Austin is a special place.
I’ve only been here a couple weeks, but I feel at home. This is my 11th year in this league, and I’ve never seen a city that embraced its team as much as Austin embraces Austin FC.
The way the fans treat us – the way they give back to us with their energy both in the stadium and throughout the community – is incredible. I’m proud that we were able to start the season in the best way possible, but the most important thing is to keep growing as a team. You can’t get carried away with a single result, you have to bring that same energy EVERY SINGLE DAY.
I believe we can do that. I believe we are building something that’s going to last for a long time. And I believe we’re creating a mentality around this club. It’s easy to just say “we want to win.” Everyone wants to win. Just “wanting” is not enough. It’s about how you win, and how you prepare to win. That’s the difference.
I believe that at Austin FC, we have everything on a daily basis – from the coaching staff, to the people in the kitchen, to the people that take care of the grass, to the people who help us with the media – every single person in this club is doing something for us to be the most prepared team on match day. It’s the result of all these little actions day in, day out which become habits and lead to success.
Being an Austin player is not like any other club. There’s a way you need to be and a way you need to carry yourself to be in this environment. Everyone who comes here needs to know that we have a responsibility to give back to the fans, the community, and the city for everything they’ve done for us since day one.
We’re building a culture where everyone wants to be here, everyone wants to win for this club, and everyone wants to make history. We’re obsessed with getting better every day. We push ourselves to create a competitive mindset, and the way we do those things is by being together as a team.
When tough moments come – and they always come in soccer – we’re a strong family that can solve problems. When we go on the field, we play as one and we play together. We have a clear idea of the kind of team we want to be and what we want to be about, both tactically and as representatives of this community.
We have to trust the energy of that community and give back to them by playing in a way that represents this city and the hardworking people of Central Texas. We want to show our community that every single day, in training and in games, we appreciate them.
Whoever stays at this club, we’re going to make sure that they play, behave, and represent the colors of this club every day. We want the next generation of players around Texas to dream of playing for this club.
It starts not only on the field, but in how you behave off it that grows the legend.
