JEDDAH, 3 June — Prince Abdullah, the regent, gave the Kingdom’s team a big boost yesterday by telling them to forget about the 8-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of Germany in their opening World Cup encounter on Saturday and play well in the next matches.
Prince Abdullah gave his side the morale booster during a telephone conversation with Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, deputy chief of the Youth Welfare Presidency and head of the Kingdom’s delegation to the World Cup finals.
The official Saudi Press Agency said Prince Abdullah contacted by phone both Prince Nawaf and Nasir Al Jowhar, the coach of the Saudi football team, to discuss the team’s defeat in the match with Germany in Sapporo, Japan.
“Prince Abdullah told the players to forget about the past and concentrate on the coming matches. He wished all the best to the Saudi team,” the SPA said. Saudi Arabia will meet Cameroon on June 6 and Ireland on June 11 in their remaining Group E matches.
Meanwhile, Kingdom’s Arabic newspapers yesterday angrily rounded on the national coach and players after the “shame” and “scandal” of the team’s 8-0 thrashing by Germany.
“Come back... It’s a scandal,” read a huge headline on the front page of the special World Cup supplement of Al-Yaum daily. “No defense, no midfield, no attack...not even goalkeeping,” read another headline in the newspaper.
Arriyadiyah sports daily described the defeat as a “giant earthquake that tarnished the green squad’s reputation”. It also said the defeat at the country’s third successive tournament turned “Saudis’ World Cup dream into a nightmare.”
But commentator Ahmad Sadek Diyab wrote in the same daily that it was a wake-up call. “Perhaps we badly needed this harsh defeat by the Germans to wake up from our cozy dreams and deal with matters with a great sense of logic, away from extreme passion,” Diyab said.
According to Al-Watan daily, it was not shameful for Saudi Arabia to suffer such a big defeat at the hands of triple World Cup winners Germany. “But what is not realistic, unacceptable and shameful is the way we performed and the level of our game,” it said.
The daily put the blame squarely on the coach Al-Jowhar “who played without a plan” and the players who did not play at all. Aalam Alriadah, another sports daily, said the defeat was a historical catastrophe, and blamed the team for not performing. It said it looked as if the Germans were “playing against themselves.”
Al-Jazirah daily said the Saudis can play far better. “To lose to Germany is very natural...but to lose in this shameful way is totally unacceptable because we are capable of doing better,” the daily said in an editorial on the sports pages.
