On Sunday, 5th April, 16:51 GMT (it was 11:51 in America and 20:51 somewhere else, I don't know where), a young Italian starlet going by the name of Federico Macheda, made a name for himself by scoring possibly the greatest goal in the history of football. Frederick's magmanimous achievement puts him along the greats of Denis Law, George Best, Bobby Charlton and everyone who's scored against Aston Villa.
The feat achieved by arguably the best player in the world right now must not be undervalued. His turn and shot, unprecented in this day and age, was the mark of a truly special talent. As the clock ticked down and Machester United saw their grasp on first place slipping, all eyes were on this Italian wonderkid on the bench. As the time ticked on, chants of 'Macheddar, Macheddar' reverberated around the ground, filled by 70,000 born and bred Mancunians.
Wth 20 minutes left, Sir Alex Ferguson played his trump card. Macheda was about to come on. Curtis Davies' legs visibly collapsed in fear. You could see it in Marcherna's eyes. Sir Alex said, 'Fed-Ex tol' me, like, tha e was gonna change the game, do you know what I mean? I coul' se the sparkle in 'im. He was gonna do sumin' special.' I had the option to type that out in Standard English but I decided not to. I'm different. Back to Marcheader.
He walked on to the pitch, fully aware that the nation's eyes were on him. United's season was up to him. The chance came after 42 minutes of extra time. John O'Shea skied a ball into the area. Federer Machismo, showing his superhuman athleticism, leaped 35 feet in the air, completing a 360 before returning the ball to the ground with immense control. He turned, turned again, nutmegged 4 defenders in a row, flicked the ball up, took his boot off, put it on his head and headed it into the back of the net. His legacy was set. His incredible debut proved that United's hard work in developing youngsters paid off as Macheda was just another product of the best youth development scheme in the world. Ask Luke Chadwick and Phil Neville.
We asked Cristiano Ronaldo what he thought. He said, 'He's like me but not as good. Not nearly as good'. That's all he said. Whatever Ronaldo's verdict, this youngster's future is sure to be filled with accolade after accolade.
The future's bright, the future's some kind of luminescent colour that's really quite bright.
Ah well, Everton won 4-0 and Villa lost, works out very nicely for us, only 1 point behind Villa now and we've got them away next. Be great if we can get a result at Villa Park, give us an advantage in terms of coming 5th as well. Big game next week, hopefully Villa'll bottle it again.
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