TALKS OF BEST WORLD CUP EVER DASHED AS BRAZIL 2014 TURNS INTO ITALIA '90

D. Ray Morton, 6th July 2014.

Dutch goalie Tim Krul cuts a wrestling villain style promo on each Costa Rican spot-kicker to demonstrate the increasingly dark side of this World Cup

Samba soccer, the football carnival and with all things South American attacking flair, many people have World Cup 2014 down as the best quadrennial FIFA showcase ever. They might well have a case. For the most part, the beginning of the competition was riveting. High scoring matches, very few draws and that beautiful unpredictability that comes with a tournament played in a mysterious non-European climate. With the semi-final fixtures set, it has gotten a bit pragmatic all of a sudden, however.

The knockout stages have featured chess matches rather than sexy football. After the freestyle fun of the opening games, the serious business has begun and it was no wonder that each group winner triumphed against the second placed teams in the last sixteen. With the exception of Costa Rica's heroic journey to the quarter-finals, it is all starting to look very systematic.

Cynicism has entered the fray as the World Cup reaches its climax. Brazil vs. Colombia typifies that. Brazil had set themselves up to fight and Colombia duly walked into that trap. The game turned into a kick-fest and ended Neymar's tournament. Look at the gamesmanship of Tim Krul in last night's penalty shoot-out. He taunted each Costa Rican before their penalties, a cocky tactic which worked a charm. Krul will not have won over many neutrals, however, despite making two fine match-winning saves.

There is now bitterness in accepting defeat too. Belgium, especially, are under the impression that they blew it against Argentina. Daniel van Buyten was quoted as saying in the aftermath: "Of course Argentina have superb players, but I think a team like Germany would easily beat them." A thinly-veiled jab at a side who comfortably dealt with a full half hour of Hail Mary passes lumped at a furry lamppost of a man named Marouane Fellaini. His team-mate Jan Vertonghen also jumped in on the Eric Cartman-like gripes: "I think Argentina will crash out of the tournament against Netherlands in the semi-finals. I really think so." The Tottenham stopper fuming and hoping that his European neighbours do a job on the only team that have won five games in a row in the tournament.

Jan Vertonghen decided to launch a hubris-filled prediction for Argentina going forward clearly frustrated at Belgium's own shortcomings

Another parallel to Italia '90 is that Costa Rica journey that I mentioned. Does it remind anyone of Jack Charlton's boys in green twenty-four years ago? Well don't let it! Costa Rica have played some excellent football at times and beat both Uruguay and Italy cleanly. They may be from a small nation and may have made it to their first ever quarter-finals like the Republic of Ireland did a quarter of a century ago but they can actually play a bit rather than the bland stalemate-based football bleary-eyed Irish fans cheered on back then.

Hope is not lost though. The semi-finals contain two potential classics between historic World Cup heavyweights in Brazil vs. Germany and Argentina vs. the Netherlands. Hopefully, we will see more inventiveness with the shackles of the minimum expectation of reaching that stage removed. With Colombia and James Rodríguez out, the Golden Boot is still up for grabs so that could be a decent side story as well. Let us hope the remaining four sides get their respective mojos back in the upcoming rest days.

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.