Napoli forward Arkadiusz Milik continues to defy the odds during his rapid recovery from a torn ACL.
Less than four months after undergoing surgery to repair the ligaments in his knee, Milik is available to play Saturday after being named to Napoli’s 23-man squad ahead of Saturday’s encounter with Bologna.
? i convocati di #Sarri per #BolognaNapoli ? @SerieA_TIM #ForzaNapoliSempre pic.twitter.com/R3teVLkgkZ
— Official SSC Napoli (@sscnapoli) February 3, 2017
Milik suffered the injury while on international duty with Poland in October and was initially expected to miss seven months.
Yet, from the the start, the 27-year-old defied conventional wisdom during his recovery effort. The first major hurdle was cleared a month after undergoing the operation when Milik was told he could begin running.
He was then given the green light to return to first-team shortly after the New Year.
Manager Maurizio Sarri took a cautious approach before finally including him in the team set to face Bologna.
Before suffering the injury, Milik, who signed with the Serie A outfit from Ajax last summer, found the back of the net seven times in all competitions during his opening nine matches in a Napoli strip.
Only one team has beaten coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady in a Super Bowl.
The New York Giants did it twice, in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. They beat the New England Patriots in different seasons but with relatively similar game plans. It didn’t matter that the Giants had different defensive coordinators (first Steve Spagnuolo, then Perry Fewell) or were fielding many different players. They limited Brady and the Patriots’ offense, ran the ball effectively and pulled out a pair of dramatic, low-scoring affairs.
There is a blueprint to success.
The Patriots are 4-2 in the sport’s biggest game during the Belichick-Brady era, with a chance to improve on that Sunday in Super Bowl LI when they play the Atlanta Falcons. Belichick and Brady are considered by many to be the greatest in history at their respective professions. They form a dynamic duo whose only Super Bowl kryptonite might prove to be Tom Coughlin’s Giants.
Or at least their game plan against the Brady/Belichick Patriots.
The Falcons might want to take a few pages out of those past Giants game plans on Sunday.
Every team takes its own shape, and these Patriots with Belichick and Brady may have evolved since their Super Bowl defeats. But they’re still quite similar to the teams from the 2007 and 2011 seasons that fell short of hoisting the Lombardi trophy. They have Brady. They have Belichick. They do lots of the same things offensively (quick, short passes; allowing their playmakers to make plays) and defensively (good at stopping the run, taking away the opposition’s best player). The game plan to beat them in this spot hasn’t changed much.
Pressuring Tom Brady and making him uncomfortable in the pocket was an essential part of the Giants’ game plan to beat New England. Drew Hallowell/Getty Images
The Giants went into both Super Bowls against the Patriots planning to make life difficult for Brady. That was essential. And they were going to do it without applying extra resources.
“We wanted to hit Tom Brady as much as we can. But the plan was to always rush them with four [defenders] and play coverage,” said Chris Canty, the former defensive tackle and current host of ESPN Radio’s Hahn, Humpty & Canty show.
“But when we did decide to use pressure, blitzes, we wanted to make sure to use players you weren’t accustomed to seeing.”
They used this approach in both games, with the idea of coming off the edge and pushing Brady into the interior rush. The Giants had seven sacks combined in the two games, four of which came from Justin Tuck, a defensive end who often played on the interior.
“It was really the same thing both times,” said former defensive end and current BBC analyst Osi Umenyiora, who was on both Giants teams that beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. “We felt we had the advantage up front. So the game plan defensively was to not blitz quite as much.”
The Giants viewed the Patriots with Belichick as the most prepared team in the league. It was imperative on the rare opportunities the Giants blitzed that they came from players and spots that Brady wasn’t expecting.
And even when the Giants didn’t get there to hit or sack Brady, they focused on affecting his inside throwing lanes.
Brady said passing against the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI was “like throwing in a forest.” Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul batted down a pair of passes. Michael Strahan had a batted pass in the 2008 contest.
“That’s what we wanted to do. That’s what [Brady] does anyway,” Umenyiora said. “The edge rush doesn’t really bother him much. You need to have some really good interior rushers.”
