Asian Games: How home-cooked meals, Juhu beach sprints, and high-intensity interval training transformed Bryce Miranda into India’s left-flank dynamo | Asian-games News

The All India Football Federation and national coach Igor Stimac faced daunting challenges while assembling a team for the Asian Games. Though the Croat had barely any time to prepare his team and didn’t get most of the players he wanted, the win over Bangladesh in their second match provided a glimmer of hope. And not just because of the result – a 1-0 win courtesy of a late Sunil Chhetri penalty.Amidst the depleted team, the energy exhibited on India’s left flank stood out prominently. In their 5-1 loss to China in the opening match, most of India’s attacking play came on the left. Against Bangladesh, the attacking moves were even more concentrated on the left flank and they became a tad more dangerous too.
India have been dominating the left flank of late with the likes of Akash Mishra, Mahesh Singh, and Sahal Abdul Samad. At the Asian Games, however, it was primarily because of one player – Bryce Miranda.
The tireless left-footed winger, who celebrated his 24th birthday on Saturday, has been a revelation of sorts at this tournament.

Miranda, who plays for Kerala Blasters, had a decent outing against China before being substituted after suffering cramps. Against Bangladesh, he was back at it again, whipping in dangerous crosses, playing through balls to the center, and even beating the offside traps with some speedy runs. Impressively, the 5ft 9in player was able to outmuscle and outrun his markers, something that Indian wingers have never really been known for.
It wasn’t always this easy for him to outmuscle or run past defenders. In fact, when he played inter-school football Don Bosco (Matunga) in Mumbai, he was one of the lankier players and struggled to make a significant impact as a winger. At the time, it was clear he had a great footballing vision, despite his lack of physical prowess.
“Football then was just a hob. I only played because I enjoyed it and never thought of taking it up seriously,” he said recently.
It was only after he started playing for his college team and had the prospect of joining the now-defunct Mumbai FC that he began to take the sport seriously. They saw tremendous potential and offered him his first contract, albeit for their U-18 team. And suddenly he realised he needed to play catch up.
After playing in the top-flight Mumbai league for Union Bank, FC Goa’s developmental side came calling in 2018. The prospect of playing national-level football and training with an Indian Super League team was too good to turn down and Miranda said yes but after a year with them, he came back to the Mumbai league, this time playing for Income Tax.
Throughout his journey, clubs consently highlighted the need for Miranda to build his physicality, refine his ball skills, and get more crosses in.
Miranda believed he was doing everything he could, but that was until he confided in Preetam Mahadik, an AFC C license coach in Mumbai who runs his own rink football team. Having played for his team at a myriad of local tournaments, Miranda asked if he could set up a workout plan for him, and Mahadik gladly obliged.
Mahadik reiterated one piece of advice that coaches had been telling Miranda right from the time he started playing the sport: left-footed wingers in India are scarce; if he wants to make it to the national team, he has to make the most of the scarcity.
The question was how.
“It’s easy to get complacent playing in the Mumbai league and he (Miranda) would possibly still be there if Churchill Brothers hadn’t come calling,” says Mahadik.
“When Bryce realised that they were actually interested in him, he got a rather harsh wake-up call. What you are seeing now is a totally different player.”
Almost immediately, Miranda went into high-intensity interval training (HIIT) mode. He’d spend countless hours at the gym. Additionally, he would wear ankle weights and run around Shivaji Park in Dadar, pushing his limits even further. It wasn’t just his workout routine that underwent a transformation; his diet became a key focus as well. Miranda started eating only home-cooked meals. For a college-going youngster, that was quite a task.
“I was ready to do anything. When I started playing for Churchill, I struggled with the physicality the most,” Miranda said.
The unexpected Covid-19 break in the I-League season gave him an opportunity to shift his focus entirely to strength training. Mahadik now didn’t even have to tell Miranda what to do.
“I could see myself get stronger and that kept making me push even harder,” Miranda had said. His impressive performances on the pitch saw him get an India U-23 call-up in 2021. That was monumental for a player who, less than a year ago, was playing in a local league.
After the India call-up, ISL teams came calling but it was the setup at Kerala Blasters that he couldn’t just say no to. The only problem was he had to fight for a spot with the best, and that included the likes of Sahal and Rahul KP. He was impressive in the 12 games he managed to feature in last season but came back hungry for more. He needed to start matches more often. This time Mahadik had an even more detailed plan.
“I told him that ISL have foreigners who are very good with the ball in the center of the pitch but they still need players to support them. If he can whip those crosses into the box, experienced strikers will be there to score and then nobody can keep him out of the starting XI,” Mahadik said.
Miranda also needed to diversify his playing style. “He needed to cut inside, run towards the goal and basically mix up his game even more. He also needed to focus on defending too, which was really lacking,” Mahadik said.
Unconventional training
Training on natural grass pitches was a luxury that eluded Miranda due to the lack of such infrastructure in the city. Undeterred, Mahadik suggested they train at the beach.Most Read
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“We did short sprints at Dadar beach, running on dry sand at Juhu beach. We also worked a lot on his ball control. Mind you, this was all in addition to his off-season training plan given to him his very experienced coaches at Kerala Blasters,” he said.

Seizing the opportunity
ISL clubs refusing to send their top players for the Asian Games opened a window of opportunity for Miranda and he seems to have taken it with both hands (or feet).
Against Myanmar on Sunday, India have to avoid defeat to advance from their group, and judging the past two games, they’ll rely on Miranda to light up the left flank