This has been a World Cup of penalty firsts. We have seen Júlio César cry on the pitch before Brazils penalty shootout against Chile, Louis van Gaal bring on a specialist penalty-saving goalkeeper, Tim Krul, before Hollands shootout against Costa Rica, while Theofanis Gekas, the Greece striker who missed the decisive penalty against Costa Rica, starred in an advert in which he missed a spot-kick before he did it in real life.
In Sundays final, we might see more penalty history: no goalkeeper has ever scored a penalty in a World Cup match. The Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who was nicknamed the false No5 by a German tabloid after his sweeper-keeper performance against Algeria, is likely to be on the list of kickers for Germany if the final goes to a penalty shootout.
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