A bawling Takefusa Kubo was all you had to see to understand the impact of Japan’s 3-1 loss to Mexico on Friday.
The 20-year-old midfielder’s tears represented the disappointment of a host nation that had hoped to achieve so much at these Olympic Games but instead bowed out just short of the podium.
Japan’s fourth-place finish — its second failure to win the bronze final in the last three tournaments — deprived the country of its first men’s soccer medal since the 1968 Mexico City Games.