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A determined Costa Rica side bowed out of the World Cup after coming up against the Dutch's secret weapon, Tim Krul.
Throughout the game Costa Rica never really threatened the Dutch goal, other than one or two chances where it looked like they would pull of an unlikely victory. However the Dutch hung on and created chance after chance for themselves but couldn't breach the Costa Rica goal. Keylor Navas pulled off some great saves in extra time and after a brilliant defensive display by Costa Rica for 120 minutes, only Tim Krul stood in their way of advancing to the semi finals of the World Cup. A bold move by Van Gaal to bring on Krul just for the penalties had to pay off, otherwise the Holland boss would have been left red faced and Holland would have been eliminated.
Van Persie, Robben, Sneijder and Kuyt all did their jobs and dispatched their penalties perfectly which gave Tim Krul the opportunity to be the hero. It was a big gamble by Van Gaal but fortune definitely favoured the brave as Krul saved two out of the four penalties and went the right way for all of them, it was clear that Krul had done his homework. Costa Rica had been eliminated in the cruelest of ways but there can only be positives taken from this tournament for Costa Rica as they showed the world what they are capable of on the highest stage of all.
Written by Matthew Lazenby
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