HAMBURG, Germany, 19 June 2006 — Ukraine and Saudi Arabia are both planning an attacking game when they meet today in Group H of the World Cup.
Ukraine wants to improve its goal difference after losing its opener 4-0 to Spain and Saudi Arabia will attempt to take advantage of defensive gaps.
The Saudi team’s plan, coach Marcos Paqueta said, will also be to tightly mark Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko.
“Ukraine will come out and play open football to try to fix the goal difference and score as many goals as possible, but this is dangerous and we’ll try to benefit from that,” the Brazilian coach said. He said that with Shevchenko trying to reach full fitness after injury, his side might have a chance to limit him.
“The best for us is if the ball doesn’t reach him,” Paqueta said.
Shevchenko recently returned from a monthlong knee injury and is yet to reach match fitness.
“He is under a lot of pressure. Big players have to maintain their form and always be good,” Paqueta said. “We hope his levels will keep being lower than normal. We know he has been out for a month and is making a big effort to help the national team.
“It is important to mark and close down Ukraine’s dangerous players and Shevchenko is certainly one.”
Shevchenko’s performance against Spain was well below his best and he was completely shut out of the match.
The Saudis are coming off a 2-2 draw with Tunisia and Paqueta considered it a turning point.
“Our target was to prepare the team and erase past traumas. We have achieved this and the players did very well. The team has conquered the difficulties and we have a chance to advance,” he said.
Paqueta has tried to instill confidence in the team after the disastrous 2002 World Cup, when the side was thrashed 8-0 by Germany and exited first round without scoring a goal or a point.
Paqueta complained of the dramatic change in weather from city to city, saying it was difficult to adapt. The side arrived in Hamburg on Friday to rain and temperatures in the lower 10s C (50s F), far different to the sunshine and mid 20s C (68 F) temperatures they had in Munich.
Meantime, Saudi striker Sami al-Jaber, who spent an injury-plagued spell on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2000, has revealed he would love a return to English football.
Jaber credited the professionalism of the Midlands club, which play in the second tier of English football, with helping turn him into the legend he has become in Saudi Arabia.
Jaber’s goal in the 2-2 draw against Tunisia on Wednesday elevated him into the same bracket as World Cup icons Pele, Diego Maradona and Uwe Seeler, as he became only the fourth player in history to score goals in World Cup finals 12 years apart.
The Saudi appropriately known as the “wolf of the desert” previously scored in 1994, a penalty ensuring a 2-1 win over Morocco and qualification to the last 16, and in 1998 with a penalty against South Africa.
Wednesday’s goal was the 33-year-old’s 44th in an incredible 161 international appearances for Saudi Arabia, who face Ukraine on Monday in their second Group H game.
