SAITAMA, Japan, 6 June — Saudi Arabia’s football team captain Sami Al-Jaber yesterday expressed his full confidence in his side and said the Green Eagles are stunned into action to put on a better display in their second World Cup match with Cameroon today.
"My friends (in the team) are really sorry about what happened against Germany but everybody is responsible. Now they want to do something because the people in Saudi Arabia are really unhappy about this. Everybody is shocked," he said.
"We have to forget the past and look forward to the other games, especially the game tomorrow. We must do something. We need a result against Cameroon so that we can play against Ireland with full power. We have to play it like a finals game," he added.
Al-Jaber, the first Arab player to participate in three World Cup finals, may miss the match against Cameroon because of a knee injury. "I injured a ligament in my right knee in the game against Germany and the doctor has told me it needs one week to 10 days to heal," the striker said. The team’s medical staff said Al-Jaber will take part in today’s match. But Abdullah Al-Waked, another injured player, may not attend the game.
Speaking on the match with Germany, Al-Jaber said: "I’m really disappointed but I can’t give you any reason for what happened that day." Al-Jaber added that goalkeeper Muhammad Al-Deayea, despite letting in eight goals, would again wear the captain’s armband.
Striker Al-Hasan Al-Yami described the Germany result as a "tragedy" and "We were all terrible. It can’t get as bad as this again. We let our supporters down but we will do much better against Cameroon. We couldn’t do any worse."
Saudi coach Nasir Al-Jowhar is to make some major changes in the team. Youngster Muhammad Al-Shalhoub, the left winger known as "Baby Maradona" in Saudi Arabia, and defensive midfielder Omar Al-Ghamdi could form part of the starting line-up at the expense of other players. Al-Jowhar said he and his squad still believe they could make the second round despite their drubbing by Germany.
During Tuesday’s training session at the Tokyo Stadium, Al-Jowhar focused on 13 players: Hussein Abdul Ghani, Reza Takur, Obaid Al-Dosari, Muhammad Noor, Omar Al-Ghamdi, Ibrahim Al-Suwaid, Khamis Al-Owairan, Muhammad Shaliya, Abdul Aziz Al-Khathran, Nawaf Al-Tamyat, Hasan Al-Yami, Fouzi Al-Shahri and Abdullah Suleiman.
Speaking to Arab News, Al-Jowhar said the pressure he suffered after the match with Germany was unbearable. "I have never faced such a pressure in my whole career," he added.
He said Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, chief of the Youth Welfare Presidency, and his deputy Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal had given him full authority to select the team members. "Nobody has interfered in the selection of the Saudi team."
He said the Saudi players are now in a better position. "They are sorry for not reaching their usual levels during the match with Germany."
Addressing the Saudi players yesterday, Prince Nawaf, who is the head of the Kingdom’s delegation to the World Cup finals, said: "You are international players and are capable of presenting an excellent display."
In a telephone conversation with Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, Prince Nawaf said the Saudi team was well prepared to meet Cameroon. "Forget the past game with Germans and show an excellent display in the next matches," Prince Sultan was quoted as telling the players.
Asked what was the reasons for the poor show on Saturday, the coach said: "No player will do it deliberately to discredit their country and people. Many things influence a player’s performance: pressure, confusion, bewilderment, atmosphere and so on. You will see someone who played extremely well in a game, failing to make even a single important move in another. I am telling this out of my experience."
"Our team’s display was very bad at all respects. Everything was bad: movement, maneuvers, tactics, shots and joint play. It was quite contrary to our performance during the friendlies with international teams. But this is not the end of the world."
The Saudi coach said his side had prepared for Cameroon very early. "We have studied the team very well."
Cameroon’s German coach Winfried Schaefer expects Saudi Arabia to come out fighting. "You cannot judge the Saudis on that game. We’ll still have to be really careful," he said. "We will have to pressure early on in the game, like the Germans did."
Both teams are now in a must-win situation if they want to make the knockout stages behind Germany who are favored to win the group.
"The first game was an accident. We will present ourselves in a much better way against Saudi Arabia," said Cameroon defender Bill Tchato.
The two-time reigning African Nations Cup champions Cameroon wasted a 1-0 lead as they were outplayed in the second half of their opening 1-1 draw with Ireland in Group E.
Al-Jowhar has done his best to restore team morale. A victory today would be the perfect way to silence the critics but Al-Jowhar mainly wants a good performance.
"There are always black days in football. Forget about the first game and concentrate on the game against Cameroon," he told his players. Cameroon’s biggest task will be a consistent performance over two halves after they completely lost their momentum after the break against Ireland. The team was upset over this and vowed to do better today.
"We have to fight right through the second half," said striker Patrick Suffo.
The German coach said the Olympic champions blamed the tiredness in the second half on their mammoth trip to Japan from Europe. They arrived on May 23 after a bizarre four-day delay because of a dispute over bonus payments and the absence of permission to fly over several countries.
"But our team has achieved a turning point and I’m very optimistic and I’m very confident that our team will have a much better game against Saudi Arabia," Schafer said.
Saudi team manager Faisal Abdul Al-Hadi did not expect big change in his side. "I expect one or two players to be replaced against Cameroon but I insist that the goalkeeper should play because he remains one of the most talented goalkeepers in Asia," he said.
