Early snow and late goal

By: Abby | November 12th, 2007

I wasn’t shocked when I read that there was a late goal scored in the Hertha Berlin game on Saturday. That’s fairly common. What was a pleasant surprise was that the late goal was scored by Hertha. Also, that it was scored by Andre Lima. And it was the winner.

Snow greeted the fans at the Olympiastadion, with the field covered by a fine dusting of white by kickoff. With the conditions the way they were it was perhaps not destined to be a classic. Gilberto had a long-range shot on goal after 3 minutes, then another at 20. The conditions limited what could be done, with short passes going nowhere, long passes not really reaching their target, and snow and water being kicked up into a fabulous spray when anything did happen. Still, Hertha were apparently fairly dominant in the first 45 and Drobny had nary a save to make. It wasn’t all good, though, as top scorer Marko Pantelic was off at 36 minutes with injury.

Hannover came out determined in the second half and Drobny had a few saves to make. Hertha righted themselves eventually and Andre Lima, who’d come in when Pantelic came off, had a goal ruled out for offside. But he didn’t let that or the snow discourage him. Four minutes from time Malik Fathi found the Brazilian, who knocked it past Enke at close range. That won it for the Berliners, although it took a bit of luck as Mike Hanke managed to miss a free header in the box in the third minute of stoppage time.

A good result in the end for Hertha BSC. It’s great to see Lima finally get his name on the scoresheet, as he came in with a high reputation this summer from Brazil but has yet to really prove himself in the Bundesliga (and he apparently wasn’t the Brazilian striker that Favre really wanted- that honor was held by FC Zurich’s Rafael de Araújo). Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from the young Brazilian. The injury to Pantelic is a bit more worrying, as he’s the current top scorer for Hertha, but it doesn’t seem to have been too serious as he’s joined up with the Serbia squad for their next qualifiers. Hopefully he comes through those unscathed and ready for the away game at Karlsruhe on the 23rd.

I found a good video of highlights (and snow!), but it doesn’t seem to want to embed, so you’ll have to click on the link if you want to check it out.

13. Spieltag Hertha BSC Berlin – Hannover 96 10.11… – MyVideo