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 Playing for the second straight night and trying to keep its season alive, United Serbians battled for 40 minutes down a man Thursday night.
But the Croatian Eagles ended their postseason hopes in the waning minutes.
Aaron Schroeder scored off a pass from Brett Wiesner (Brookfield East) in the 85th minute as the host Croatians posted a 1-0 victory, leaving United Serbians out of the four-team Wisconsin Adult Soccer Association Major League playoffs.
United Serbians (10-5-3), who dropped a 2-1 decision to Madison United on Wednesday, had a player red carded in the 44th minute against the Croatians. They finished the season with 33 points, one behind Bavarian SC (10-4-4) and the Milwaukee Kickers (11-6-1).
Bavarians won a tiebreaker and will be the No. 3 seed in the postseason, taking on second-seeded Milwaukee Sport Club (11-4-3) in Sunday's semifinals. The teams tied both of their regular-season matches, 1-1 back in the season opener Sept. 19 and 3-3 in a makeup game Wednesday night.
The top-seeded Croatians (16-1-1), the defending league champions, will play the No. 4 seed Kickers in the other semifinal. The Eagles swept the Kickers in the regular season, winning 5-1 in the fall and 1-0 on May 22, and beat them 3-0 in last year's final.
Both semifinal matches kick off at 3 p.m. The championship is scheduled for July 31.
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