SAPPORO, Japan, 3 June — Saudi Arabia’s coach Nasir Al-Jowhar has good cause to be a nervous man after Saturday’s 8-0 humiliation against Germany.

The man known as ‘Mr Fixit’ saw his side suffer a spectacular breakdown in Sapporo, but believes Saudi Arabia can kickstart their World Cup campaign in remaining fixtures with Germany and Cameroon.

“It was a disastrous result and our team performed badly.

“I am so sorry for the spectators and for the people back in Saudi Arabia. But I am also responsible,” said Al-Jowhar, the first Saudi to lead his country at a World Cup.

“We have still a chance of qualifying for the next round though. We promise our fans in Saudi Arabia and in the Arab world to do our best in the next two matches.”

Whether Al-Jowhar will be around long enough to oversee those two games is uncertain. When the 56-year-old was appointed last August he became Saudi Arabia’s 12th coach in four years.

But despite of this crushing defeat, Al-Jowhar may survive simply by virtue of the fact that there is no-one else to replace him.

Normally Al-Jowhar is Saudi Arabian football’s man for a crisis, hence his nickname ‘Mr Fixit’.

He replaced Slobodan Santrac midway through last year’s qualifiers and improbably turned around Saudi fortunes after a disastrous start.

Similarly, Al-Jowhar was the man the Saudi FA turned to when Japan defeated them 4-1 in their opening Asian Cup match in Lebanon in 2000.

Again Al-Jowhar inspired an immediate revival, leading Saudi Arabia through the rest of the tournament all the way to the final, where they lost to Japan.

Al-Jowhar was replaced by the ill-fated Santrac for the World Cup.

Saudi Arabia finally decided to break with their long-held tradition of appointing high-profile foreign coaches on lucrative contracts when they appointed Al-Jowhar last year

Now Al-Jowhar could be turfed out if he fails to inspire one of his famous revivals.

Prince Bandar shocked over results

RIYADH— Prince Bandar ibn Muhammad, honorary member of the Saudi Al-Hilal club, said that he was shocked by the outcome of Saturday’s results which did not reflect the high standard achieved by the Kingdom football.

Prince Bandar said: “We stumbled in to some big mistakes during the match for which not only one or two players but the whole team is responsible.”

The prince attributed the defeat to the players’ overwrought mental state which in turn might have resulted in their poor performance. On the other hand “the Germans entered the field with a strong fighting spirit and the hope to win the match with the least effort, and of course they won.”

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Al-Shabab’s coach Bandar Al-Joathain felt that the Saudi team pushed their performance level to several decades back. He added that the team did not spread out in a healthy manner and there was considerable lack of speed in passing and large gaps which were exploited by the Germans. Six goals being scored in the same fashion point at a serious technical flaw in the strategy devised by coach Nasir Al-Jowhar, he said.