Wisconsin Soccer Central

After opening the season without a win in their first four matches, things didn't look much better for Charles Kazlauskas (Milwaukee Thomas More) and Dutch club Helmond Sport early in the second half Friday night.

An early two-goal lead against Achilles '29 had disappeared, and the visitors were reduced to nine men after red cards in the 46th and 65th minutes.

But Kazlauskas set up the winning goal in the 76th minute, serving in a free kick that Serhat Koc finished to give Helmond Sport an impressive 3-2 victory in the second-tier Jupiler League match.

Three days later, Helmond Sport thumped visiting FC Emmen 5-2 to quickly even its record at 2-2-2 and move into seventh place in the 20-team league.

Kazlauskas started the match against Achilles at right back, then moved to center back after Ferry de Regt was sent off in the 65th, and played the full 90 minutes in the center against Emmen.

• Aaron Nichols (UW) made his debut for Swedish second-division side Ljungskile SK, playing the final 17 minutes in a 1-1 draw against visiting GAIS on Tuesday. Ljungskile (10-10-2) got a 90th-minute goal to pull out the tie and move into seventh place in the 16-team Superettan with eight matches left in the season. Nichols signed with the club in July, but was sidelined because of paperwork issues and then suffered an injury.
• Three players with state ties played all 90 minutes in NM Cupen quarterfinal matches Tuesday in Norway. Katie Bethke (Eau Claire Memorial) was deployed as one of two holding midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation as Avaldsnes got past Klepp 3-2 to earn a spot in the semifinals, while Rosie Malone-Povolny (Marquette), Keara Thompson (UW-Milwaukee) and Medkila were on the wrong side of a 5-1 scoreline against Vålerenga. The semifinal draw is Thursday.
• The Milwaukee Wave will open the 2013-14 Major Indoor Soccer League season – the team's 30th season overall – on Nov. 16 against the Missouri Comets in Independence, Mo. The Wave's home opener at U.S. Cellular Arena is scheduled for Dec. 7 against the defending MISL champion Baltimore Blast – those teams also will meet Nov. 23 in Baltimore's home opener. The full regular-season schedule, featuring 10 home games and 10 away matches for each of the league's seven teams, is expected to be announced by mid-September. The MISL playoffs will follow the same format as recent years, with two-game semifinal series March 7 to 9 and the two-game championship series March 14 to 16. Higher-seeded teams will get to choose which game they host, and if the teams split the series, a 15-minute mini-game will be played to determine which team advances. Last season, Milwaukee tied the Blast for the best record in the league at 21-5, but lost to Missouri 5-4 in a mini-game tiebreaker after a semifinal series.
• VSI Tampa Bay defender Josh Rife, who's played the past four seasons with the Wave, was named to the All-USL PRO team. The 33-year-old Rife played in all 26 matches for the first-year side, scoring two goals.