Tim Krul's mind games during the penalty shootouts against Costa Rica

Tim Krul celebrates the quarter-final win against Costa Rica with his team mates

Tim Krul etched his name in the Dutch folklore after saving two shots against Costa Rica in the penalty shootouts last night. The 26-year-old Newcastle goalkeeper came in the 120^th minute in place of Jasper Cillessen. Netherlands manager, Louis van Gaal was hailed on the social media for that substitution and incidentally this was in the plan all along. They didn’t tell it to Cillessen but Krul knew he had to go if the match goes to the penalty shootouts.

Tim Krul had saved only two of twenty for Newcastle United in the past 5 years. This didn’t stopped the Dutch manager from asking Krul to step up for the team and it turned out really well. Netherlands will face Argentina in the semi-finals on 9th July 2014.

Krul went to the right way on each of the 4 shots from the Costa Rica players and his mind games were noticed by reddit user /u/LewisGilbert7:

Here are all the penalty shots: