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After opening the season with a win, Bradley soccer pauses due to COVID-19 protocols

Rasmus Smidtslund looks upfield in Bradley’s season debut last Wednesday. Days following the match, the Braves program went into a pause due to COVID-19. Photo by Josh Schwam, Bradley Athletics.

The Bradley Braves soccer team will go at least 24 days before playing another game as a result of a positive COVID-19 test among Tier 1 personnel and the Missouri Valley Conference redrawing its schedule.

The announcement paused all training activity on Sunday and came just as Bradley added a last-minute game against Division-II University of Illinois at Springfield on Feb. 8, following its season-opening 3-2 victory over Eastern Illinois on Feb. 3.

This break didn’t throw off head coach Jim DeRose, as he knew going into this season that disruptions were inevitable.

“We fully anticipated these things [were] going to happen,” DeRose said. “We just talked to the guys about staying the course … We’ll start having some Zoom meetings in the next couple days and hopefully get back at it in the next five to seven days.”

Originally slated to face off against Missouri State to kick off their conference schedule, the Braves do not know who they will play next as of Thursday. What they do know is that their next game won’t be until either Feb. 27 or 28.

This leaves DeRose with very little to work with, even after coming away with a winning result last Wednesday.

“By the time we play a game on Feb. [27 or] 28 now, I think any game that was played on Feb. 3 … is really inconsequential,” DeRose said. “We have some film … but we start back up again and it’ll be a conference game. How you prepare for a conference game is vastly different [from] how you prepare for a non-conference game.”

Despite the season being put on hold, redshirt sophomore Malte Winkler thinks the break could help the team’s focus.

“It’s disappointing for sure,” Winkler said. “But it could benefit us in the long run … we have two more weeks to prepare for our first conference game.”

While there is not much the Braves can do at the moment, Winkler looks forward as the team is excited to resume play — especially after Monday’s result.

“I was excited to play last Monday,” Winkler said. “We want to play, we feel good [and] we now know what we have to do to get better.”

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