Water bottle and mind games help Krul seal reputation as a spot-kick specialist
Tim Krul has revealed how his water bottle, and mind games with Troy Parrott, helped Norwich City knock out Tottenham Hotspur in their FA Cup penalty shoot-out.
Krul, who sent Holland through to the 2014 World Cup semi-finals with penalty saves after being brought on as a substitute, got the upper hand against Spurs thanks to a list of penalty-takers written on the bottle.
Each time a Tottenham player walked towards the spot, Krul, 31, made a point of picking up the bottle and studying it. He revealed after the game that he actually had no note on what Parrott might do, but he saved the 18-year-old’s effort anyway, and then went on to palm away Gedson Fernandes’s weak effort to clinch the tie.
“I look at the player,” he said. “Who is comfortable? Who is confident? With the young lad Parrott, I played a little bit with his head. I just said to him, ‘I haven’t seen many penalties from you on my homework’ and he was looking at me. I hadn’t seen any of his penalties.”
The list of penalty-takers on his bottle appears to be more a psychological tool than a tried-and-tested formula for which way the Dutchman plans to dive.
When asked how he had refined his expertise, Krul added: “It’s down to homework as well. My coach prepares me before every match and gave me a bottle with the details on. It is hard work and homework but, when the moment comes, maybe it’s my experience. I’ve faced a few penalties and I just see when one person is more nervous than another, who is more comfortable and, of course, in the end you need a little bit of luck as well.”
For all their bad luck with injuries to Harry Kane and Son Heungmin, Spurs had only themselves to blame for failing to progress. Michel Vorm, Spurs’ third-choice goalkeeper, survived a fumble in the first half, but then fluffed another tame shot in the second half to gift Josip Drmic an equaliser and send the game into extra time.
With Krul in goal for penalties, the result seemed a foregone conclusion. The keeper said he was particularly delighted to save Fernandes’s effort, having been previously confused about whether he had already taken one. “I started mixing up the players and there was one point when I thought Gedson was taking two penalties.
“But when the moment is there, like [Erik] Lamela changed from his normal side and luckily enough it went off the crossbar. Normally he goes the other way.”
Having such a strong track record on penalties does come with its pressures, Krul revealed. “When the first one went in I was saying to myself, ‘You’ve got a name for saving penalties so you’d better start saving some.’ ”