CAMEROON 1; SAUDI ARABIA 0: While his players passed the day in Disneyland, Mick McCarthy headed instead for Saitama in the hope of witnessing a real-life fairytale so far-fetched that even Walt himself wouldn't have dreamt of peddling it way back in his heyday.

Had Saudi Arabia somehow managed to get a result against Cameroon yesterday you probably could have safely put your house on Ireland taking one of Group E's two places in the second round of finals, an achievement that would require them to head for South Korea around the middle of next week.

Nasser Al-Johar's side couldn't quite manage that, but they did pull off the next best thing, holding the African champions to just a one-goal victory, an improvement that leaves McCarthy's men needing just a 2-0 win on Tuesday to be certain of their place in the knock-out stages.

That win, though, won't be quite the forgone conclusion that Saudi's 8-0 drubbing by Germany initially suggested. Al-Johar made five changes for yesterday's game and clearly got a good deal more out of his reshaped and reorganised side than he had done in Sapporo on Saturday.

Even allowing for that, though, it's still difficult to see quite how the Sons of the Desert could have allowed themselves to become the laughing stocks of the world when they possess, on the evidence of this game, capable enough defenders in Redha Tukar and Fouzi Al-Shehri, as well as at least one attacking midfielder of significant ability in the form of Nawaf Al-Temyat.

In what was for the best part a bewilderingly open game, Al-Temyat had no fewer than eight attempts on goal and Cameroon had nothing but their good fortune to thank for the fact that at least one didn't slip past Boukar Alioum at some stage over the 90 minutes.

Winfried Schafer's team, of course, could have had a few more goals themselves. Even after Samuel Eto'o cut free to take down an angled Geremi cross and then slipped it low past Mohammed Al-Deayea with 25 minutes remaining it seemed that they might go on to set the bar a little higher for the Irish.

By the end there was a disallowed goal and a couple of dubious penalty claims to brood over, but it will be the opportunities missed by Patrick Mboma, Lauren and, most memorably, Eto'o early in the second half that will surely trouble Cameroon most as they prepare for Tuesday's vital game against Germany.

If you were to predict the outcome of that game on the strength of the Cameroon players' demeanour on the way out of the ground, you would not give the Africans a prayer. And few of Winfreid Schafer's men, it seemed, would argue with you.

"I have to say that I think the Irish will win their last game by two goals or more," said a dejected-looking Lauren. "That means that we have to beat Germany if we want to go through. I hope we can do it, but no, I can't say I am very confident about it."

Patrick Suffo, an unused substitute yesterday, was similarly downcast regarding the prospects of Ireland slipping up against the already eliminated Saudis, simply laughing and remarking "of course, yes, it is possible" when asked if the required scoreline was within the Republic's abilities.

"What we have to take from this game, though, is the fact that we took the three points we absolutely required. What the Irish will do next week we can't say with any certainty, and so the number of goals we scored today was not the most important thing, it was making sure that we won the game, and we have done that."

Schafer and his players will presumably draw some encouragement from the rate at which the Saudis appear to be regaining their composure after the weekend's humiliation. And their confidence appears to be returning too.

Having apologised once again yesterday to the nation back at home for Saturday's rout, Al-Johar insisted that his side has this time been beaten by a "lucky" Cameroon team that had scored against the run of play.

"We dominated the game from beginning to end," he claimed prior, one presumes, to seeing the FIFA statistical sheets which gave Cameroon 60 per cent of the possession and a slightly higher proportion of the game's shots on target.

"And we will be better again in our third game in order to show people at home and all around the world the real standard of Saudi football.

"The first result was a terrible surprise to everybody familiar with our game," he added. "Today was much closer to what we expected coming here and we can still come do better again next seek."

He should be telling that to Al-Hasan Al-Yami, the 29-year-old striker who came on as a first-half substitute yesterday.

"We can pack our bags now, we've lost everything" lamented the Al-Ittihad player. "All we can do is hope to play better football against the Irish, but it doesn't matter really because we're going home."

Now that's the spirit.

Meanwhile, Cameroon captain Rigobert Song faces a race to be fit in time for the match with Germany.

The African champions' defensive organiser damaged right ankle ligaments in a fall during yesterday's match.

"It hurts," he told reporters after limping off the pitch. "It could take five or six days. I did something similar at the African Nations Cup."

Song said he would do everything possible to play in the Germany game. "It's important that I'm there," he said. "The team needs people who can motivate them."

And Cameroon's goalscorer Eto'o remained stuck in the doping room more than two-and-a-half hours after the end of the match.

Cameroon staff were visibly frustrated at the delay, caused by Eto'o's apparent failure to deliver a urine sample, which kept the team bus waiting outside.