COMMERCE CITY — There are times when Kosuke Kimura finds himself alone in the right corner of the Colorado Rapids’ defense, needing to pounce on an attacker and eliminate the threat with sheer willpower.

But even with the game on the line and his teammates depending on him, those moments aren’t as stressful as his lonely arrival in the U.S. seven years ago when he flew over from Tokyo by himself at age 18, unable to speak English but sustained by a crazy dream: to play college soccer and someday turn pro.

Rapids coach Gary Smith marvels at Kimura’s story, calling him “one in a million.” Kimura is the hardest-working player on the team, always the last off the practice field, always driven by the memory of the obstacles he faced getting here.

“He’s overcome a lot,” Smith said. “It’s just a testament to the lad. He’s a very determined boy.”

Kimura said it comes down to mental strength.

“I just don’t want to lose, against anyone,” said the 5-foot-8 Kimura. “Everybody said, ‘Kosuke, you’re so small.’ I don’t care, because I’ve got the biggest heart and I’m mentally stronger than everybody else. That’s what I believe. I have to prove it to everybody.”

Kimura, 26, shares an apartment with teammate Omar Cummings, who is from Jamaica. A Michael Jackson poster hangs on the wall by the kitchen table, and a jigsaw puzzle of the New York City skyline is pinned to the wall above the television.

They like to watch “Entourage” on HBO, “River Monsters” on Animal Planet. They’re the Odd Couple with a reggae soundtrack, the intense Japanese rolling with the laid-back Jamaican.

“We’re different,” said Cummings, “but I think it’s a good balance.”

In fact, they seem inseparable.

“That’s a sitcom,” one Rapids staffer said affectionately.

Soccer is not a big sport in Japan, although the national team did make it to the recent World Cup. Professional soccer didn’t come to Japan until 1993 when Kimura was 9 years old, but it captivated him.

“I played soccer every day,” Kimura said. “I just loved it.”

He joined the academy of a professional team and got to train occasionally with the pros. When the team was relegated to the second division, there was no money to sign players and Kimura started looking elsewhere.

A teammate was about to leave with a scholarship to play at an American college, and Kimura saw that as his ticket too.

“I’m like, ‘OK, this is it, I’m not going to get any better chance if I stay in Japan,’ ” Kimura said. “I knew if I worked hard, I could get there.”

Except he spoke no English. He went to the library and researched American colleges, looking for Division I schools that had sports medicine programs. He sent highlight videos and e-mails in broken English to college coaches, using a Japanese-English dictionary. He heard from Western Illinois coach Eric Johnson, who was intrigued but troubled that Kimura could not speak English. It was January 2003.

Johnson told him he could try out for the team that fall and maybe earn a scholarship, but he needed to come over right away to get into an accelerated English class.

“I’m like, ‘Whoa, I have no visa, I have no passport, I’ve never been outside of Japan,’ ” Kimura recalled.

Kimura was already falling behind, because the English class he needed to attend had already begun. But in the aftermath of Sept. 11, getting a visa was no longer an easy matter.

“It used to be, you’d go to the American Embassy and they would do it right away,” Kimura said. “I got all the documents I needed from the college, I went to the American Embassy, and they were like, ‘You can’t come in here anymore. You have to do everything by mail, and it will take at least three months.’

“I’m like, ‘Listen, I have to get there as soon as possible because I need to get into college in September. If I wait three months, it’s going to be April, and I’ll have only five months. It’s going to be impossible, because I don’t speak any English.’ They kept telling me, ‘That’s all we can do. You have to be patient.’ “

Ever the tenacious one, Kimura responded by sending the U.S. Embassy two faxes a day for a week, using his trusty Japanese-English dictionary to beg for an expedited visa. Finally they relented, and he was on his way to Macomb, Ill., 75 miles west of Peoria and 6,300 miles from Tokyo.

For months he studied English 10 hours a day — didn’t even touch a soccer ball. He had to take an SAT test for admission and passed — not even attempting to answer the English questions but nailing the math section — and was admitted to Western Illinois. He started as a freshman, earned a scholarship and served as team captain his final three seasons.

“One in a billion,” Johnson said.

Kimura was drafted by the Rapids in the same 2007 class as Cummings, playing mostly on the reserve team that year. Kimura has been a regular ever since.

In May 2009, his proud parents came from Japan to see him. The night they saw him play for the first time as a professional, he scored his first professional goal against Real Salt Lake.

“I thought I was in a dream,” Kimura said. “My parents, they believe in me, always they supported me. They never denied me, whatever I wanted to do. ‘Kosuke, if you want to do it, do it. Just stick to it and never, ever give up.’ “

John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com