Japan vs. Spain: Tokyo Olympics men's soccer live stream, TV channel, how to watch online, news, odds, time

Hosts one step away from final berth

By Jonathan Johnson

Aug 2, 2021 at 6:41 am ET • 1 min read

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Japan and Spain meet in the second Olympic men's soccer semifinal in Saitama with the home nation potentially just 90 minutes away from reaching the final in their own backyard.

Samurai Blue needed penalties to advance past New Zealand while La Rojita left it very late to force extra time against the Ivory Coast before blowing them away.

Spain perhaps edge this based on their squad on paper but Japan are determined hosts and have conceded just one goal so far.

Here is how you can watch the match and what to know:

Storylines for Japan vs. Spain

Japan: Hajime Moriyasu's men have been defensively sound but failed to score for the first time against New Zealand. Takefusa Kubo has scored in all but one of the four outings so far and could be key against the Spanish next week. Spain have conceded in two of four games so far and the Japanese will be confident that they can make life difficult for Luis de la Fuente's side.

Spain: Pulled away in extra time against Ivory Coast, but there remains a sense that this Spanish outing is not delivering the way that it could. Fatigue is rife in the squad and must be considered, but that does not change the fact that they were seconds away from elimination against Les Elephants and drew two of three group games. Dani Olmo finally came to the fore in the quarterfinals while Mikel Oyarzabal has chipped in with important goals and Rafa Mir's hat-trick could have breathed new life into their Olympic hopes.