Rayo OKC’s Kosuke Kimura At Home In America’s Heartland

Photo credit: Rayo OKC

Rayo OKC defender Kosuke Kimura is, by now, used to making a soft landing in new and challenging environments.

His most recent stop is Oklahoma City with one of the three expansion teams in the North American Soccer League. Kimura, one of only two Japan-born players in the league (Carolina goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald is the other), has taken a circuitous route to America’s heartland on his personal soccer journey.

“I’m comfortable here,” he told NASL.com in near-perfect English, without even a hint of an accent. “There are good people and a good organization here.”

Though he will celebrate his 32nd birthday next month, Kimura retains the youthful enthusiasm and curiosity that first brought him to the United States in 2003. He spoke not a word of English. He sent letters to dozens of college coaches asking for a chance. One of the few responses came from Eric Johnson, the coach at Western Illinois University in the town of Macomb. He was advised to take an intensive English course, but would also have to take the SAT. Kimura earned 200 points by signing his name, then proceeded to ace the math part of the test.

He played four years at Western Illinois moving on to the Colorado Rapids of the MLS. After winning a league title in 2010, Kimura, one of the quickest and most fit players in the game, bounced around the MLS with stops in Portland and New York.

“I’m almost 32, I guess I’m now too old for them,” he said. “Teams wanted me to be a second backup, but I want to keep playing. I hate sitting on the bench. I’m happy when I’m playing. I’m still the fastest and fittest on the team.”

Before landing in the NASL in 2015, playing for Atlanta (and Gary Smith, his former coach in Colorado) in the Fall Season, Kimura had a brief spell in Poland with Widzew Lodz. After last season, Kimura was free to pursue his options and jumped at the chance to play for Alen Marcina and a new team in the NASL.

“Everyone works hard here,” Kimura said. “We all battle, it’s a good competition. The league is growing and it’s good for American soccer to have more options, for the players to have options.”

He added: “We have a local owner and one from Rayo Vallecano. It’s a district of Madrid and their pride is so high as a community. It’s the same. We are going to fight for each other and for the community. Everybody’s in it.”

After playing two home games, their first matches in the NASL, Rayo OKC heads to South Florida to face another expansion team, Miami FC, that is still searching for the first league win in club history. Rayo OKC had last week off, but Kimura remains one of the league’s top performers statistically, having completed 80 percent of his passes from his spot at right back.

“I have a huge pride,” Kimura said. “I don’t want to lose the ball, but at the same time can I be dangerous? Can I hurt the other team? One assist is better than 10 passes completed. In Colorado, I touched the ball more than anyone. I have the power and I’m in good positions to create more. It’s great I don’t lose the ball, but at the same time I can penetrate more.

“We played two home games, lost one. We controlled the game. In the last game we had 18 shots and created good chances. We are creating chances so it’s frustrating that they [Carolina] scored on a defensive error. It’s not like they broke us down. I think we controlled the game, we have good players, but we need to keep playing together. We have a bunch of experienced players and we have to have a balance of ego and playing together to click. You have to match with the players around you. We do have good tactics. Just have to keep doing it. It is hard to build a team in only a couple of months. But it’s been building here.”