The Netherlands managed a dramatic penalty win over Costa Rica on Saturday and will now face Argentina in an interesting semifinal. Here are some observations from arguably the most thrilling quarterfinals match to date.

1. Louis van Gaal is a genius
Remember when people were complaining about the 5-3-2 formation against Spain? And then remember how that gamble turned into a 5-1 dethroning of the reigning World Champions? And remember how people felt that the Dutch lacked attacking verve against Mexico? Remember how Louis van Gaal turned his team around during the water breaks of that game and got them into an attacking rhythm? Remember the questionable choice of subbing off captain Robin van Persie when the team desperately needed a goal?

All of those decisions worked out beautifully for the Dutch manager, but none of them were as risky as the one he made in Saturday's game against the Costa Ricans. With penalties beckoning, he opted for subbing out young starting keeper Jesper Cillessen and replacing him with Tim Krul. Krul is reportedly a penalty specialist and is larger in frame than his colleague.

The gamble here is that Krul was coming in with some game left to play and a cold goalie in a hot game could be dangerous. More importantly, Cillessen was coming off a huge save to keep his team alive and a loss in the penalties could have created a tremendous amount of questioning and disharmony in the locker room.

But the gamble paid off and Van Gaal continued to look like a man with a plan. Throughout the penalties, Krul would pace about and trash talk his opponents. Whether this factored into the two saves he made is debatable, but the point is that he made the saves and the Dutch are in the next round.

Now what does Van Gaal have in store for Lionel Messi?

2. Arjen Robben continues to make his Golden Ball case
It is safe to say that the Dutch peaked as a team with their 5-1 demolition of Spain in the opener. Admittedly, it is a hard feat to top, but a performance of that quality has not been replicated even to a small degree since. The team feels disjointed at times and some players, including Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie, have been enigmatic in following matches. But Arjen Robben has been far from inconsistent. He has been the driving force of the team and could have easily scored a bunch of goals if not for some ill-timed blocks from Van Persie. His pace and tactical wisdom have made him a forced to be reckoned with and he has continued to raise his stock with each passing game.

3. Costa Rica defense creaks, Keylor Navas saves the day
The Costa Ricans have not looked great since taking down Italy 1-0 in their second game. However, they have battled hard enough to make a run in this tournament and did their best to hold off a far more talented side for 120 minutes. But that survival would not have been possible without tremendous saves from goalie Keylor Navas, who was another big story in this tournament and made a huge case to be the winner of the Golden Glove this tournament. Unfortunately he failed in the crucial spot kicks and became increasingly predictable by continually jumping to his left. He will surely get a nice transfer this summer after his standout performance.

4. Are the Dutch good enough to win it all?
As noted earlier, the Dutch peaked in their opener and have been inconsistent throughout the remainder of the tournament. They played a solid match against inferior competition and were thwarted by a hot goalie; but they still needed to go to the coin flip that is the penalty shootout to find out if they would live another day or go home.

They were expected to win this game easily and yet they struggled to finish the job despite dominating possession handedly (64 to 36 percent) and had a tremendous 15 shots on goal over 120 minutes. Van Gaal has always found a way to get his team back on track, but the opposition only gets tougher. Unless they find a way to play more consistently, they could be looking at another missed opportunity.