11-12-25 Lance with Nick Hagglund

Nick talks with Lance about FC Cincy's win over Columbus and his injury recovery.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
The following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Sorry, let's get to it. Seven eight seven hundred WLW.
Welcome in RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet.
I'm Liance Pacanist. I'm like the middle of the sandwich tonight.
I follow Red's hot stove. I lead you into the
Scott Saderfield Show. That means one hour of sports talk.
We've got ground to cover, not much time to do it.
Let's get to it. Let's start with this. Let me

(00:45):
take you back to Saturday night at TQL. This is
how it sounded in the final few seconds.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Into the midfield, Powell will touch How long will Chris
Pencil let it go? There's your nine minutes Powell into
the Night's there it bounces across the midfield.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hey, full time, whistless.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Cincinnati defeat Columbus.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And they are dancing in the bailey tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
Ohio is orange and blue.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Tommy g with the call. Listen to that crowd. FC
Cincinnati rallied beat Columbus to advance in the MLS Cup playoffs.
They now face enter Miami CF a week from Sunday,
a TQL and MLS Cup Conference semi Final Action. Two
weeks ago. My first guest tonight was named MLS Comeback
Player of the Year. Represented the Orange and Blue friend
of the show. Always good to spend a few minutes

(01:37):
with him. Let's welcome in, Nick Haglan. How are you.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
I'm doing great, Lace, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
It is a great catching up.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I think back and getting ready for this tonight. I
was visualizing you running towards the bailey, you climb into
the stands Saturday, you're celebrating with him, and it just
felt like a culdred of emotions for you, of beating
a rival, of advancing in the playoffs, of coming back
from all those injuries, having missed two years ago. In
that matchup against Columbus, there had to be a lot

(02:09):
flowing through you at that moment.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
One hundred percent you nailed it. I mean there was,
you know, several different things going through my head. One
beginning of the year, I would have never imagined being
able to play this many games this year, then being
able to be in the playoffs and starting you know,
we didn't make we didn't make it past the first
round last year, and two years ago we lost the Columbus.
So being a part of this, all of it. Getting

(02:32):
to celebrate with the fans was just an awesome night.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
You used words like grit and response after the match.
You guys are down one to nothing second half. Talk
to me about the grit and response, and I think
you alluded to this being a club that is built
for moments like that.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
Yeah, I think it would have been easy for us
to put our heads down when the goal happened. But
after after it happened, I kind of looked at that
everyone and was like, look, we can do this. We're
we'd we'd been playing well all night and obviously it
was one play which I believe was off side, but
they didn't call it. And for me, we you know, together,

(03:10):
we we decided to you know, keep fighting, keep battling,
and within four minutes we got to go back.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Brenner scores in the eighty six minute you go up.
And then nine minutes of I'll never forget Tommy, Tommy
g on the on the radio call saying and it's official.
Nine minutes of stopping time, And I'm thinking nine minutes
and I swear my watch stopped. And it just proceeded
to drag and drag and drag what's it like in
your mind in real time working with nine minutes of

(03:38):
stoppage time?

Speaker 4 (03:40):
Yeah, I mean you want to when the board goes up,
especially when you're winning, you want the number to be low.
Nine minutes was nine minutes was a lot. But again
I said that this club was built for this because
we had been in so many one zero games all
year and had been able to close them out. And
I think, you know, even though was an onslot, we

(04:00):
had a Vander who's usually attacking it up in the
up in the field, he's all the way in the
back line defending with us their goalkeeper of that half field.
We were prepared to like take whatever on for as
long as we needed to to get the win.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Brenner with the brace the game winner, and what we
talk about a club being built for the moment, he
seems to live for moments like that. How big has
he been for this club this year?

