I don’t want to elevate my soccer to a level that it doesn’t belong on.

But he's going to...

But it is a very important part of Iraqi life. Earlier the professional matches were sold out with 55,000 fans. For one year soccer has been taken away from the Iraqis. If you took football or baseball away from the Americans for a year they’d also be missing something. Had the Americans recognized the meaning of soccer they would have given us a field to practice on long ago.

Where were you practicing before? Did they stop you from going there?

They could have transported the unwanted turf from the women’s World Cup matches that they threw or gave away to Baghdad. It must be possible to take along a few rolls of turf if you can bring tanks weighing tons to Baghdad. That would have been possible with a little bit of heart and caring.

"They don't care! They just don't care!"

I can only advise the Americans that they must pay attention to such things if they want to reach the hearts of the people in Iraq. In so doing they can win much more than they could with their military machinery.