RIYADH, May 26 - Saudi Arabia heads to their fourth consecutive World Cup hoping to improve on a dismal showing in 2002 and the team will rely on veteran players and a manager who is new to the job.

Saudi Arabia, or "the sons of the desert," as the team are known, went out in the first round four years ago after losing 8-0 to Germany, 1-0 to Cameroon and 3-0 to Ireland.

The performances were in stark contrast to the promising World Cup debut the Saudis had made in 1994 when they went through to the second round in the United States.

The 2002 collapse against Germany was an embarrassment across the Arab world. Rivalry will be intense with Tunisia, who play in the same group next month, and Saudi media have carried reports of Tunisian spies arriving in the country to check on the team.

Any spies will have realised that Saudi Arabia will lean on two veterans of that U.S. campaign 12 years ago, captain Sami Al-Jaber and goalkeeper Mohammad Deayea, both aged 34.

Jaber was called out of retirement last year by previous coach Gabriel Calderon whose successor, Marcos Paqueta, has kept him on as well as bringing back Deayea, one of the most capped players in the world and a favourite with Saudi fans.

A few younger players stand out, including the baby-faced midfielder from Al-Hilal, Mohammad Al-Shalhoub, Mohammed Noor who plays in Egypt, and Al-Hilal forward Yasser Al-Qahtani, who has been tipped by some as the rising star of Asian football.

The pressure is on Paqueta, who previously managed Saudi club Al-Hilal, to produce results lest the notoriously fickle Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) dump him.

Paqueta was hired in December but there has already been speculation that the SAFF was seeking globe-hopping coach Bora Milutinovic as a replacement for the World Cup in Germany.

Saudi web chat room soccer aficionados have complained that results under Paqueta have been disappointing, though they said it was better to stick with him so close to the finals.

In recent matches, Saudi Arabia lost 2-1 at home to Poland, lost 3-0 to Portugal in Germany and drew 2-2 at home with Iraq.

Paqueta, who led Brazilian youth teams to World Cup glory in 2003, has been sounding upbeat though.

"The situation Saudi Arabia is now in is similar to what happened to me when I was with the Brazilian youth team, in which I got the Youth World Cup," he said optimistically after the recent defeat to Poland.

Since the 1990s, Saudi football has had a penchant for hiring expensive foreign coaches, particularly Brazilians, favouring the South American playing style over the European.

PESSIMISM PERVADES

A certain pessimism pervades the Saudi soccer public, after huge amounts of money were funnelled into the game with sparse results.

"For our team, the World Cup is always a triumph of hope over realism," one Saudi blogger called The Religious Policeman recently wrote.

"Racially we're just not big enough or fast enough or physical enough to cope with huge Europeans and even huger South Americans," he added, though many Saudis, including the founder of the Saudi state King Abdelaziz, are extremely tall.

Football at club level is an obsession in Saudi Arabia, and Paqueta has complained that players, exhausted by club schedules, have too little time to prepare for national games.

Some coaches have complained of not always having total freedom of movement in choosing their teams because of backroom interference and favouritism. SAFF head Prince Sultan bin Fahd officially approved Paqueta's World Cup line-up in April.

Al-Hilal players seem to dominate in the national team.

"The problem with football in Saudi Arabia is that it is a government affair," says Khaled, a football fan from Jeddah. "We need independent clubs."