Hasler finds some goosebumps in the road
Liechtenstein native calls singing and shouting fans at BMO Field ‘amazing’
Nicolas Hasler got goosebumps the first time he experienced a Toronto FC game at BMO Field.
It was July 22, a night game at the Reds’ fortress against the Colorado Rapids. The match was one of Toronto’s more forgettable results this season — a 1-1 draw that maintained its unbeaten home record but did not earn them the three points they wanted.
Still, for Hasler, an unused sub, it was a night to remember.
You might expect that the 26-yearold Liechtenstein native has seen his fair share of electric soccer atmospheres, hailing from central Europe, a hotbed for the sport. But the crowd at BMO Field held its own, and more.
“I only have big atmospheres when I play in the national team,” Hasler said this week. “In my country, obvi- ously it’s a small country, we don’t have a lot of fans in our stadium with my former club (Vaduz, in the Swiss Football League). This, with 30,000 people inside the stadium, was fan- tastic for me . . . The fans were singing, shouting. It was amazing.”
After making his debut for the club at DC United nearly a month after signing, Hasler got his first chance to play in front of that crowd in last Saturday’s win over the Portland Timbers.
While he knew before joining the club that the sports market across North America was a big-ticket industry, he remains in awe of the theatrics surrounding the game.
“I was prepared for this but it’s now bigger than I thought,” he said. “I’m still in a wonderland.
“The little films the people are doing from (Toronto FC) that you can show before the games, to bring people inside the stadium, it’s amazing for me.”
Hasler has played right wingback in his first two appearances for Toronto FC, filling in for the injured Steven Beitashour.
With Beitashour on the mend after lacerating his pancreas in late June and expected back as early as this Saturday against the Chicago Fire, the versatile Hasler could see playing time elsewhere.
“I think he’s done well and gotten better in the two games at the right back position,” coach Greg Vanney said Tuesday. “That’s a position he’s played, it’s not his most natural position.
“He’s probably more natural, at times, playing as kind of a running eight, a guy who works in both directions and is looking maybe a touch more attacking than defending. But we have a lot of guys in those positions so his versatility gives us some different looks.”
Hasler has also played on the right side of a more traditional back four, as well as underneath a striker, among other roles.
But Vanney is careful not to spread Hasler too thin.
“What I don’t want to do initially is get into a position where we add a guy into our team and we’re throwing him into a bunch of different places and he never really settles into anything,” he said.
“As we’ve seen in the last two games, the more he gets comfortable with the group, the higher his ceiling becomes with our group. We’ll keep trying to be as consistent as we can with him for the time being and then have some considerations as we get forward.”