MARSEILLE. France. July 7 (AP/Reuters): TafTarel stopped both Phillip Cocu and Ronald de Boer and Brazil defeated the Netherlands 4-2 on penalty kicks Tuesday night to reach the final and a chance at a fifth World Cup title.
The Brazilian goalkeeper dove to his right to stop Cocu and then to his left to deny De Boer on consecutive penalty tries to clinch the victory after the two countries fought to a 1-1 draw in extra lime.
The victory puts the defending champions into their sixth final on Sunday against the winners of Wednesday night's other semifinal between hosts France and upstart Croatia.
Ronaldo. Rivaldo. Emerson and Dunga all drove superb spot kicks past the helpless Edwin van der Sar.
De Boer and Dennis Bergkamp kept it level at 2-2 but Cocu. possibly distracted by being ordered to place the ball properly on the spot, enabled the 'keeper to save to his left.
Ronald de Boer, needing to score to keep the Dutch in the match, checked on his ap-6roach but couldn't fool Taf-irel who went full length to his right to push it to safety.
The match, hailed as the final before the final between two of the tournament's great attacking sides, only came alive in the second half but then produced a stirring finale.
Ronaldo had opened the scoring after just 24 seconds of the second period of normal time to give Brazil the lead.
The world player-of-the-Sear had seized on a through all from Rivaldo and showed great strength and balance to
hold off the challenge of Cocu and slot the ball under Van der Sar for his fourth goal of the tournament.
But with only three minutes of normal time remaining Patrick Kluivert finally hit the target, heading home a Ronald de Boer cross unchallenged in the heart of the Brazilian penalty area to send the match into extra time.
The Dutch had scrambled last-minute wins against Argentina in the quarterfinals and Yugoslavia in the second round, and fully deserved their equaliser after pouring forward in the last 15 minutes.
The game never reached the
heights neutrals had hoped for but Brazil, after a slow start, showed they would not give up their title without a fight
The best chance of the disappointing first half came when Boudewijn Zenden beat debutant Ze Carlos in the 29th minute and clipped in a great cross that Kluivert headed over. Kluivert again headed too high in the dying seconds of the haft.
After the Brazilian goal the Dutch took a while to regroup and found the champions to be much keener for the fight than they had been in the first half.
But the Brazilian defence was never happy in the air and it was after the lanky Pierre
van Hooijdonk came on as substitute that Kluivert scored. The AC Milan striker had missed three great chances earlier in the match.
Brazil keeper TafTarel had to show great reactions in the 52nd minute to palm clear as Ronald de Boer diverted Kluiv-ert's header.
Van der Sar was equally sharp as he raced from his line to smother at the feet of Ronaldo on the hour after a great touch by Bebeto.
The Dutch suffered a blow when they lost Michael Reiziger with a shoulder injury — the Barcelona right back had shut out the overlapping threat of Real Madrid's Roberto Carlos.
The reshuffle, bringing on Aron Winter, caused confusion and allowed Ronaldo a clear run on goal in the 73rd minute. He seemed certain to get his second goal but Edgar Davids made up five metres and put in a great challenge. Rivaldo went close in the 78th minute in a goalmouth scramble but Van der Sar even-
tually emerged with the ball.
Kluivert then blew a great chance 10 minutes from time when he played a one-two with Van Hooijdonk but blazed high from the edge of the box with just TafTarel to beat.
After the game moved into extra time, Ronaldo shimmied through to the edge ot the area and shot hard but Van der Sar flew to his left to save after five minutes.
TafTarel saved a Van Hooil-donk Tree-kick soon afterwards and Kluivert almost scored his second in the 103rd minute when his left foot shot shaved the far post after he latched on to a huge clearance from defence.
Frank de Boer saved the Dutch with a last-minute tackle early in the second period of extra time which stopped Ronaldo getting in a shot as he advanced towards Van der Sar in the area.
Brazil will be trying to extend their record for World Cup titles to five, two more than any other nation. They have only lost once when they reached the final, that being at home in 1950 to Uruguay.
The Dutch were hoping to reach the final for the first time since 1978.
TEAMS
BRAZIL: TafTarel: Ze Carlos. Junior Baiano. Aidair. Roberto Carlos: Dunga. Cesar Sampaio.
Leonardo (Emerson. 85th minute). Rivaldo; Ronaldo. Bebeto (Denislon, 70th).
NETHERLANDS: Edwin van der Sar; Michael Reiziger (Aron Winter, 57th). Jaap Stam. Frank de Boer. Wim Jonk (Clarence SeedorT, 111th); Ronald de Boer. Phillip Cocu. Edgar Davids. Boudewijn Zenden (Pierre van Hooijdonk. 75th); Dennis Bergkamp. Patrick Kluivert.
ReTeree: All Mohamed Buj-saim. United Arab Emirates.