Injury plagued Germany settled any doubts about their determination to win the World Cup, Saturday evening, with an emphatic 8:0 victory over Saudi Arabia, including the games' first hat trick, in their opening Group E match in Sapporo, Japan. Kaiserslautern star striker Miroslav Klose scored three times with headers in the 20th, 25th and 70th minutes as the Germans, seemingly on cruise control sliced the Saudi Arabian team apart with four goals in each half, five of which were scored with heads.

Making the most of their physical presence, Germany rarely allowed Saudi Arabia to trouble goalkeeper and captain Oliver Kahn, with only veteran captain Sami al-Jaber posing any visible threat. After Klose's opening two, Michael Ballack headed in number three in the 40th minute, followed six minutes later, in injury time, by a blistering close range shot from Carsten Jancker for the fourth.

The first half nightmare for Saudi Arabia continued after the break and following Klose's third, Thomas Linke made it 6:0 three minutes later, again from a header. Veteran Oliver Bierhoff, coming on for Jancker, made it seven in the 84th minute steering the ball past Mohammed al-Deayea, who must have wondered what his defense were doing.

The final goal was a beautiful curling free kick from Bernd Schneider in the last minute of injury time, leaving the Saudi Arabian team with a mountain to climb if they are to have any chance of success in the 2002 finals. (Chris Price, chris@chosun.com )