japanese streaming service “WOWOW”. This conversation will be broadcast on 22 July, when Celtic v Gamba Osaka will be held on Celtic Japan Tour.
Last summer, the two of them had a conversation once on the theme of free kick on the programme, and at that time, they shared each other’s thoughts on free kick skills and tricks. Takefusa Kubo is now 22 years old, and already has experience playing at both Barcelona and Real Madrid. In 2022-23 season, he scored 9 goals and 6 assists, and was selected as the season best Ⅺ of La Liga by multiple medias in Spain. A part of this program scheduled to be broadcast on 22 July has been released, so I will share the impressive part.
Takefusa Kubo said that there was a positive influence of Shunsuke Nakamura’s advice on the background of his play this season. And Kubo looked back on the goal against UD Almeria as follows.
“As you advised me, I shot with 20% power. As a result of devising the speed of the foot swing and the strength of the kick, I was able to get the goal.”
Also, looking back on Kubo’s free kick at Japan National Team’s game held in June, they talked as follows.
Shunsuke: “The trajectory of your free kick is out of 100 points”
Takefu Sakubo: “Thanks to your advice, I was able to kick the droping ball. I’m very grateful.”
That’s all. Finally, Akinori Ichikawa, the goalkeeper who plays for Yokohama FC, also said in an interview after training yesterday as follows.
“I’m grateful to Shun-san (Shunsuke Nakamura) for shooting for me in training to improve my saving skills. This kind of experience is a treasure. He gives me advice on positioning of goalkeeper from the perspective of a free kick taker. When I first started receiving his guidance, I couldn’t stop his shot because he shifted the timing of his shot. However, as I continue to work on it while receiving guidance from him, I feel that I have been able to improve gradually. Now I think that the results of training with his guidance are coming out little by little.”
Shunsuke Nakamura, who is currently the coach of first team at Yokohama FC, seems to have great influences on some Japanese young talents.
Yatao
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