When the May/June international window opened, one of the most interesting position battles on the Polish national team was who will become the teams' backup goalkeeper to Wojtek Szczesny. And in theory, whoever wins the backup job, will have a edge on who becomes the next NT #1 keeper once the 32-year old Juventus shot stopper retires from national team duty.
The top two candidates, 23-year old Kamil Grabara and 24-year old Bartlomiej Dragowski received the first looks and were the clear favorites when camp opened. But it could be that 31-year old Lukasz Skorupski could swoop in and steal the gig from either of the two young keepers in short term until they're ready.
Grabara a one-time big prospect with Liverpool, now a rising star in senior football in the Danish league with FC Copenhagen, breaking clean-sheet consecutive minute records and at times becoming impossible to score on. In all completions last season for Copenhagen, Grabara played 44 matches, allowed 30 goals and held a clean sheet 23 times. His success with Copenhagen, Liverpool youth system and Polish youth NT's, will not be enough to solidify a spot at any position but it is enough to get various European clubs' attention, mainly in big 4 leagues and enough to be the first goalkeeper to start during this months four-match stretch in the nations league for Poland, against Wales.
He won his start against Wales, but did allow a goal that he made a late reaction to. Most likely he was blocked by defender Jan Bednarek on the shot, but it's fair to say Grabara could've reacted faster on the shot.
In the second match against Belgium, Dragowski got the call to start. A much tougher opponent then the one Grabara faced, and despite allowing 6-goals in the loss, Dragowski still managed to have a respectable match. He made five saves and kept Belgium at bay until the final minute of the first half where his defenders couldn't clear the ball and Belgium pounced on the giveaways and scored to draw 1-1 just before half-time. Second half isn't one Dragowski will want to remember. The defense fell apart, the team played sloppy and Belgium was rolling with little Dragowski could do. Seemed like every attack couldv'e resulted in a goal. All things considered, Dragowski played well and wasn't the blame guy in Belgium's five-goal assault in the second half. He was left out to dry by the guys in front of him. Dragowski was linked with a transfer to Southampton in the Premier League after a pretty poor season with Fiorentina in which he faced a lot of adversity. Dragowski missed time this season with an injury and also had a leave of absence for the birth of his first child. All in all, he played a total of 7 Seria A matches, allowed 8 goals and had 3 clean sheets. The previous season, Dragowski was much better, starting in 36 matches and had 8 clean sheets.
Where Dragowski will play next season is a big question mark and that will play a major role to see how quickly he'll get another chance to show he can be Szczesny's backup.
That leads to Skorupski. He was the star of the show in Poland's third match against the Netherlands. He finished with four-saves including a game saving one-handed punch-out moments after Memphis Depay missed a penalty kick against him. For the most part, Skorupski is the lost man in any discussions about being the next best keeper on the national team due to his age. But time after time, he shows he's as reliable as anybody and proved it on big stage for Poland in Rotterdam on Saturday.
Skorupski plays in the Seria A for Bologna FC, and is one of the more credible keepers in the league although never having a great defense in front of him. Despite allowing 53-goals last season in 36 matches, he still managed to keep 12 clean sheets. This was the third time in his career he's had 10 or more shutouts in the Italian Seria A. He had 10 clean sheets in 2016/17 with FC Empoli and also in 2018/19 he had 10 clean sheets with Bologna.
He's also a above-average penalty kick stopper. It's not surprising that Memphis missed his penalty kick against Skorupski, because when keepers have a good reputation in stopping penalties, it gives extra pressure to the kick taker. In 56 career penalty kick attempts against, Skorupski has saved 14 of them.
He's a four-year starter with Bologna, and prior to that he started two seasons in a row at Empoli while on loan from Roma. He may never be the next Polish NT starter because of his age, but it's hard to argue that he's not the best option to be the #2 heading into November's World Cup.
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