For the Falcons, that means having the league leader in sacks, Vic Beasley, getting pressure off the edge and forcing Brady toward Atlanta’s best interior rusher, Grady Jarrett. Then they can rely on their offense to supplement their defense.
The Giants realized that keeping Brady off the field was the best way to slow down the future Hall of Fame quarterback. The fewer opportunities he had, the better off they were. It may sound like common knowledge, but it’s harder to execute.
Lost in the shuffle of Brady’s brilliance and the Patriots’ high-powered offensive glitter is that Belichick builds tough teams, especially his defensive fronts. Belichick is known for taking away the opposition’s top playmakers.
Wide receiver Plaxico Burress had two catches for 27 yards in Super Bowl XLII; wide receiver Victor Cruz had four catches for 25 yards in Super Bowl XLVI. Although both had key touchdown grabs, their production was limited.
“The only football we thought New England respected was physical football,” said former Giants offensive lineman Chris Snee, who started at right guard in both Super Bowl wins. “We had to be more physical. You go against the offense, but both defenses we played against were physical defenses. It kind of gets lost in the shuffle. I think that is kind of the case this year, too.”
Trying to match the Patriots score for score wasn’t a viable option for those Giants (especially in the 2007 season) and likely won’t be for the Falcons. New England scored the third-most points in the NFL this season and has the unflappable Brady.
The Falcons scored the most points this season, but trying to win that battle with these Patriots might not be prudent in the Super Bowl. The Giants’ Super Bowl wins over New England were by scores of 17-14 and 21-17. They beat the Patriots by outrushing them and winning in the trenches.
That was the plan.
“That was what we had to accomplish. We had to be able to run the ball somewhat, No. 1,” Snee said. “If Belichick went in saying he wanted to take something away, I don’t think he went in thinking, ‘We have to take away the run game.’
“He was confident in who he had. He had [defensive tackle Vince] Wilfork in the middle and inside ’backers who could stop the run. We knew coming in we would have to say, ‘We’re better up front than these guys, and we have to be able to run the ball.’ And by doing that, [Belichick] may have to change some things as the game goes along. Any time you get into that kind of game where they have to make adjustments, it’s to your benefit.”
Pressure him with a four-man rush when he’s on the field.
Run the football.
“[The game plan] has to be the same because Brady is the guy. He’s the one on the field pulling the trigger,” Umenyiora said. “Belichick can’t come out there and play. It’s going to be the exact same thing. You’re going to have to get outside pressure forcing them into your inside rushers. If they can do that, they can have success.”
Easier said than done in the Super Bowl against Belichick, Brady and the Patriots.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tears began to flow as Aimee Cantadore recalled the fear felt when nurses explained what she and her husband had to do at home for their newborn daughter to survive.
They continued when she remembered being told Macie Joy qualified for 280 hours of in-home nurse care through the The HEARTest Yard Foundation, established by Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen through Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte.
“He’s really kept our daughter alive by having help here,” Cantadore said.
A year ago Cantadore hadn’t heard of Olsen, who was preparing for Super Bowl 50 when Macie was born with half a heart. She wasn’t aware of his foundation, what congenital heart defect was or that Olsen had been through the same thing with his son T.J.
She still hasn’t met the three-time Pro Bowl selection, one of three finalists for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award that will be announced Saturday night at NFL Honors in Houston.
But she knows without Olsen, the past year would have been unmanageable.
“It makes me cry just thinking about it,” Cantadore said. “Having a nurse there was lifesaving. There is no way I could have handled caring for her and also be able to care for my other two [children] and continue daily things such as groceries and laundry.
“It was just a huge blessing.”
Greg Olsen, wife Kara Olsen and Tate and twins Talbot and T.J. visited Disney World during the Pro Bowl. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
Olsen knows
In 2012, Olsen’s wife Kara gave birth to twins, son T.J. and daughter Talbot. T.J. was born with half a heart, a congenital heart defect known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome. They experienced the same fear Cantatore did as doctors and nurses explained how T.J. would need four surgeries — three open heart procedures and the installation of a pacemaker.
