Speaker 1: The following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.
Speaker 2: Sorry, let's get to it. Seven eight seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2: Welcome in RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet.
Speaker 2: I'm Liance Pacanist. I'm like the middle of the sandwich tonight.
Speaker 2: I follow Red's hot stove. I lead you into the
Speaker 2: Scott Saderfield Show. That means one hour of sports talk.
Speaker 2: We've got ground to cover, not much time to do it.
Speaker 2: Let's get to it. Let's start with this. Let me
Speaker 2: take you back to Saturday night at TQL. This is
Speaker 2: how it sounded in the final few seconds.
Speaker 3: Into the midfield, Powell will touch How long will Chris
Speaker 3: Pencil let it go? There's your nine minutes Powell into
Speaker 3: the Night's there it bounces across the midfield.
Speaker 2: Hey, full time, whistless.
Speaker 4: Cincinnati defeat Columbus.
Speaker 3: And they are dancing in the bailey tonight.
Speaker 4: Ohio is orange and blue.
Speaker 2: Tommy g with the call. Listen to that crowd. FC
Speaker 2: Cincinnati rallied beat Columbus to advance in the MLS Cup playoffs.
Speaker 2: They now face enter Miami CF a week from Sunday,
Speaker 2: a TQL and MLS Cup Conference semi Final Action. Two
Speaker 2: weeks ago. My first guest tonight was named MLS Comeback
Speaker 2: Player of the Year. Represented the Orange and Blue friend
Speaker 2: of the show. Always good to spend a few minutes
Speaker 2: with him. Let's welcome in, Nick Haglan. How are you.
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, Lace, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: It is a great catching up.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I think back and getting ready for this tonight. I
Speaker 2: was visualizing you running towards the bailey, you climb into
Speaker 2: the stands Saturday, you're celebrating with him, and it just
Speaker 2: felt like a culdred of emotions for you, of beating
Speaker 2: a rival, of advancing in the playoffs, of coming back
Speaker 2: from all those injuries, having missed two years ago. In
Speaker 2: that matchup against Columbus, there had to be a lot
Speaker 2: flowing through you at that moment.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent you nailed it. I mean there was,
Speaker 4: you know, several different things going through my head. One
Speaker 4: beginning of the year, I would have never imagined being
Speaker 4: able to play this many games this year, then being
Speaker 4: able to be in the playoffs and starting you know,
Speaker 4: we didn't make we didn't make it past the first
Speaker 4: round last year, and two years ago we lost the Columbus.
Speaker 4: So being a part of this, all of it. Getting
Speaker 4: to celebrate with the fans was just an awesome night.
Speaker 2: You used words like grit and response after the match.
Speaker 2: You guys are down one to nothing second half. Talk
Speaker 2: to me about the grit and response, and I think
Speaker 2: you alluded to this being a club that is built
Speaker 2: for moments like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it would have been easy for us
Speaker 4: to put our heads down when the goal happened. But
Speaker 4: after after it happened, I kind of looked at that
Speaker 4: everyone and was like, look, we can do this. We're
Speaker 4: we'd we'd been playing well all night and obviously it
Speaker 4: was one play which I believe was off side, but
Speaker 4: they didn't call it. And for me, we you know, together,
Speaker 4: we we decided to you know, keep fighting, keep battling,
Speaker 4: and within four minutes we got to go back.
Speaker 2: Brenner scores in the eighty six minute you go up.
Speaker 2: And then nine minutes of I'll never forget Tommy, Tommy
Speaker 2: g on the on the radio call saying and it's official.
Speaker 2: Nine minutes of stopping time, And I'm thinking nine minutes
Speaker 2: and I swear my watch stopped. And it just proceeded
Speaker 2: to drag and drag and drag what's it like in
Speaker 2: your mind in real time working with nine minutes of
Speaker 2: stoppage time?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you want to when the board goes up,
Speaker 4: especially when you're winning, you want the number to be low.
Speaker 4: Nine minutes was nine minutes was a lot. But again
Speaker 4: I said that this club was built for this because
Speaker 4: we had been in so many one zero games all
Speaker 4: year and had been able to close them out. And
Speaker 4: I think, you know, even though was an onslot, we
Speaker 4: had a Vander who's usually attacking it up in the
Speaker 4: up in the field, he's all the way in the
Speaker 4: back line defending with us their goalkeeper of that half field.
Speaker 4: We were prepared to like take whatever on for as
Speaker 4: long as we needed to to get the win.
Speaker 2: Brenner with the brace the game winner, and what we
Speaker 2: talk about a club being built for the moment, he
Speaker 2: seems to live for moments like that. How big has
Speaker 2: he been for this club this year?
Speaker 4: Oh, he's been so important since he's came in, just
Speaker 4: his energy, his connection with the Vander and Kevin up there.
Speaker 4: He you know, when he left, he kind of left
Speaker 4: on bad terms and came back a different player who
Speaker 4: I feel like has appreciated what the club has to offer,
Speaker 4: and you know, his energy and his creativity and the
Speaker 4: type of player he is helps everyone be great.
Speaker 2: There's always great satisfaction and eliminating a rival. I would
Speaker 2: think part of Pat's message since is the kind of
Speaker 2: the cloche. There's bigger fish to fry here.
Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely, it's you enjoy your moments, enjoy your couple
Speaker 4: of days of reading the news and people reaching out
Speaker 4: to you and whatnot, and then it's time to move
Speaker 4: on to the next one. Because the goal wasn't to
Speaker 4: just beat Columbus in the playoffs, it was to win
Speaker 4: MLS Cup.
Speaker 2: Two weeks ago, you're named MLS Comeback Player of the Year,
Speaker 2: voted on by the MLS club, technical staff, the media,
Speaker 2: the players. It's had some time to sink in. You'll
Speaker 2: probably appreciate it more in the off season when you're
Speaker 2: not working on games. But what does it mean in
Speaker 2: the moment knowing you're the MLS Comeback Player the Year
Speaker 2: voted on by peers?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean for me, I feel like this is an
Speaker 4: award that is a reflection of all the people that
Speaker 4: are around me. You know, I couldn't have done it
Speaker 4: without my wife and my kids, and the staff, the
Speaker 4: medical staff, and you know, all the fans that were
Speaker 4: cheering me on when I got hurt, They're like, we're
Speaker 4: going to see you come back. I think there's a
Speaker 4: reflection of all the people that were around me pushing
Speaker 4: me to continue on, to believe in me, and it's
Speaker 4: it was just so cool because at the beginning of
Speaker 4: the year I really didn't think I was I told Mary,
Speaker 4: I would have been happy to be subbed in for
Speaker 4: like ten minutes for one game and be like, yeah,
Speaker 4: that was it.
Speaker 2: What's it like? And I've always I've talked with athletes
Speaker 2: over the years who when they're going through the injury
Speaker 2: process and the rehab process, just the sense of being
Speaker 2: alone or detached from teammates for so many moments where
Speaker 2: it's just you and the grind. What's it? How do
Speaker 2: you get through stuff like that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: For me, it feels like, you know, playing soccer isn't
Speaker 4: the goal you know every day, If you just like
Speaker 4: put that in front of you, like I'm going to
Speaker 4: be back to who I was before the injury, and
Speaker 4: you think about that all the time, I think it
Speaker 4: puts this unnecessary pressure on yourself. For me, it was
Speaker 4: like making these like mini goals every day to like
Speaker 4: get a little bit better or see a little bit
Speaker 4: of improvement here or there, or maybe it takes a
Speaker 4: couple of days to see the improvement. And these little
Speaker 4: like milestones, these little markers. I feel like you take
Speaker 4: every day, one one thing at a time, and that
Speaker 4: helps you get to your end result.
Speaker 2: I had your general manager, Chris Albright on the show
Speaker 2: about ten days or so ago and and ask him
Speaker 2: about you and winning the award and your comeback. Take
Speaker 2: a listen to what he said. Here's a general manager,
Speaker 2: Chris Albright.
Speaker 4: That's great.
Speaker 3: Nick is so deserving of all the success accolades the
Speaker 3: way that people talk about him. He's an integral part
Speaker 3: to the to the culture, the kind of heartbeat of
Speaker 3: the club, A player that when I first sawd to
Speaker 3: when I arrived about four years ago, I knew he
Speaker 3: was going to be a part of our plans. And
Speaker 3: he really is an extension of myself, the coaches down
Speaker 3: there in the locker room, you know, helps helps get
Speaker 3: across exactly what we're trying to achieve. And really happy
Speaker 3: to see him score the other night in front of
Speaker 3: his family and his hometown.
Speaker 2: Well, Nick, I hear him use words like culture and
Speaker 2: heartbeat and extension and and man, that's got to mean
Speaker 2: a lot to you. And I hear him describe it,
Speaker 2: and what a perfect marriage you with them and then
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it is honestly for me, there's nothing more
Speaker 4: than I want them this club to succeed. And being
Speaker 4: able to put everyone on the right the right page,
Speaker 4: from from top to bottom, from the general manager to
Speaker 4: the players to the staff. Being able to you know,
Speaker 4: help everyone out in some regard to create this culture
Speaker 4: that is a winning culture is incredibly important to me.
Speaker 4: And so that's really nice to hear.
Speaker 2: Well, I remember we talked back in uh, this would
Speaker 2: have been around May. After the injury in Atlanta. Your
Speaker 2: hospitalized for ten days there, the two fractured ribs, the
Speaker 2: collapse along your your family was scared to death, Your
Speaker 2: kids were scared to death. Your your wife dropped them
Speaker 2: off with the grandparents. She flies to Atlanta to be
Speaker 2: with you. How's how's the family doing these days? And
Speaker 2: do they still call you rib boy?
Speaker 4: They still call me rib boy? I often I also
Speaker 4: I often get threatened by my daughters if I do
Speaker 4: something wrong, They're like, I'm gonna get you. But they're
Speaker 4: all good. They're very happy. They've been enjoying watching me play,
Speaker 4: and they enjoy enjoyed being in the stadium watching the
Speaker 4: Columbus crew games that we just had this weekend. So
Speaker 4: they've been enjoying the process.
Speaker 2: That is awesome. Hey, I'm really happy for you. Congrats
Speaker 2: on all things, just the health, the success, the team success,
Speaker 2: your success. I can hear in your voice how much
Speaker 2: it means, and keep this thing rolling in. Best of
Speaker 2: luck and always enjoy our conversation.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, appreciate it. Lance.
Speaker 2: Take care,