Men’s soccer: Dayton looks to defend A-10 regular-season championship

“In some ways, it’s a little test of (the proposed model),” Dayton men’s soccer coach Dennis Currier said Monday. “That model picked up a lot of steam right before COVID, and then it kind of died off and now it’s going to be back on the table, I think in April (2022). So it will be interesting.”

The two-semester season, which is being called the 21st Century Model, is an idea spearheaded by Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski. The plan would call for two exhibition games and 12 regular-season games in the fall and eight regular-season games in the spring. The conference and NCAA tournaments would be held in April and May with the NCAA championship taking place in early June.

“I think it’s a good idea in that it mimics the model of professional soccer,” Currier said.

The fear about such a season, Currier said, is that might be more expensive to play a season that way.

“The only pushback to the model is that you certainly don’t want some of the teams that might be a little underfunded to just drop soccer,” he said. “You certainly don’t want to lose any programs. You just want to to make sure everybody would be on board.”

According to a report by Forbes.com in 2020, the model had the support of more than 90 percent of men’s college soccer coaches and 80 percent of players. The Atlantic 10 released a statement to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2020, saying it is generally in support of the two-semester model.

“While there are still many important details to work out, the membership of the A-10 generally believes the proposal benefits student-athletes’ health and well-being and improves the quality of the game overall,” the statement read.

Dayton’s men’s team finished 4-4-1 in the spring, winning a share of the A-10 regular-season championship with a 4-1-1 mark. After a 1-3-1 start, the season turned with a 1-0 double-overtime victory on March 28 against Saint Louis, a team that shut out the Flyers 3-0 four days earlier. Junior midfielder Jake Feiner scored the only goal with 14 seconds left in the second overtime.

Dayton had the No. 1 seed in the A-10 tournament but lost 1-0 at home to George Washington in the semifinals.

This season, Dayton was picked to finish third in the A-10 preseason poll. It received two of the 11 first-place votes cast by the league’s coaches. Fordham received six first-place votes and is the preseason favorite. Saint Louis was picked second and received the other three first-place votes.

Dayton lost leading scorer Jonas Fjeldberg, who tied for the team lead with five goals last season. FC Cincinnati picked him in the second round of the Major League Soccer draft in January, and he signed a one-year contract in May.

Every other starter returns, including Dayton’s other leading scorer, Kingsford Adjei, who will be sidelined with an injury when Dayton opens the season at 4 p.m. Friday against UAB at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Currier is hopeful he can return to action in a week or two.

Dayton started practice Aug. 11 and played three exhibition games instead of the normal two in preparation for the season, beating IUPUI, Bellarmine and Wabash by a combined margin of 11-1.

“This year, just because we had quite a few new guys coming in and obviously losing Jonas to the pros, we wanted to take an extra game to try to get out of the gates a little earlier this year and get a little bit better start,” Currier said. “I think it’s still a work in progress. We’ve had some really good moments in all three games. It’s now just kind of putting together that 90-minute consistent performance.”

There are newcomers who could contribute early. Currier mentioned three transfers: Ntezey Swalita, a junior defender who played at Memphis last season; Cooper Knecht, a senior midfielder/forward who previously played at Fairfield University; and junior forward Forster Ajago, who started five games at Delaware last season.

“I think those three guys have shown that they’ve got a little bit of experience,” he said, “and I think that help.”