There are few Peruvians who managed to play in a club as important as Boca Juniors. In fact, Luis Advíncula He is only the eighth player to wear the shirt ‘xeneize‘ in all history. This list could have been longer, because, in the 90s, a national goalkeeper was very close to signing for the La Ribera team.
Is about Miguel Mirandawho in 1997, caught the attention of the painting, at that time directed by the ‘Bambino’ Vieira, due to the great campaign carried out in the America Cup of that year played in Bolivia, in which Peru achieved fourth place, playing a fundamental role in the 2-1 victory over Argentina for the quarterfinals.
Miguel Rebosio, member of that national team, revealed in the latest edition of the ‘Focused’ program; led by Jefferson Farfán and Roberto Guizasola, that agents from the Argentine club traveled to Santa Cruz de la Sierra to see the goalkeeper in the semifinal match, where the ‘bicolor‘ faced Brazil.
“Miguelito Miranda, who rests in peace, for the beautiful campaign he had done, They were watching him from Boca Juniors. Brazil, in the forecast, was about to beat you, because you were playing against the world champion, but it was no excuse. (…). Seven of us got in, it was incredible. We were devastated. We got to the locker room and didn’t even say anything to Miranda, who had the opportunity to join a big team like Boca, but it didn’t happen,” he revealed.
The match in question was played on June 26 of that year. The Peruvian team, which was led by Freddy Ternero, took to the field with Miguel Miranda in the arch, Miguel RebosioMartín Hidalgo, José Reyna and Alfonso Dulanto in defense, Erick Torres, Germán Muñoz, Roberto Palacios, Alex Magallanes and Eddie Carazas in the midfielder and Paul Cominges as the only forward. For its part, Brazil, under the technical direction of Mario Zagallo, formed with Claudio Taffarel in goal, CoffeeAldair, Gonçalves and Roberto Carlos in a line of four, Dunga, Flávio Conceição and Leonardo in the middle, and up Ronaldo NazarioRomário and Denílson.
The ‘canarinha‘He imposed conditions from the beginning and one minute into the game Denílson took advantage of a serious error by Reyna to score the first. At 20′, Flávio Conceição increased the score with a long-distance shot. At 36’, Romario made it 3-0 with his classic spike finish, which passed through Miranda’s post, and in the last minute of the first half, a center from Cafú headed by Leonardo made it 4-0.
The second half continued with the same tone. Romario scored his double at 49′ with a great individual play and Leonardo did the same at 55′ after a serious mistake by Reyna, Dulanto and Miranda, who collided while trying to catch the ball and left the ball served to him. Finally, it was decided 7-0 Djalminha after another defensive error. After beating Peru, Brazil became champion of the Copa América by beating Bolivia 3-1 in the final.
In Boca Juniors They were disenchanted with Miguel Miranda after the poor Peruvian performance against Brazil, but anyway they continued in the search for a goalkeeper, because their starting goalkeeper, Fernando Navarro Montoya He had just left for Extremadura in Spain.
Finally, they ended up hiring the Colombian Oscar Cordoba, who had just been runner-up in the Copa Libertadores with América de Cali. It was a correct decision, because the ‘coffee maker‘He became a figure in one of the most important cycles of the club, winning 3 national titles, two Copa Libertadores (2000 and 2001) and the remembered Intercontinental of 2000 against Real Madrid.
