WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Saudis Put Scare in Dutch : Group F: Underdogs finally fall only when goalkeeper makes a late mistake, 2-1.

Sometimes, maybe, close does count.

Sometimes, if you’re a soccer-poor nation from the Middle East fighting European power and arrogance, maybe you can lose and still win.

A giddy team from Saudi Arabia believes this is possible.

A exhausted, disoriented team from the Netherlands wonders if the Saudis aren’t right.

If the Dutch defeated the Saudis, 2-1, in a first-round World Cup match Monday night at RFK Stadium, then why were the Saudi princes smooching?

And why, an hour after the game, were the Dutch still having trouble catching their breath? Perhaps because the Saudis, judged the worst of the 24 World Cup teams, led the highly rated Netherlands for 31 of 90 minutes.

Then held them to a 1-all tie until the final five minutes of the game.

Then they lost on a mistake by their goalie, which was followed immediately by a game-winning header by Gaston Taument.

And Saudis, we hate to add this, but you’re going to find out soon or later.

Taument did it with his eyes closed.

“I was surprised,” admitted Taument, who entered the game in the middle of the second half.

So were his teammates, who couldn’t believe something that appeared to be so easy could be so difficult.

“Tonight was a case of a team from a nation that doesn’t normally win gaining a certain power by going against a stronger team,” Dutch defender Frank De Boer said. “When that happens, that power can be dangerous.”

And it could have been deadly to Holland’s chances if Saudi goalie Mohammed Al Deayea, who stopped 27 of 29 shots, did not charge 10 yards from his goal and try to grab a fly ball and miss .

Yet this is what happened in those final minutes after De Boer kicked it in to his brother Ronald, who tried to score with his head.

Ronald De Boer and Al Deayea collided, the ball bounced to the right off De Boer’s noggin, and Taument’s dreadlocked head knocked it into an empty net.

The estimated 20,000 orange-covered Dutch among the 52,535 fans finally stopped their derisive whistling. Some of them even stopping hitting other fans over the head with inflated orange hammers.

It was not so much a celebration as a sigh.

“It was almost very embarrassing,” forward Bryan Roy said. “I mean, we are Holland.”

The Saudis shrugged, calmly finished the game, then hugged everyone in sight.

Al Deayea was made so physically ill by his mistake that he could not talk about it, but the rest of his delegation was thrilled.

“Holland thought they would have an easy time with us,” Saudi Coach Jorge Solari said. “We showed them something different.”

Saeed Alahmed, a local student working with the Saudi team during its first World Cup finals appearance, added, “Today, in the eyes of our country, we have done enough. By scoring one goal, we did more than we ever hoped.”

That goal, scored by Fuad Amin on a sneaky header between two Dutch defenders in the 19th minute, sent the Saudi delegation into a frenzy.

Amin circled the stadium, waving to the fans. The Saudi coaches waltzed along the sidelines.

In their second-level box seats, several Saudi princes fell over each other while hugging and kissing.

“For a second, just a second, I thought, ‘Oh no,’ ” Roy said.

Those seconds turned to long minutes as the Saudis immediately went into their slowdown offense. They essentially stopped trying shots while all but two players fell back on defense.

Then just when the Dutch would get their vaunted passing attack working, one of the Saudis would fall to the ground, writhing in pain.

Shortly after halftime, Wim Jonk took matters into his own feet by hammering a ball through three defenders from 35 yards to tie the score in the 50th minute.

The Saudis attempted more slowdown tactics, including one particularly blatant maneuver by Hamzah Saeed Falatah with 20 minutes remaining.

One second, he was laying on the sideline, clawing the grass in agony. The next second, he was leading the attack with a sprint.

“Because of all they did, we had to rush, rush, rush,” Roy said. “We had to push, so much, in this heat (86 degrees) that it will hurt us down the road.”

If this means thoughts of the Saudis will cross Dutch minds when they are in the semifinals, well, then Solari thinks that Monday was a victory indeed.

“We played like champions,” he said, and it didn’t sound odd when he said it.