'Mad-dog' Kubo, Pretty Boy, or the Sushi Bomber?

Good news for Japan’s World Cup bid – Tatsuhiko ‘Mad-dog’ Kubo is back from injury. Out injured for eighteen months with a herniated disc (“even pissing was painful”), he makes a welcome return in the friendly games leading up to the WC. Can he solve Japan’s problems in attack? See how he fared here.

Kubo is a rangy, left-footed striker who has a better eye for goal than any of Japan’s other strikers. He is also clearly far more of a loose cannon than the rest of them. Yanagisawa looks great, a pretty boy with a heart-breaking smile. Unfortunately ladies (or gents), he appears to be a passion-free zone. He plays with the verve of one of his fur coats. Takahara (the 'sushi-bomber') just doesn’t cut it. He looks tough with his shaved head, but the sushi-bomber’s fuse is rarely lit. Oguro and the other pretenders are still a bit raw.

Kubo plays for the Yokohama F Marinos team, but in his early days he played for our very own Hiroshima SanFrecce. He is also a bit of a wild scamp, some say with enough screws loose to bring the whole house down.

Rumour has it that Kubo first showed off his screwball nature at a disciplinary hearing. He was up on a charge, having been red-carded in unusual circumstances. The disciplinary committee chairman asked him to confirm that he had jogged 20 yards to the touchline and then proceeded to push the assistant referee. Kubo said that this was quite untrue. The chairman, flourishing an official document no doubt, repeated the charge. Kubo stuck to his guns insisting the report was incorrect. When pressed for his version of events, Kubo raised a few eyebrows when he insisted it was in fact 50 yards and not 20; that he most certainly had not jogged, he had sprinted; and that he had not pushed the assistant referee, he had punched his lights out.

Apocryphal or not, this story catapulted Kubo to the top of my list of players to watch in Japan.

'Mad-dog' has wispy facial hair – not really a fashion statement, it’s more as if he doesn’t quite trust himself with a razor. Watch out for his mad, staring eyes, his hangdog expression, and if you are an assistant referee, his right hook at the World Cup in the summer.

Watch out Germany! 'Mad-dog' Kubo is hopefully coming your way.