Tim Krul, goalkeeper of Netherlands, was defending himself after making two amazing penalty saves against Costa Rica. As a goalkeeper, he was merely doing what he had to do in order to ensure his team's place for the World Cup 2014 semi-finals.
The towering Tim Krul replaced Jasper Cillesen, who was the 1st-choice goalkeeper. Krul was reportedly called in the game specifically for the penalty shootouts in Salvador. Netherlands and Costa Rica finished the extra time allotted by the referee as the teams have been deadlocked at a score of 0-0. This was the first time that a stunt like this one was every pulled in World Cup history. A keeper being in brought in the game just for the penalties was something that did not happen too often, if not at all.
The 26-year-old Tim Krul vindicated his coach's relatively unorthodox tactic when he was able to save the spot-kicks of Michael Umana and Bryan Ruiz, giving the Dutch team a 4-3 shootout win, placing the team in a semi-finals match against Argentina.
Apart from this issue, Tim Krul is also under heavy criticism on various forms of social media for his intimidating gameplay against the penalty takers of the opposing team. He was reportedly giving them a death stare and kept yelling at them before they took their shots.
After the game, Tim Krul was then questioned about whether or not he overstepped the line of good sportsmanship, but Krul was pretty much defiant and confident that he had absolutely nothing to apologize for. He said during a news conference, "I don't think I've done anything wrong. I didn't shout anything nasty at them. I just told them that I knew where they were going. I'm trying obviously to get in their heads and it worked yesterday. It's a way of trying to psyche them out. Obviously, they are under massive pressure. I'm under massive pressure as well. So, I used everything in my power to make it happen and, luckily enough, happy enough, it happened."