They felt their life was spinning out of control when told about the in-home care needed to keep T.J. alive after he spent about 40 days in intensive care.
Olsen’s biggest initial fear was he would mix the formula incorrectly and cause T.J. to die.
Within 24 hours of going home with T.J., the couple realized they needed in-home help. That was the genesis for The HEARTest Yard, a spinoff of Olsen’s foundation that was established in 2009 to raise money for breast cancer research.
“These were needs that not only were critical to his day-to-day, but critical to his development, preparing to go back into surgery.”
Fortunately for the Olsens, they could afford the care. Since 2013, their foundation has helped 47 families that could not.
Luann and Brian Register, whose son Brantley was born with HLHS in 2014, said they would have lost their home had it not been for Olsen’s program.
Aimee’s husband, Frank, knows for sure he couldn’t have afforded the additional $20,000 to $25,000 in-home nursing cost on top of the other hospital bills.
“The first time [Olsen] met with a lot of us in the hospital as a group, he wanted to give these kids and these families the world, anything that he possibly could. We were actually the ones that said, ‘Slow down. We can’t do all that.'”
Kari Crawford-Plant, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Levine Children’s Hospital
He didn’t stop short of saying it was lifesaving for his daughter.
“I think that’s why they probably started the foundation,” Frank said. “They found out how difficult it is. Having that for my wife and me, it was phenomenal.”
Tears to advocate
Kari Crawford-Plant, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Levine Children’s Hospital, first met the Olsens in 2012 right after T.J.’s diagnosis.
“It wasn’t the best meeting because they were both sobbing,” she said. “I just introduced myself, told them they would get through it and that we would [tour the facility] another day when they collected themselves.
“He shook my hand and shut the door, and the next time I saw them was when they had twins.”
Crawford-Plant has watched Olsen grow from a father in disarray to a nationwide advocate for families affected by congenital heart defect.
A year ago, as Greg Olsen was preparing for the Super Bowl, Macie Joy Cantatore was born with half a heart. Courtesy of Canatore family
“The one thing I have learned about Greg is he’s a big visionary,” said Crawford-Plant, who has become the go-to person at Levine for HEARTest Yard families. “The first time he met with a lot of us in the hospital as a group, he wanted to give these kids and these families the world, anything that he possibly could.
“We were actually the ones that said, ‘Slow down. We can’t do all that.’ “
Slowing down isn’t Olsen’s style. On the field this season, he became the first tight end in NFL history to have 1,000 yards receiving for three consecutive years.
Off the field, between his HEARTest Yard campaign and Receptions for Research campaign — founded for breast cancer research because Olsen’s mother was diagnosed with that while he was in high school — the foundation has raised well over a $1.25 million.
Olsen’s foundation received a $25,000 donation from Nationwide recently when he won a social media competition among the 32 Walter Payton Award nominees.
Among those who pushed him over the top on Twitter were actors Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and William Shatner, as well as NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“He has a lot of popular celebrity connections that always help,” Crawford-Plant said. “
[Actor] Vince Vaughn came to a hospital fundraiser. All of those things help this on a national level, not just a local level, which is important for kids with congenital heart disease.”
Game-changer
Olsen recently ran into a child at Levine whom he didn’t know had the same heart defect as T.J.
“They were just playing in the hallway,” Crawford-Plant said. “He turned and asked his grandmother, ‘What does he have?’ She told him. I could see that look on his face when he realized it was the same thing.
“It’s a game changer, and we witnessed that firsthand. It’s one of those things that is hard to imagine until you find yourself in that situation.”
Greg Olsen
“T.J. was standing there beside the child and they hugged and compared scars. I’m sure they have a lifetime bond there. It was sweet to watch.”
T.J. is 4 1/2 years old now and doing well, but even with an in-home nurse there were tough days. There were times when Olsen would leave in the middle of practice and rush home or to the hospital because of an emergency situation.
Those are things he’s able to share with other families.
“The biggest message we try telling them is the day to day, you’re going to have some bad days and you’re going to have some good days, and neither one of them is a sign of how it’s going to be forever,” Olsen said.
