Everywhere you look, Boca.
Everything you hear, Boca.
Wherever you go, Boca.
When Miguel Merentiel collected his Michelob Ultra Superior Player of the Match award after Monday’s 2-2 draw, he suggested the club’s fans would follow the team even further than the Club World Cup.
“If we went to the moon, the Boca fans would be there,” he said. “They are always supporting us.”
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Rooting for their team, getting behind him.
Better players have played up front for Boca than Merentiel. The more prolific, the more momentous, the more illustrious, the legendary; the likes of Martin Palermo, Carlitos Tevez, Dario Benedetto, Claudio Caniggia and Gabriel Batistuta.
The next one was supposed to be Edinson Cavani. Or so Boca hoped. They had reached the Copa Libertadores final in 2023 which they lost in extra-time to Fluminense and Cavani was supposed get them back there and win it for the first time in 16 years. Even at 38, he could still be the difference. Surely.
(Hector Vivas – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Merentiel, over time, was expected to fade into the background. He is Uruguayan like Cavani. He played for Valencia too. But the B team. And it was his only, brief, experience of Europe. Cavani has always stood on a much higher plane.
He has played 136 times for Uruguay and scored 58 goals. Merentiel, by contrast, can’t get a look in. Capped only once, he was expected to go to the Copa America last summer. Marcelo Bielsa thought about it and thought better of it. Merentiel didn’t make the cut.
All the snub did was endear the 29-year-old even more to Boca. He was their player and theirs only. A hustler. They liked him ever since the first day he joined from Palmeiras, ever since the day Merentiel revealed his dog was named after Boca president and legend Juan Roman Riquelme.
He has stuck at it. It’s who he is. Merentiel’s old man, Julio, was a footballer himself back in Uruguay. He played for their hometown club, Paysandu Bella Vista. He now delivers pizzas. When Merentiel got homesick as a kid in Penarol’s academy and wanted to quit, his father told him not to make the mistake he did.
Merentiel didn’t. He delivers goals for Boca instead. More goals than Cavani, who has been unable to get over a sitter he missed in stoppage time of extra-time against Allianz Lima in the preliminaries of this season’s Copa Libertadores. The game went to penalties and Boca shockingly lost.
Confidence in Cavani dropped too. A saved spot-kick against Estudiantes in April was followed by his absence for the Super Clasico against River a week later. Merentiel scored in both games.
(Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)
Cavani, on the basis of his career, was still chosen by DAZN for the hype video promoting the Club World Cup on the eve of the tournament. But he’s injured and hasn’t played. Merentiel has again had to step up. Both of his goals have been brilliant.
His opener against Benfica was a clinical finish after Lautaro Blanco nutmegged a Benfica defender. His equaliser against Bayern was one of the best goals of his career.
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Merentiel burst past Jonathan Tah and invited Josip Stanisic to tackle him. He nudged the ball beyond the covering defender, completing a pass to himself, and, as Stanisic flew by, Merentiel beat Manuel Neuer in the Bayern goal.
It was a golazo.
There were 63,587 fans at the Hard Rock and the Boca fans had it rocking. The stadium felt like the Bombonera had moved from Buenos Aires to Miami and in the minutes after Merentiel’s goal, his second in two games at this tournament, the momentum was with Boca.
Alas, it didn’t last. As was the case against Benfica, seeing out a result proved beyond Boca. On Monday, a win became a draw. On Friday, a draw turned into defeat and now Miguel Russo’s side are up against it.
They have to hope Bayern beat Benfica by a bigger margin than a single goal and, simultaneously, pummel Auckland City in Nashville. Goal difference could be key to Boca’s progress in the Club World Cup. Benfica put six past Auckland City on Friday. Boca have to run up the score too.
Luckily they have the unheralded Merentiel in fine form. He has been one of the revelations of this tournament and they need more of his goals.
Otherwise Boca won’t be going to the moon. They’ll be heading back to Buenos Aires and fast.
(Andrew J. Clark/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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