Wisconsin Soccer Central

It was a devastating end of the season for Matt Pyzdrowski (Marquette) and Ängelholms FF on Sunday night in Sweden.

The Superettan side saw their hopes of promotion to the Allsvenskan extinguished on an own goal in the final seconds of stoppage time, as host Syrianska posted a 3-1 victory in Södertälje that gave them a 4-3 aggregate victory in the two-match series and kept the club in the top division for 2012. (Video highlights below)

The decisive sequence started with a bouncing ball that was chested down in the middle of the box and played to Yussuf Saleh on the left side of the box. After avoiding an attempted tackle, he took a shot that looked as if it it would go wide right, but with Syrianska's Peter Ijeh running to the far post, Ängelholms defender David Bennhage tried to clear it over the endline.

But the ball went off his shin and into the net with just 12 seconds left out of the allotted 2 minutes of stoppage time. The teams would have played 30 minutes of extra time had Syrianska not scored the late winner, as the score was tied 3-3 on aggregate.

Syrianska had to play in the series because it finished 14th in the 16-team Allsvenskan – the bottom two teams were automatically relegated to the Superettan for next season – and trailed 2-1 after the first leg Thursday in Ängelholms.

The home team tied up the series in the 53rd as Abgar Barsom's 28-yard out took a bounce and skipped past a diving Pyzdrowski at the left post. Ängelholms, though, equalized in the match and regained the series lead five minutes later when Sebastian Andersson scored on a header off a corner kick.

In the 66th, Johan Arneng was left free in the box and got his head to a cross a split-second before Pyzdrowski could get to the ball and the series was all square once again. It looked as if it would remain that way into extra time, despite Ängelholms being reduced to 10 men in the 81st when Marcus Lindberg was red carded, but the last-gasp own goal ended matters.

It was the second straight week Ängelholms allowed a winning goal in the final seconds of stoppage time – last week in their regular-season finale, Hammarby scored off a corner kick late in the fifth minute of added time to win 1-0 and avoid relegation to Division 1. Ängelholms could have earned automatic promotion to the Allsvenskan by winning that match.

Pyzdrowski, 25, played every minute in goal in his first season with Ängelholms, compiling a 16-8-8 record with a 1.38 goals-against average and eight shutouts.

• The goals keep coming for Charles Kazlauskas (Milwaukee Thomas More) – and he's brought a little of Wisconsin to Holland. Kazlauskas scored for the fifth time in his past seven matches, slotting in the final goal in the 76th minute to cap Helmond Sport's 3-0 victory over host Telstar in a second-division Jupiler League match Friday night. After the goal, Kazlauskas did the "title belt" celebration made famous by Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Here's a link to the goal
  
  

• Both Wisconsin natives playing in Norway's Toppserien scored on the final weekend of the season. Katie Bethke (Eau Claire Memorial) capped Arna-Bjørnar's 3-0 victory over Medkila with her sixth goal of the year – she averaged a goal every two matches, playing 12 games after signing with the team at midseason. And Shannon Smyth (Mequon/Milwaukee DSHA) netted her seventh of the season as Amazon Grimstad drew 2-2 with Sandviken. Arna-Bjørnar (16-5-1) finished fourth in the 12-team league, while Amazon Grimstad (8-11-3) was seventh.
• The Milwaukee Wave announced the signing of three forwards for the 2011-12 Major Indoor Soccer League season, returnees Tenzin Rampa (Madison West/UW-Milwaukee) and Hewerton Moreira and newcomer Nick Perera. Rampa is back with the team for the fourth season, while Moreira will be playing his ninth season of indoor soccer and fifth with the Wave. Perera, 25, played for the San Diego Sockers of the Professional Arena Soccer League-Pro and the San Diego Fusion of the PASL-Premier the past two seasons.