Toronto FC’s most successful season in club history has seen a return to prominence for one of the team’s unsung heroes. Defender Nick Hagglund began this year with a brief stint at TFCII but is now a key cog in Greg Vanney’s freshly invigorated 3-5-2 formation that sent the Reds to an Eastern Conference semi-finals matchup with New York City FC. At BMO Field on Sunday (Kickoff 7 p.m.), the 24-year-old will face some of the MLS’s finest offence in Andre Pirlo and MVP candidate David Villa.
“Any time you get to measure up against a guy that has that kind of pedigree, it’s a fun environment,” said Hagglund after Friday’s training session in Toronto. “In our home stadium, we want to get a shutout.”
“In any one-off game, it’s all about character and grind. In a two-game series you can be a little bit strategic about it — away goals are important.”
Hagglund’s first year in Toronto was a whirlwind. Drafted 10th overall in the 2014 SuperDraft, the rookie featured 25 times as TFC suffered injuries to captain Steven Caldwell and Doneil Henry. He scored his only pair of MLS career goals to spark a dramatic come from behind victory at home to Portland in September of that year. And in December, once the dust had settled on his first campaign as a professional, he went and got married, to his childhood sweetheart Mary.
After a lean 2015, in which he was limited to more of a backup role, Wednesday’s historic knockout game win over Philadelphia was Hagglund’s 16th appearance of the season. Traditionally deployed at right-back or in the centre of defense, the right-footed player has slotted in seamlessly on the left of the back three with Drew Moor and Eriq Zavaleta.
“It’s versatile,” said the six-foot-one defender on the 3-5-2. “You can combat the other team’s forwards in different ways. It’s not just three, sometimes it’s five, and sometimes it’s four.
“I think you can be more versatile at how you’re defending the other team.”
Hagglund and his beaming smile were at the heart of the post-game celebrations on Wednesday night and he believes the feeling of a first playoff win will give his side the edge on Sunday.
"The support behind us was amazing," said the Xavier University grad. “The momentum and the character that we built from that game is going to be important.
“I don’t know how many of those (NYCFC) guys have played in playoff games but I know that every one of us has played at least one and I think that experience for us is going to carry through.”
Hagglund isn’t short of inspiration, reserving special mention for his parents and older sister Jenna. “I followed in her shadows,” he said of Jenna, who plays professional volleyball in Italy and won gold with the United States national team at the 2015 Pan Am Games.
The young defender has plans to go home to visit his family in Cincinnati in the offseason but for now, he’s focused on a clean sheet on Sunday. TFC and their East Coast rivals have shared a liberal 18 goals across five games since the NYCFC’s inception in 2015.
“Playoffs is different that the regular season. Teams are more willing to look to keep a shutout than to score a bunch of goals,” said Hagglund.
“But you never know. We have Sebastian on our team so anything can happen.”
