More Than Two Chances

Listen To What The Man Says
Ronaldhino disagrees with my song.
That's right. He thinks Australia's Socceroos have a shot.

"Even though Australia looks a formidable team and they are our key group rivals, I have to admit that I'm fascinated by them from a purely personal point of view," FIFA's world player of the year told the Herald. "Apart from appointing one of the top four or five coaches in the world, what Australia did when they signed Hiddink was drag world attention onto themselves.

"Anyone with an interest in soccer understands that Hiddink is a magnificent achiever and someone whose names stand for perpetual success. So I think that focused people's attention, all around the world, on how Australia might do in qualifying.

"Then if you take the drama and the romanticism of the win over Uruguay it seems to me that Australia has become an easy team for the neutrals to support. Everyone I speak to seems to have a good word for Australia in a sporting sense and lots of decent judges have identified them as a team which could make a surprising impact in Germany.

"I can't claim to know the first-choice team player by player, yet, but I know about the majority of top players and I'm aware that most of Australia's key men play in leagues scattered all around the world.

"Given the difficulties we in Brazil face with that same problem and travelling to and from qualifying matches or friendlies, I do find it remarkable that a slightly smaller soccer nation like Australia can achieve all that they have done.

"Generally when the players follow their careers in a very wide geographical spread one of the most difficult things to achieve is that 'feeling' between them when they are called together in a squad.

"Yet the evidence is that Hiddink has achieved a unified and winning mentality in his team. That's impressive and it's a little dangerous, too."

Then, he has this to say:

"Literally everywhere he's gone, Valencia, Real Madrid, PSV, Korea, Australia, Hiddink has been a byword for popular, winning football and I respect that," the Brazilian No.10 said.

"Not many coaches get the kind of phone calls he's been getting from FC Barcelona, from Real Madrid, from Roman Abramovich and from the English FA.

"He's in demand because he's a coach who achieves massive success, who has won the Champions League and who took Korea to the brink of the World Cup final four years ago.

"Hiddink is a daring man because he's willing to work all over the world in different circumstances, yet no matter where he goes he applies the same principles.

"His football methods are good, he's a good man-manager and he rarely seems to cause any real rows with his bosses or his players.

"I hope that when we play Australia we can break this habit of his and defeat them but both before and after our game in Munich I'll be watching Hiddink's team with interest to see how they do."

Hard to believe that Brazil's celebrated no.10 thinks Australia are a serious threat.

Michael Moore Sued By Soldier
This came in from the Independent.

A US military veteran who lost both his arms in the war in Iraq is suing the film-maker Michael Moore for $85m (£46m), claiming that the director incorrectly portrayed him as being against the war in the controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11.

Peter Damon, a National Guardsman from Massachusetts, has filed a lawsuit seeking damages for "loss of reputation, emotional distress, embarrassment, and personal humiliation". The former sergeant says that Moore did not seek his permission to include television footage of him in the 2004 movie.

Mr Damon, 33, lost both his arms when a tyre on a Black Hawk helicopter exploded while he and another reservist were working on it. Another serviceman was killed in the same incident. The National Guardsman was subsequently interviewed for an NBC's Nightline programme about a new painkiller that the military was testing on wounded veterans.

That's kind of what you expect when you editorialise too much to put across your point.
But in even better news today, The Angry Fat Man has been shut down. We rejoice.