D.C. United forward Bruno Miranda has been included in the preliminary roster for Bolivia in their upcoming World Cup qualifiers at Peru on August 31 and home against Chile on September 5. The 19-year old played in La Verde’s last World Cup Qualifier when he was substituted in extra time against Argentina in March and played 90 minutes in a friendly against Nicaragua in June, his second and third caps for the team.
Currently 9th in the 10 team CONMEBOL region, Bolivia has already been eliminated from advancement, so perhaps Head Coach Mauricio Soria is using the opportunity to look at players for future cycles (7 of the players on the roster are 21 and younger, including Miranda), which would certainly lean towards Miranda’s benefit if he continues to get minutes with the Black-and-Red.
Miranda would not miss any time for D.C. as the matches are sandwiched between club dates (D.C. hosts the New England Revolution on August 26 and Orlando City on September 9), so this would not appear to impact the club, though if he did suffer an injury of some sort, forward depth is surprisingly barren all of a sudden; save for Miranda, Patrick Mullins is the only healthy forward, as Deshorn Brown is out for an undetermined period due to a concussion in last weekend’s loss to Real Salt Lake.
Nevertheless, here’s hoping Bolivia sees the Return of Bruno.