Dusan Kuciak has been Lechia Gdansk’s number one goalkeeper for the last four years. The 35-year-old goalkeeper played an important role in Lechia’s success in winning the 2019 Polish Cup and reaching the final in 2020. This season, the Slovak goalkeeper has appeared in the first eight matches of Ekstraklasa, conceding 11 goals and notching two goals.
However, since the international break, Dusan’s position has been replaced by a younger goalkeeper, Zlatan Alomerovic. The 29-year-old goalkeeper appeared from the first minute when Lechia beat Slask Wroclaw and was silenced by Piast Gliwice, 23 November.
Lechia’s coach, Piotr Stokowiec admitted to facing “selection fever” ahead of his team hosting Lech Poznan last week. Since moving to Gdansk in 2018/19, Alomerovic has started to put in a good performance and has become a serious contender for the goalkeeping post.
“This is a competition [to get a place in the first team], so we have goalkeepers who are both ready to play. “Right now, I see the situation from the perspective that Zlatan has been training, working hard and getting the opportunity to play,” Stokowiec said as quoted by Lechia’s official website.
“On the other hand, don’t forget that he [Dusan Kuciak] is also a great goalkeeper, took us to the Polish Cup final twice and is still in good shape,” added the 48-year-old coach.
Stokowiec indicated that Kuciak still deserved to play as the number one goalkeeper. However, seeing that he is already 35 years old, the decision to play Alomerovic in the last two matches can be read as an initial step in the regeneration of the Lechia goalkeeper.
Alomerovic himself has grown tired of being a reserve goalkeeper throughout his career. He started his career and spent eight years with Borussia Dortmund. During that time, Alomerovic found it difficult to compete for the goalkeeping post. Alomerovic only played for Dortmund II and never felt the Bundesliga atmosphere.
Alomerovic then moved to Kaiserslautern which was then active in the Bundesliga 2 in 2015/16. But he also didn’t regularly play at Kaiserslautern. Roten Teufel’s young goalkeeper, Marius Mueller, was too agile to be replaced by Alomerovic.
Alomerovic just got a decent opportunity when he started working at Ekstraklasa. She moved to Korona Kielce in 2017/18. That season was the best in Alomerovic’s professional career. He regularly appears as Korona’s number one goalkeeper and has scored seven goals from 21 matches.
His appearance at Korona Kielce also made Lechia interested in recruiting him. He moved to PGE Arena Gdansk in 2018/19. Since moving until this season, Alomerovic has always been under the shadow of Dusan Kuciak as the main goalkeeper.
However, Alomerovic did not give up. A hard life forms a strong character. So happened to Alomerovic. At the age of eight, the Balkan Wars displaced him and his family. Alomerovic had to move to a foreign land from childhood. They were originally going to the United States via Germany. However, leaving for the US never happened and Zlatan picked up his fate as a footballer in Germany.
“You have to fight for anything from the start. You leave the environment you used to live in, everything works in a new way, and you have no one around – no grandma or grandpa, no aunts, no one but your parents. Plus, I was just a kid, ”Alomerovic recalled his childhood.
“In this case, you can say that this experience made me even harder, because we didn’t get anything for free. How I can’t communicate is my problem. I can’t expect someone to spend time trying to understand or help me. For some things, I need more time, “he added. Zlatan has the opportunity to return to appear as the main goalkeeper in the next upcoming match.
Meanwhile, Egy Maulana Vikri has a slim chance to appear in the next match. When Lechia underwent three matches in six days, the Indonesian winger only appeared for six minutes in one match. After facing Lech Poznan, Lechia got a more relaxed rest, which is five days before facing the leaders of the standings, Legia Warsaw. However, there is higher chance that Egy will be the supersub again for Lechia in the second half of the match.
ASL
