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Russian Hackers are at it again. They infiltrated and wreaked havoc on the 2016 United States Presidential election. Russian hacking is absolutely destroying the American political process, on all levels, right now.
Today, one very notorious Russian hackers group, The Fancy Bears, have used their power to expose protected medical data in Olympic sports. Tuesday’s revelation was the Fancy Bears’ first exposure in the football world.
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Manchester United are an extremely healthy side, with Luke Shaw, Ashley Young and Marcos Rojo the only long term injuries. Of course, the injury report depends on how you classify Zlatan Ibrahimovic now too. Word is the free agent is closing on a new deal to keep him at Old Trafford, and his knee repair and rehabilitation has him scheduled to return to action at the end of this calendar year, or perhaps early 2018.
Overall, it’s really all starting to come together for the Red Devils, as Marcos Rojo returned to training at the club’s Carrington ground today.
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Legendary broadcaster Ian Darke, a man who can take most banal and uninspiring circumstances and somehow transform them to the pinnacle of relevance, via his transcendent voice, made his Premier League season predictions yesterday. Ian Darke was on the ESPN FC talk show, and he pegged Paul Pogba to be Premier League player of the year.
However, Darke sees the Manchester United man’s side finishing just fourth in the table.
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Former Chicago Bears Head Coach Dave Wannstedt knows Notre Dame football pretty well having coached against them several times while leading Pittsburgh, his alma mater. He was surprised to see the Fighting Irish take such a step back last season, especially on one side of the ball.
“The defense falling off the way they did was a bit of a mystery to me,” Wannstedt said during our exclusive conversation.
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The very often injured Luke Shaw is once again back on the comeback trail. He took a major step forward tonight, as did teammate Ashley Young as the duo played about an hour in Manchester United u23’s 1-1 draw with Swansea City tonight. Shaw sustained ligament damage in his foot last April, and it appears his return might be ahead of schedule.
The young left back wasn’t expected to return until next month. The very versatile Young, who adds to United’s depth at multiple positions, had been slated to come back in October, but he also seems to be convalescing much better and faster than expected.
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By Martin Green
Tennis’ greatest stars are all set to descend upon Flushing Meadows for the final Grand Slam of the year and one more chance to seize glory. The men’s half of the US Open could turn into a battle between youngster Alexander Zverev and 35-year-old Roger Federer, while the women’s draw looks wide open. Excitement among fans is reaching a fever pitch, with just days until it begins, and betting will go into overdrive as this will be one of the main sporting events of 2017.
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It’s very common for many British newspapers to report questionably sourced and extremely unrealistic transfer rumors as legitimate reports, but fictional quotes? This is a definition of “fake news” that we rarely, if ever see. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, one of the most entertaining soundbites in football, made the perfect subject for an interview quote hoax because of what an affable and entertaining man he truly is.
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Manchester United are off to a rip roaring start and it has the rest of the Premier League on notice. In back-to-back 4-0 drubbings of their opponents to commence the season, we’ve seen many Red Devils heroes. The list is long and it includes Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba.
Martial slumped in year two (last season) of his Old Trafford tenure, but he’s coming correct now. Pogba didn’t live up to the hype last season as the world’s most expensive player, but he’s taking it to another, much higher level this season.
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Ten days ago Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho confirmed that the club was in talks to bring back striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Ibrahimovic was the club’s leading scorer last season, but suffered a gruesome anterior cruciate ligament tear towards the tail end of United’s triumphant Europa League run.
His one year deal with United expired in June and the club decided not to extend it. Since then he has remained a free agent, but has conducted his rehabilitation activities at United’s facilities. Now, numerous outlets are reporting that United are closing on re-signing Zlatan.
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Illination Show Seven was about as meaningful, exciting fun and informative as we’ve ever been. The extravaganza begins with Minnesota Golden Gophers Head Coach P.J. Fleck, spinning yarn on well, a whole lot of stuff. The Gophers going from Tracy Claeys to Fleck, from a media skills stand point, is like trading in Cheese Whiz for a finely aged brie.
Next up is Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer in a serious conversation about the future of the sport of football, which is relevant to his own household, given that his kid plays ball.
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Illini football fans are traditionally a notoriously fickle bunch but this past year seems to have taken that to a new level. Just one year ago at this time there was a ton of optimism and buzz surrounding the program, as the hire of Lovie Smith breathed new life into the struggling organization. The hype culminated in week two when Memorial Stadium saw its first non-conference sell out in several years, but unfortunately the result of the game was disastrous for Illinois.
The Illini followed that up with another home blowout loss the very next week, and then the great check-out began. Illini football fans left the bandwagon in droves as last year’s squad stumbled to an awful 3-9 record, and put a product on the field that was severely lacking in entertainment value.
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Alt-right website Breitbart .com has had more than its share of controversy over the years. They certainly have gotten a lot wrong along the way too. This time, their mistake was to include a picture of former Arsenal FC flop Lukas Podolski in a story entitled “Spanish Police Crack Gang Moving Migrants on Jet-Skis.”
Podolski, a Polish born German international who now plays his club ball for J-League side Vissel Kobe, has absolutely nothing to do the subject matter of the story. The only connection he has to the Breitbart “article” is the fact that he’s on a jetski in the photo.
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