HISTORY BROKEN AS NETHERLANDS GOALKEEPER TIM KRUL COMES ON AS PENALTY SPECIALIST SUBSTITUTE

It was injury time in extra time, and the Netherlands and Costa Rica were deadlocked at 0-0 in a tense World Cup quarter final match. Tactical scholars of the game must have been wondering why had Louis Van Gaal not used  his third and final substitute in what was an energy sapping and humid evening in the Arena Fonte Nova stadium in Salvador, Brazil.

Tactical genius or crazy management? Either way Krul did the job for Louis Van Gaal and got the Netherlands into the World Cup semi final.

Suddenly, in the final minute of extra time, Van Gaal calls upon his substitute keeper Tim Krul and orders him from the bench to replace Jasper Cillessen. This was a historic substitution and was the first time in World Cup history that a keeper was brought on specifically for a penalty shoot-out. This was a brave tactical decision by Van Gaal.  It is not an uncommon site in football for a manager to put on a penalty specialist late into extra-time, but what Van Gaal did that night was unheard of. He must be respected for committing to such a unique decision in world soccer as if it backfired it would forever haunt him, but if it worked out he would be hailed as a tactical genius.

And tactical genius he was, as Tim Krul pulled-off two fantastic, world-class saves in the penalty shoot-out to put the Netherlands into the World Cup semi-final against Argentina. Tim Krul had played a very short but crucial role in a very successful 2014 world cup for the Netherlands.