Macheda United

In the spirit of Man U having every badass player in the world come up through their youth program, meet 17-year old Federico Macheda. Who is this you ask? This is an Italian kid who transfered in from the Lazio Academy and has spent all of his time with the 2nd or 3rd squads while playing for the Red Devils. He was considered the most inexperienced player that Sir Alex Ferguson had on the bench when Man U hosted Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Sunday.

With the defending EPL Champions on a 2 game skid, and a Champions League game looming in 48 hours, the Devils took the field against Villa beat up and short handed. With Berbatov and Ferdinand hurt, and Rooney and Scholes suspended for the game due to red cards, this had all of the makings of another bad day for Man U.

The day started well for the Reds with Ronaldo putting an indirect free kick in the back of the net after a bone-headed back pass from Milner to Friedel. Villa would answer, and answer strong. With goals by Carew in the 30th minute, and Agbonlahor in the 58th minute, Villa stormed back to a 2-1 lead putting Man U on the ropes and in danger of losing an unheard of 3rd straight EPL game. Already in second place behind Liverpool in the standings, the Devils could not afford to walk away with zero points in this game...

Enter Cristiano Ronaldo... again... The Portuguese Bad-ass squeaks a weak, but extremely well placed , shot by a diving Friedel to level the game at 2 in the 80th minute. At this point, the feeling that something special was about to happen was in the air. One couldn't help but to feel that the kid who entered the game in the 61st minute replacing Nani would play a part, and play a part he did.

5 minutes of stoppage time was added to the end of the game, an eternity for the firepower of Man U. At least when they have their starting line up in. But in true Devil fashion, this make shift line up was relentless in their attack, and in the 93rd minute the special happened. Macheda received the ball at the top of the 18, started out to the left, and then stopped, pivoted and bent one of the most beautiful shots you will see around Friedel and inside of the post to send Old Trafford into a frenzy...

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Something special had happened... A goal on his first shot, in his first game, and it probably will be viewed as the most important goal of the season for the Champs. Yellow carded after the goal for running into the corner of the pitch and hugging a man that had jumped from the stands, but no one cared. The season was saved.

So the title is a little over dramatic, but Macheda appears to be another up and comer for the Red Devils. Although he has a way to go to replace some of the Rooney's and Ronaldo's that already lace the Manchester United line up.