Shot of energy in a grueling season

The doctors who pieced together the shattered ankle of Manchester United's Antonio Valencia last September told him not to expect to play to his finest level before this spring.

They were spot on.

In a Champions League match last year against Glasgow Rangers, the bones in Valencia's lower left limb were fractured and dislocated and the ligaments torn. He was a victim of his own extraordinary speed, proving too fast for Rangers defender Kirk Broadfoot, whose mistimed tackle felled Valencia.

From then until now, Valencia has been in limbo. But his return could not be more timely.

On Saturday, Valencia was in the right spot at the right time to head a goal in United's 2-0 victory against Fulham. With United's victory - and its lead atop the Premier League - secure, Manager Alex Ferguson was able to rest Valencia for the final 15 minutes.

"Antonio is a marvelous footballer," Ferguson said. "We chose the right time to take him off and keep him fresh for Tuesday. He will play an important role then."

Tuesday night is the second leg of United's Champions League quarterfinal against Chelsea; United won the first leg on the road, 1-0. Saturday is the semifinal of the F.A. Cup, pitting Manchester United against Manchester City.

That is the way the season falls. Long, grueling seasons can turn out to be survival of the fittest, especially in years after World Cup tournaments.

Valencia's unlucky break in the fall could turn into United's advantage now. His courage and hunger have already galvanized United over the three weeks that Ferguson has eased him back into the team. More important, Valencia's freshness sparkles against tired athletes.

More than 30 years ago, Miljan Miljanic, the wily trainer of Real Madrid and the Yugoslavian national team, made the observation that players could be lions in the autumn but lambs by the spring. Miljanic was thinking of English teams, with their emphasis on physical speed and their unremitting 10-month season that then, as now, has no midwinter holiday.

But he might well have been describing the situation across the continent. Real Madrid will meet Barcelona on Saturday with an unprecedented intensity. Madrid won, 3-0, at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, but still lags 8 points behind Barcelona, which came from a goal down to beat Almeria, 3-1, at Camp Nou.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 28th league goal of the season for Madrid, so, naturally, Lionel Messi scored twice to make his tally in La Liga 29. Take in all their competitions and Ronaldo and Messi could share 100 goals before the season ends.

Each player has to dodge the kind of injury that brought down Valencia. They will see a lot of each other, starting at Bernabeu on Saturday. Then they meet again in the Copa del Rey final and more than likely also will contest a Champions League semifinal over two legs, all in the space of 18 days.

It is either a feast or a farce of scheduling. Injuries are a part of the accepted risk, but fatigue is, or should be, an avoidable problem. The way out is for the club coaches to rotate their playing squads so that they rest vital players.

This is the time of year when the stockpiling of valuable reserve players makes sense. Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola, for example, left David Villa, Pedro, Adriano and Seydou Keita out of the starting lineup Saturday. He rested them despite the team's already being without four other top players because of injury or suspension.

Guardiola took the calculated gamble that first-place Barça could overcome last-place Almeria with almost any lineup he chose. For a while, it looked like an embarrassing calculation.

Almeria, under its third coach of the season, put up a stubborn and feisty defense. Barcelona had 85 percent of the ball possession, yet was shocked when Miguel Angel Corona scored a breakaway goal five minutes into the second half.

But normalcy was restored within minutes when Villa, replacing the injured Bojan Krkic, was brought down by the Almeria's goalkeeper Diego Alves and Messi scored on the penalty kick.

The pivotal goal of the night arrived through Thiago Alcantara, who is going to be a brilliant talent, perhaps even the replacement for Barcelona's playmaker, Xavi Hernandez. Thiago's pedigree is immaculate: He is the son of Mazinho, a 1994 World Cup winner with Brazil, and Valeria Alcantara, a gifted volleyball player.

If he moves like his father, he leaps like his mother. After 54 minutes, he rose to a corner kick served up by Messi. Thiago stands no higher than 5 feet 7 inches, but he timed that jump far better than his opponent, Santiago Acasiete, and he headed the goal with perfection.

Thiago, who was born in Italy and raised in Spain while his father played in Europe, turns 20 on Monday. He first played, at the age of 5, on the junior team of Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro. By choice, he qualifies for the Spanish national team as well.

Now on the fringes of Barcelona's first team, Thiago brings vital freshness to a side whose stars have played with barely a summer break for three years because of Spain's world pre-eminence.