Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia have come a long way in the soccer world considering football was banned there until 1951.

2006 is their fourth consecutive World Cup finals. Saudi qualified relatively easily - they were undefeated and even beat twice the much touted South Korea, the 2002 semi-finalists.

Saudi Arabia World Cup profile continues below

Saudi Arabia had their best World Cup performance the first time they qualified - in USA 1994 when they reached the second round.

France 1998 and Korea/Japan 2002 were disappointing tournaments for Saudi Arabia and they only managed one draw in both competitions put together.

The Saudi Arabia coach is Brazilian Marcos Paqueta, who coached Al Hilal to the Saudi league and cup double last season. In December 2005 he took over from Argentine Gabriel Calderon.

Players to watch include goalkeeper Mabrouk Zayed, Sami Al Jaber, who played on loan for Wolves, and defender Hamad Al Montashari.

Saudi Arabia kicked off their World Cup with a 2-2 draw against Tunisia, however they were beaten 4-0 by Ukraine in a very one-sided second game. They were also beaten 1-0 by Spain and so failed to qualify for the next round.

The Saudi Squad by shirt number:

1 Mohammed Al Daeyea 2 Ahmed Dokhi 3 Redha Tukar 4 Hamad Al Montashari 5 Naif Al Qadi 6 Omar Al Ghamdi 7 Mohammed Ameen 8 Mohammed Noor 9 Sami Al Jaber 10 Mohammad Al Shlhoub 11 Saad Al Harthi 12 Abdulaziz Khathran 13 Hussein Sulimani 14 Saud Khariri 15 Ahmed Al Bahri 16 Khaled Aziz 17 Mohammed Al Anbar 18 Nawaf Al Temyat 19 Mohammed Massad 20 Yasser Al Kahtani 21 Mabrouk Zaid 22 Mohammad Khojah 23 Malek Mouath