Saudis' newly won respect tarnished by Ukraine

HAMBURG, June 20 (Reuters) A Saudi Arabia team looking mainly for a little respect ran into a Ukraine team hungry for victory and the predictably lopsided 4-0 defeat hardly seemed to bother coach Marcos Paqueta.

The imperturable Brazilian spoke repeatedly of restoring Saudi Arabia's honour after their 8-0 drubbing four years ago to Germany that was an embarrassment across the Arab world. In 2002 they also lost 1-0 to Cameroon and 3-0 to Ireland.

Paqueta sounded pleased once again on Monday, despite losing to Ukraine, that the aim of the tournament had already been achieved with a point from their 2-2 draw against Tunisia.

''The important thing is that the players showed they were committed and that we eliminated the image of Saudi Arabia from last time in the World Cup,'' Paqueta said after Ukraine had dissected his team in their Group H match.

The Saudis offered moments of some attractive, if harmless, passing in midfield and rarely seemed as shy or intimidated as the team that was humiliated in 2002.

UNINSPIRED FINISHING But at the same time they posed hardly any danger to the depleted Ukraine defence with uninspired finishing and they were appallingly caught off guard on set pieces, giving up two goals.

''We're going to improve that aspect of the game,'' said Paqueta, whose team now face unbeaten Spain in the final match.

Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin said afterwards that they knew where the Saudis were especially vulnerable.

''We hoped for set pieces because we saw the Saudis had trouble there,'' he said.

Paqueta also said the Hamburg rain caused his team problems -- because wet weather is a rarity back home.

He said the rain and slick pitch proved to be as treacherous for his ''sons of the desert'' as the 32-degree Celsius heat had been to Ukraine in their 4-0 loss to Spain.

But another kind of rain -- a 100,000 riyals (,000) cash bonus awarded to each player before the Ukraine match for their honour-restoring draw against Tunisia -- may have ultimately softened the Saudis even more.

Reuters PM VV1431