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Oh, he's been so important since he's came in, just
his energy, his connection with the Vander and Kevin up there.
He you know, when he left, he kind of left
on bad terms and came back a different player who
I feel like has appreciated what the club has to offer,
and you know, his energy and his creativity and the

(04:44):
type of player he is helps everyone be great.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
There's always great satisfaction and eliminating a rival. I would
think part of Pat's message since is the kind of
the cloche. There's bigger fish to fry here.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
Absolutely absolutely, it's you enjoy your moments, enjoy your couple
of days of reading the news and people reaching out
to you and whatnot, and then it's time to move
on to the next one. Because the goal wasn't to
just beat Columbus in the playoffs, it was to win
MLS Cup.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Two weeks ago, you're named MLS Comeback Player of the Year,
voted on by the MLS club, technical staff, the media,
the players. It's had some time to sink in. You'll
probably appreciate it more in the off season when you're
not working on games. But what does it mean in
the moment knowing you're the MLS Comeback Player the Year
voted on by peers?

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (05:34):
I mean for me, I feel like this is an
award that is a reflection of all the people that
are around me. You know, I couldn't have done it
without my wife and my kids, and the staff, the
medical staff, and you know, all the fans that were
cheering me on when I got hurt, They're like, we're
going to see you come back. I think there's a
reflection of all the people that were around me pushing

(05:56):
me to continue on, to believe in me, and it's
it was just so cool because at the beginning of
the year I really didn't think I was I told Mary,
I would have been happy to be subbed in for
like ten minutes for one game and be like, yeah,
that was it.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
What's it like? And I've always I've talked with athletes
over the years who when they're going through the injury
process and the rehab process, just the sense of being
alone or detached from teammates for so many moments where
it's just you and the grind. What's it? How do
you get through stuff like that?

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (06:29):
For me, it feels like, you know, playing soccer isn't
the goal you know every day, If you just like
put that in front of you, like I'm going to
be back to who I was before the injury, and
you think about that all the time, I think it
puts this unnecessary pressure on yourself. For me, it was
like making these like mini goals every day to like
get a little bit better or see a little bit
of improvement here or there, or maybe it takes a

(06:51):
couple of days to see the improvement. And these little
like milestones, these little markers. I feel like you take
every day, one one thing at a time, and that
helps you get to your end result.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
I had your general manager, Chris Albright on the show
about ten days or so ago and and ask him
about you and winning the award and your comeback. Take
a listen to what he said. Here's a general manager,
Chris Albright.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Nick is so deserving of all the success accolades the
way that people talk about him. He's an integral part
to the to the culture, the kind of heartbeat of
the club, A player that when I first sawd to
when I arrived about four years ago, I knew he
was going to be a part of our plans. And
he really is an extension of myself, the coaches down
there in the locker room, you know, helps helps get

(07:35):
across exactly what we're trying to achieve. And really happy
to see him score the other night in front of
his family and his hometown.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well, Nick, I hear him use words like culture and
heartbeat and extension and and man, that's got to mean
a lot to you. And I hear him describe it,
and what a perfect marriage you with them and then
with you.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Yeah, no, it is honestly for me, there's nothing more
than I want them this club to succeed. And being
able to put everyone on the right the right page,
from from top to bottom, from the general manager to
the players to the staff. Being able to you know,
help everyone out in some regard to create this culture

(08:15):
that is a winning culture is incredibly important to me.
And so that's really nice to hear.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Well, I remember we talked back in uh, this would
have been around May. After the injury in Atlanta. Your
hospitalized for ten days there, the two fractured ribs, the
collapse along your your family was scared to death, Your
kids were scared to death. Your your wife dropped them
off with the grandparents. She flies to Atlanta to be
with you. How's how's the family doing these days? And
do they still call you rib boy?

Speaker 4 (08:44):
They still call me rib boy? I often I also
I often get threatened by my daughters if I do
something wrong, They're like, I'm gonna get you. But they're
all good. They're very happy. They've been enjoying watching me play,
and they enjoy enjoyed being in the stadium watching the
Columbus crew games that we just had this weekend. So

(09:04):
they've been enjoying the process.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
That is awesome. Hey, I'm really happy for you. Congrats
on all things, just the health, the success, the team success,
your success. I can hear in your voice how much
it means, and keep this thing rolling in. Best of
luck and always enjoy our conversation.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
Thank you so much, appreciate it. Lance.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Take care,