There has been a gallon of ink spilled and millions of characters filled analysing Newcastle United goalkeeper Tim Krul's substitution and subsequent performance in the Netherland's penalty shootout win over Costa Rica in the World Cup quarter final last night. Krul has come under fire from some for his efforts to put the Costa Rican players off. Krul told FIFA.com:
I watched them [Costa Rica] against Greece and studied them and I told the players that I knew where they were going to shoot to make them a bit nervous.
Maybe it worked. It happened before when I played against Frank Lampard: I told him that I knew and I saved it. I just tried that again. I’m so happy it worked today.
The Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal admitted the decision to substitute Jasper Cillessen for Krul had as much to do with Krul's greater reach than anything but the excellent Mohamed Moallim shows here that Krul and goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek were more than well prepared:
