American Bobby Wood gets winner to boost Hamburg

American Bobby Wood had another game to remember yesterday, scoring a late winner after his earlier goal was disallowed as Hamburger SV beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1 to boost its Bundesliga survival chances.

The 24-year-old Wood is steadily making a name for himself since joining Hamburg from German second-division team Union Berlin last summer.

He struck with 10 minutes remaining after leaving defender Jannik Vestergaard sprawling with a quick change of feet and then rifled the ball into the roof of the net from close range.

It was Wood’s fifth league goal of the season.

The Hawaii-born forward has eight goals in 29 appearances for the US national team.

‘Gladbach defender Andreas Christensen had opened the scoring after 20 minutes with a header off Oscar Wendt’s free kick. Wood thought he’d equalized seven minutes later but the goal was ruled out for offside amid Hamburg protests after the linesman at first failed to raise his flag.

The linesman further antagonized home fans with another offside decision ruling out Lewis Holtby’s lob over Yann Sommer. TV replays showed it was again the correct call.

But there was nothing wrong with Filip Kostic’s header in off the post a minute later in the 36th, sparking relieved celebrations for Hamburg and prompting a wry smile from referee Deniz Aytekin with all the players looking in his direction.

Hamburg ‘keeper Rene Adler pulled off two huge saves to deny Josip Drmic and then Patrick Herrmann in the first half.

Hamburg had the ball in the net again in the second, and once more it was ruled out for offside, leaving Kyriakos Papadopoulos with his hands on his face. Again, it was the right call.

GERMANY Bundesliga

Yesterday Schalke-FC Augsburg ........................ 3-0 Hamburger SV-B. Monchengladbach2-1

Standings

P W D L F A Pts B. Munich 24 18 5 1 60 13 59 RB Leipzig 24 15 4 5 43 25 49 Dortmund 24 12 7 5 53 27 43 Hoffenheim 24 10 12 2 45 25 42 Hertha Berlin 24 12 4 8 32 26 40 E. Frankfurt 24 10 5 9 26 27 35 FC Koln 24 8 10 6 33 27 34 SC Freiburg 24 10 4 10 31 41 34 B. M’gladbach 24 9 5 10 30 33 32 B. Leverkusen 24 9 4 11 37 39 31 Schalke 24 8 6 10 31 27 30 FSV Mainz 05 24 8 5 11 33 40 29 FC Augsburg 24 7 7 10 23 33 28 Wolfsburg 24 7 5 12 22 34 26 Wer. Bremen 24 7 5 12 31 44 26 Hamburger SV 24 7 5 12 24 46 26 Ingolstadt 24 5 4 15 23 41 19 Darmstadt 24 4 3 17 17 46 15