Ukraine seek to discover winning form vs Saudi Arabia

Even after a four-goal loss, Ukraine finds itself just a victory from being in contention as it meets Saudi Arabia in World Cup play. Ukraine, if a comeback is in the cards, needs to start it Monday against Saudi Arabia in Hamburg, Germany. Spain meets Tunisia in the other Group H game. Group play is scheduled to end Friday.

Ukraine suffered mightily in its first World Cup game, with Spain even hotter than the temperature as Spain beat Ukraine 4-0. "I'm extremely disappointed," Ukraine Coach Oleg Blokhin said. "We weren't disciplined at all and the players failed to follow the instructions the coaching team gave them.

"I'm not so much disappointed about the result as the attitude of the players. It's embarrassing for all of us and I want to apologize to the Ukraine fans for the performance we put in. We can't play like that again. We just crumbled."

Actually things aren't so bad for Ukraine. It is three points behind Spain, but only one behind the other two Group H teams. A victory returns hope to Ukraine's fans in a hurry. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, let two points get away by giving up a goal in injury time.

Saudi's Sami al-Jaber said, "Obviously, it's not the result we were looking for, but that's football. There were only two minutes to go, but we just couldn't hold onto the lead."