KRUL'S "CRUEL" HEROICS SEND COSTA RICA PACKING!

KRUL’S “CRUEL” HEROICS SEND COSTA RICA PACKING

Holland's chief protagonists

Holland’s Coach Louis Van Gaal continued his tactical masterstroke with yet another critical substitution after all other options had been exhausted in Netherland’s quarter final game against Costa Rica. He brought in Newcastle’s imposing Tim Krul for first choice goalie Jasper Cillesen on the 120^th minute with the post match penalty shootout looming.

Krul came on and stole the show with one of the most impressive penalty saving performances ever seen at any World cup finals. The sheer sight of him psyched up, jumping about, stretching on the touch line and raring to go must have psychologically affected the confidence of the Costa Ricans.

If you think about it, they must have wondered “If the guy leaving the stage was that good having made several great saves, then his replacement must be exceptionally better, we’ve gotta be extra careful taking our spot kicks!”

To illustrate how prepared the Dutch were, they not only studied the Costa Rican’s penalty taking techniques during their win over Greece at the round of 16 but they practiced their own shots religiously and were sure Krul would be the better choice over Cillesen. 

Krul took mind games to another level

At 6 ft 4in (1.93m) Krul not only intimidated his opponents by his imposing size and reach but he twisted their screws mentally and unnerved each of the Costa Rican penalty takers by telling them in advance which side they’d kick their shots.

He then went on and dove the right way on all the shots taken, saving two while the other two barely grazed his finger tips!

Gotcha!

 Krul's penalty saving heroics however evoked memories of Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Goycoccea in Italia ’90. Goycoccea was second choice and had come in to replace the injured Nery Pumpido and single handedly catapulted Argentina with a great show of reflex and sheer guts against Brazil in their second round match. 

Goycocchea made penalty saving an art form

He wasn’t done yet! He then went on to save three then two penalties each against both Yugoslavia and Italy in the quarters and semi finals ensuring his nation’s second consecutive World cup final appearance. 

His repeated heroics intimidated their opponents at the finals, West Germany to the point where the Germans didn’t fancy facing him in a penalty shootout and they did absolutely everything in their powers to win it in regulation time. He subsequently won the Golden Glove award for his incredible exhibition.

Back to matters Brazil 2014, what was even more ironic is to imagine that Costa Rica had the personnel to compete and even beat the Dutch but Costa Rica’s coach and his players clearly lacked the self belief required to compete at this level.

Pitted against England, Italy and Uruguay in a tough Group D, they were largely expected to fill in the numbers and be the group’s whipping boys from whom every other team expected to collect maximum points.

Costa Rica shocked the whole world, defying the form books and advanced to the next round as group leaders. 
They were to extend this great run by overcoming Greece on penalties after playing with 10 men for a prolonged period of the game. By virtue of those performances and achievements any fan would have expected the Central American’s confidence to be sky high and therefore at a level where they could match the Dutch.  

Coach Pinto clearly had his tactics and attitude wrong

Teams usually assume their coach’s persona and it reflected on this Costa Rican team as their Coach Jorge Luis Pinto in jitters, was quoted complaining about Arjen Robben’s diving antics during a pre-match interview in an attempt to influence the match officials, clearly overwhelmed with the task at hand. 
His lack of ideas clearly came out in the way he set out his team to sit deep and play a defensive formation, hoping to hold out for the entire game plus the extra time period or get lucky and nick the odd goal then park a bus. 
By setting his team to play so defensively, he was obviously banking on the exceptional penalty saving abilities of his goalkeeper Keylar Navas to ensure their advance.

How wrong he was, he had no clue what was coming his way!

Credit for Netherland’s win goes to Coach Van Gaal for his careful and meticulous planning and preparing his players for any eventuality, tactical, mental or otherwise. 
Like the true “General” that he is he’s been able to rally his troops and ensure they triumphed over different opponents under every manner of adversity at these finals.

This is clearly shaping up to be the year that the Dutch finally dump their tag as “the greatest soccer playing nation never to have won the World cup!”