In 2001, the Santiago Wanderers made several changes and Joel became stronger in front of the post holder and with much more experience, he started to become a figure alongside other players like Jaime Riveros, Moises Villarroel and Silvio Fernandez. During this season he was called to be in part of the roster for the national team sub-20 to compete in the under-20 World Cup but the bitter fact was that he and along with other teammates, was involved in an act of indiscretion, which led to his demotion to be trained with a lesser team. Once he came back with the Santiago Wanderers, he became one of the leader scores which resulted in a world championship place for his team, the first one for Santiago Wanderers in 33 years.