Wayne Rooney was suspended and Dimitar Berbatov injured.
This paved the way for young Federico Macheda at just the age of 17 to get a place on the Manchester United bench for the crunch clash on a sunny Sunday afternoon in April against a high flying Aston Villa side led by Martin O’Neill.
Midway through the second half Sir Alex Ferguson made a substitution. Nani carrying a knock off and the young and inexperienced Federico Macheda who in midweek had scored a hat-trick for the reserves against Newcastle United’s reserves at St. James park stood on the touchline with his number highlighted in green ready to come on and help get back into the game and end a small baron spell of 2 league games without a victory.
We were 2-1 down before we kept plugging away with our never say die attitude evident and 10 minutes from time a Mr Cristiano Ronaldo had equalised with a left footed strike into the bottom right hand corner of the Villa net.
The stage was set. The inevitable United pressure was piled onto Villa after a barrage of attacks from United and deep into stoppage time the boy who was so highly regarded by all at United and especially in the reserves stepped up and made a name for himself and boy did he deliver that day.
The Evergreen Ryan Giggs had possession for us after Macheda had been dispossessed by a Villa defender as it came out to him he and passed into the feet of the debutant Macheda who allowed the ball to run through his legs before using his right to flick it inside, turn and use his stronger right foot to curl the ball home into the back of the net infront of the Stretford end and hand us a priceless victory. You just cannot write scripts like that and that is why Old Trafford is referred to as the Theatre of dreams.
That goal meant a lot to United fans whether they were in Manchester at Old Trafford, A bar in Singapore or at home anywhere else in the world. The significance of that goal and the run of 2 straight league defeats that it had ended will always ensure it lives on the minds of not only United fans but fans and everyone else involved in the football world for the rest of their lives especially Macheda as the celebrations by him and the rest of the team that day showed just how key it was.
But since the days where he saved us twice at home to Villa and Sunderland away his United career which looked so promising after those key contributions has never kicked off and at the age of 21 instead of keeping Danny Welbeck out of the team and leading the forward-line alongside Wayne Rooney he is on loan for a third year running this time at Stuttgart.
He has scored 3 goals since his heroics late on in the 2008/09 season but he has had a few chances to impress and he hasn’t taken them justifying his place in the reserves and if he has been lucky the bench.
After 2 failed loan deals at Sampdoria and Queens Park Rangers I hope Kiko’s luck is in this time and he can show everyone what he is made of and that he isn’t a player who will be remembered for a goal he scored as a 17 year old on his debut but someone who went on to make it big in the beautiful game whether it is at United or elsewhere.
I believe that Macheda’s United future should rest on his time at Stuttgart and how well he does. If he comes back in June with a few goals underneath his belt and first team experience then I believe he should have a fair crack at the whip next season especially in the cup competitions and even to rival the likes of Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez for first team spots for the league games.
We can only wait and see how he does in Germany but me and I am sure many United fans wish him the best of luck and hope for him to come back staking a claim.
Thank you for reading.
By Darren Hassennally @DarrenHazza
