WAGNER JAMES AU sends this story with the headline “Former Axis of Evil Soccer Team Beats Current Axis of Evil Soccer Team:”

But nothing equaled having to answer to Iraq’s former National Olympic Committee president, Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam who kept a jail and torture center at the national sport headquarters and often beat and humiliated athletes who performed poorly.

“It’s no longer a secret: We played every match with the fear of punishment, an intense psychological pressure,” says Mowafak Nuri, a defender for the national side and top Iraqi club Al Zawra, who retired last year. “The Olympic Committee chairman destroyed the performances of the national team.” . . .

Last weekend, the country’s Olympic team – for players under 23 – moved on to the next round of qualifying with a 4-1 defeat of North Korea. In a measure of Iraqi soccer mania, that relatively minor victory set off burst after burst of celebratory gunfire around Baghdad on Saturday night.

They seem quite happy. Also about the not-being-tortured part.