“Just take it as it comes, don’t get too far ahead of yourself and try to map out the next week, month, year, because it’s hard enough in the beginning to map out what the next 12 hours are going to be like.”
That’s why Olsen is so passionate about the HEARTest Yard. He only has to walk down the hall to T.J.’s room to understand what others are experiencing.
“It’s a game-changer, and we witnessed that firsthand,” he said. “It’s one of those things that is hard to imagine until you find yourself in that situation.”
Starstruck to dad
Frank Cantadore was coaching a high school basketball game at Concord First Assembly Church last year when he received one of those calls Olsen got at practice.
Macie Joy Cantatore recently celebrated her first birthday. Courtesy of Canatore family
“I knew right away it was Macie,” he said. “Her blood saturation level, it’s supposed to be in the 80s and it was at zero. It’s a very scary time going through this, knowing your kid’s chest is wide open and you’re just helpless.”
Having a nurse there to help, Cantadore said, indeed was a lifesaver. Having an advocate like Olsen has been comforting.
“I don’t know Greg, but I’ve seen pictures of his kid running around and happy, so that was really good to hear when they told us Macie had the same thing,” he said.
Many families are starstruck when they first meet the 6-foot-5, 255-pound Olsen.
“He’s a tall man,” Crawford-Plant said. “I think they all take a step back. They get over that pretty quickly, because then they realize he’s just a dad.
“Kara and him were just two parents that were fighting the same battle to make sure not only that their child survived but thrived through their childhood.”
Saves lives
Macie Joy celebrated her first birthday two Saturdays ago.
That’s why Aimee teared up when she began recalling all that Olsen’s foundation has done.
Crawford-Plant understands.
“What he’s doing does save lives,” she said.
Olsen doesn’t do this to win awards. He does it because it’s personal, from what he experienced with T.J. as an adult to his mother as a teenager.
He does it because he doesn’t want others to feel the fear he and Kara once did, because he wants to see other children born with a heart defect have a healthy and happy life.
“Our rule was we tried to have more good days than bad, and life was going to be normalized even if it was going to be a little at a time,” Olsen said. “That’s why we feel so passionate about playing that forward and trying to have the families that come behind us have a better experience than we did.”
Berlin – Hakan Calhanoglu says his father will never again be involved in his career as the Turkey international and Bayer Leverkusen star begins his four-month ban for breach of contract.
The 22-year-old, Leverkusen’s joint top-scorer with six league goals, is effectively banned for all bar the last few weeks of the season after Thursday’s decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Leverkusen, ninth in Germany’s top flight, will be without its goal-scoring winger for the season’s key phase – starting with Friday’s German league match at Hamburg.
The club faces Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League in three weeks time and must finish in the top four to qualify for Europe’s top competition.
On Thursday, CAS, which is based in Lausanne, upheld a previous ruling by FIFA from Jan. 2016 which found Calhanoglu guilty of breach of contract.
In 2011, while still a teenager, the German-born forward signed a preliminary contract with Turkish side Trabzonspor, even though he had just signed an extension deal with Karlsruher.
As well as the suspension Calhanoglu was ordered to pay Trabzonspor €100,000 in compensation.
In its ruling, CAS rejected the player’s appeal against both the ban, which was suspended pending the outcome of the appeal, and the fine.
In an interview with Cologne newspaper Express, Calhanoglu explained the background.
“In our culture, the father has the say. I was 17 years old and not aware of the scope (of his actions),” he told the newspaper having stayed at home for the verdict from Switzerland.
“I heard by accident from a friend that my father had met a representative from Trabzonspor at a restaurant in Darmstadt.
“My father came home and said ‘Hakan, you must sign the contract’.
“He knows that he made a bad mistake and it makes him sad.
“He is my father and remains my father, but he will never be involved in my career again.”
After a two-year spell with Karlsruher, the attacking midfielder moved to topflight Bundesliga side Hamburg for a season before joining Leverkusen in 2014.
With Calhanoglu now unavailable, Leverkusen need star striker Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez fit again after suffering a groin injury.
New signing Leon Bailey, 19, has yet to make his debut after signing from Belgium’s Genk for €12 million on Tuesday.
