Al-Johar clears the bench for the Saudis

Cameroon v Saudi Arabia, Saitama, 10.0 The post-match press conferences of losing managers tend to be cruel places at the best of times, but it takes a particular lack of pity to ask a man whose side has just let in eight goals whether he still thinks his side can make it to the next round.

When Nasser Al-Johar arrived to face the media after seeing his side suffer the third worst defeat in World Cup finals history on Saturday, he must have seriously doubted whether he would still even be in charge for the rest of the Saudi campaign.

While he awaited word of his fate from an association that never wanted him to be still in charge at these finals in the first place, however, somebody asked him about his side's chances of progressing. His reply has become one of the most quoted lines of the tournament's opening few days.

"We will give it every effort, we still have two games left," he quietly promised with considerable dignity.

As they made their way back to their respective bases near Tokyo, however, Winifried Schafer and Mick McCarthy must already have been thinking that at least one of Group E's two places in the knock-out stages of this World Cup might now end up coming down to their teams' margins of victory over the Sons of the Desert.

Al-Johar, it will come as no great surprise to learn, is to make changes for today's second Saudi game, the meeting with Cameroon. He will, in fact, make quite a few of them.

While Hussein Adulghani is one of a couple of defenders to be reacquainted with the bench as a result of their miserable showing against the Germans, virtually the whole of the team's original midfield and attack will be ditched as the Saudi coach switches to a 5-3-2 formation aimed at limiting the damage at the back as well as posing some sort of attacking threat this time out.

The team's most experienced striker, Sami Al-Jaber, is expected to be one of those sitting this game out, although the locally well-regarded frontman is a victim of a recurring foot injury rather than the purge. His physical fitness is unlikely, however, to have been helped by the battered morale which has taken grip around the camp.

Cameroon, having allowed a strong position against the Irish to evaporate completely, will be anxious to go some way towards emulating the achievement of the Germans today, but Real Madrid defender Geremi insists that the team will not go into the game "with a score in our heads".

Schafer insists that it would be "foolish to judge the Saudis on one game. We will have to be very careful, but we will attempt to pressure them early in the match the way the Germans did."

The Cameroon coach criticised his players after Saturday's game against Ireland for the way in which they persisted with an aerial attack against a defence which, he said, looked far more vulnerable to some swift passing along the ground.

After the way Rudi Voller's side ruthlessly swept aside the Saudis' resistance with high balls, however, Schafer is unlikely to make any changes to the team that started against Ireland.