Whats up guys! its been a minute since I’ve checked in to so I figured now would be a good time to drop by and show some love to The Original Winger faithful. The last few weeks have been quite a turn around for me. This time 2 weekends ago I was playing in the PDL playoffs with the Austin Aztex. The Aztex coaches (Adrian, Wolfgang, Bobby, and Ron) contacted me at the beginning of the summer and were familiar with my situation of not having a club and asked me if I would like to come down and spend the summer playing in Austin with them.

Honestly, at first, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of going from playing in MLS to PDL, but I wasn’t playing anywhere. So I pretty much had to put my ego to the side and do what I needed to do to make sure I continued delevoping and I ended up having an absolute blast playing about 15 games with them in the regualr season, playoffs and Open Cup. All the guys on the team were awesome to be with, whether it was hangin out in the apartments, or on road trips, i couldnt have asked for a better group of guys to play with! I even survived living with 3 english lads who are by far the craziest/most awesome guys ive ever met!

Andy, Spen, and Scopey, there’s your shout out, so quit bugging me!! Haha anyways, it was overall a great experience getting 90 minutes week in and week out and put the ball in the back of the net 10 times, so I’m glad I got the chance to play with them and it was unfortunate we didnt end up winning the PDL championship.

After we lost saturday night in Orlando in the 2nd roud of the playoffs, it was a whirlwind next day for me. We had 3 flights on southwest (gotta love those Southwest layovers) just to get back to austin, and then I got home, packed up all my stuff and drove over 3 hours back to Coppell sunday night to get ready to play in a Reserve game with FC Dallas Monday morning.

We ended up tying 2-2 with LA Galaxy after Michael Dello-Russo dropped an absolute BOMB in the 90th minute to earn us a point. So, after being invited back to train that week, I was again in the situation I had grown familiar with of being back on trial. this time it had a lot better of an ending. The team had a game on Sunday vs Toronto on the road and it was friday and I still hadn’t been offered a contract. Well, after training John Ellinger pulled me to the side and told me they would be offering me a contract (contrary to rumors being throw around out there, I did NOT sign as the teams Designated Player)!

It meant alot to me that John was the one who told me I would be joining the team because him and I have had many great years working together and I have been lucky to play for him in Salt Lake and now again with FC Dallas. Its also really cool for me to play for Schellas because I was this close to going to SMU before I ended up choosing UNC and so we had a good relationship from almost 5 years ago.

Back to the story of the upcoming road trip. After I found out I was going to be signed, I was also told I needed to get all my medical examinations done that afternoon so i could travel with the 18 to Toronto the next morning! Quite a turn around from waking up that morning without a contract, to knowing i would be hopping on a flight the next morning joining my new teammates for a road game. I didn’t get to play, but Kenny (Super) Cooper bagged a brace for us and we got a crucial 3 points on the road!

To make things even better, my first offical reserve game was the following wednesday vs none other Real Salt Lake in Dallas. You better believe i was looking forward to this game! To give you the cliff notes version of how the game went, we unfortunatly lost 3-2, but I was able to bag 2 goals against my old team. It sucks that we lost because that would have been the perfect way to end the day for me, but we have a chance to get them back in Salt Lake on the weekend of Oct 18!

So to sum my last 2 weeks for me, it went from playing in PDL, to rejoining MLS, to making the 18 of a road game and scoring 2 goals against my former team! It just goes to show that sometimes you have to put your ego to the side, quit waiting for things to come to you and do what you got to go to get what you want because no one is going to give you anything in this game! Someone once told me, “you’re never as good as people say and you’re never as bad as people say.”

Look out for FCD as we make a run at the playoffs and look to bring an MLS Cup to the best city in Texas, DALLAS!!

Jamie