Making fun of the most sacred tradition of the magicians, of never revealing their tricks, Tim Krul approached the Norwich fans who had moved to the Tottenham Stadium and revealed their secret to them. A vulgar bottle of water transformed into the new Holy Grail of the 'Canaries', colista of the Premier League. Around him, in a pen and on tape, the secret of his classification for the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. Or not?

The scenario is as follows. The Tottenham and the Norwich arrive at the end of the 90 minutes of the cupping duel tied to a goal and neither of them is able to decant the balance in the extra time. A disappointment for the whole of José Mourinho , unable to defeat in his own stadium the worst team in the Premier League, sunk at the bottom of the standings. The penalty shootout will have to resolve who passes the round.

In the Norwich goal is Tim Krul, a life insurance in batches, despite the fact that his statistics on ordinary penalties are nothing from the other world: only six of the 51 who have thrown him have not finished in goal, about a 12% But when instead of one there are five, Krul transforms. And here the 2014 World Cup comes to mind. The Netherlands and Costa Rica reached the end of the 120 minutes of their quarterfinal game tied to one goal. Faced with the inevitable round, Louis Van Gaal makes the surprising decision to remove Cillessen from the field so that it is Krul who faces the penalties. The now Norwich goalkeeper guessed the direction of the five pitches, stopped two of them and Holland advanced to the semifinals.

That memory was alive at the beginning of the round at Tottenham Stadium and Krul could be seen enjoying himself in his sauce. Before each penalty, strange movements, trying to provoke or at least distract the pitcher. And in almost all of them, a curious movement towards the outer side of his goal, a swallow of water and under sticks again to do his job. Dier is right; Lamela sends her to the crossbar; The Celso is right; Parrott runs into Krul; Gedson too. The Norwich wins the 3-2 round and the madness breaks loose.

The bottle

When Krul takes that suspicious bottle and shows it to the stands and, therefore, to the television cameras, the apparent secret is revealed. In it he had the goalkeeper noted the direction to which he had to pull to stop the pitches of the Tottenham players. The five pitchers chosen by Mourinho appear in the cutlet consulted by Krul before each penalty. The bottle as an object of worship. Or not?

As fascinating as the story is, reality is a distinct good. Krul follows his notes to the letter in the first three penalties. In the first one, although I can't stop it; in the second he throws himself to the opposite side of the pitch and saves the crossbar; and in the third, he goes to the right side and Lo Celso sends him to the other side. Written remains, those who stop Krul are the last two. The cutlet tells him that before Parrott he pulls to his right and he does it, rightly, to the left. And the guideline before Gedson was to stand still, but Krul throws himself back to his left and stops him.

It wasn't the bottle, it was Krul.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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