Men’s soccer: Dayton will adjust to season that starts in winter

While the season will finish in the spring, it will start in the winter with the season opener scheduled for Feb. 12 at Akron. Currier plans to wear heated shirts and socks at practices and games.

“That’s just an adjustment,” Currier said. “It is colder. I think what makes it easier is that there is a finish line here. We have a finish line of a conference championship. We have a conference schedule. You still get cold, but you can make it through it.”

The Atlantic 10 Conference will split into three pods to limit travel. Dayton will play a six-game conference schedule with two games each against St. Bonaventure, Duquesne and Saint Louis, the closest A-10 schools to Dayton.

There will be a four-team A-10 tournament with the three pod winners and the next best team qualifying. The semifinals will be held April 15 at the home of the highest seed, and the championship game will take place two days later at the same site.

Dayton will play four non-conference games before starting A-10 play March 13 at Saint Louis. Although the Flyers returned to practices in January, they did get some work done in the fall.

“It was challenging,” Currier said. “The start at Dayton in general was rough. We had (COVID-19) cases (on campus). We had to shut down. This is the first time for everyone. You had to go through the social distancing, the protocols. I thought the best part of the fall was the ending. We did get back out as a team. We got through the stages of the protocols. We got to train more. In terms of accomplishing a whole lot, I think it was more about learning resilience and learning some of the intangibles that it’s going to take to persevere through this. You’re not playing games. But we got to finish with a 11 v. 11 scrimmage. I know that sounds very meaningless, but in the scope of everything that was happening, that was like a win for us.”

Dayton finished 13-8 overall and 6-2 in the A-10 in 2019, losing 1-0 to Rhode Island in the conference championship game. The Flyers return their top three scorers. Jonas Fjeldberg and Kingsford Adjei each had 11 goals. Toluwalase Oladeinbo scored eight goals as a freshman. Dayton led the A-10 in goals in 2019 (2.05).

FC Cincinnati drafted Fjeldberg in the second round of the MLS SuperDraft in January, but he will play this season for Dayton. Currier said he will join FC Cincinnati in May.

“The majority of the offense is back for this year,” Currier said. “That’s really exciting. That’s been the strength of our team.”