The Netherlands and Costa Rica are playing live on the World Cup schedule for the quarterfinals on Saturday and the game is on ESPN and WatchESPN for the live stream as Holland tries to make it into the semis for the second straight tournament and CR tries to keep their surprising run going.
The Netherlands comes into the game after having a very successful run in the group stages and they ended up advancing over Spain, who was surprisingly eliminated and that started off with a loss to the Dutch. Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben have given the team a major boost and they could be one of the dark horse teams left in the tournament now that Argentina, Germany and Brazil are the teams through. Everyone that is left has an opening now that Neymar is out for Brazil after his controversial injury in the game against Colombia and now Holland has the chance to make it into another semi after making it to the finals and losing to Spain last time around in South Africa.
The Netherlands is fighting history along with Germany, as no European team has won the World Cup when it's in South America, but now things have all been shaken up after Neymar was injured and he will officially be out for the rest of the tournament. Robben made the biggest play in the last 16 round against Mexico and it was controversial, as he drew contact and flopped a bit to stun the Mexican side after they were poised for a win against the Dutch. The team got a late goal and then went ahead on the dubious call and that knocked out the Mexican team once again of the round of 16 and now the Netherlands are moving on and they have the chance for the semis.
Louis Van Gaal has been receiving high praise for his tactical work and Van Persie has been able to check out his new manager up close for Manchester United and this team could be a favorite if they make it through this game against the Costa Rica upstarts. CONCACAF is getting a nice showing at this World Cup with this team and the United States playing so well along with Mexico and now CR is looking to continue their historic run, as this is the farthest the nation has ever gone in the World Cup. The team has the chance to do something very special and in the group stage they shocked England and Italy and now they have the chance to keep that going.
Costa Rica has been very impressive in their run in the World Cup and they had a massive game against Greece that saw the team play half the game with a man down. After a late goal the game went to penalty kicks and the team advanced over Greece and now they are trying to join Brazil, Germany and Argentina in the semifinals after Lionel Messi helped his team, through past Belgium on Saturday. Neymar was injured for Brazil on Friday and now they will be without him for the rest of the tournament and Thiago Silva got another yellow card so that means he will be out as well.
Check here for the Netherlands and Costa Rica World Cup live coverage from ESPN from Brazil.
