Roy, Willie

When Roy was six years old, his family moved to the United States from Germany, settling in Chicago . After attending high school Rivis ( Illinois ), he began to play semi-professional football in the Chicago area. In 1964, he joined Hans from the National Football League of Chicago. In 1966, Hans won the Peter J. Peel Challenge Cup, and became the Illinois state champion, although a year ago the team lost to New York National in the US Open Cup .

In 1966, a number of events occurred that had a great influence on Roy’s future career. Three separate groups decided to create a professional league in the United States through various negotiations, the two groups united in the National Professional Football League (NPSL). Despite this, the US Football Federation and FIFA refused to recognize the NPSL, it signed a contract to broadcast the matches on television with CBS , thereby guaranteeing some element of financial stability.

At that moment, Roy continued to play exclusively in the Chicago regional league and the US team. In 1967, he joined the newly formed Chicago Spurs of the NPSL. At the time, Roy was one of eight US citizens in the league. There was also Bob Gansler, teammate and teammate, her future coach. In his first year with the Spurs, Roy scored 17 goals and gave 5 assists, making him the second best league scorer, newcomer of the year and a member of the All Stars team NPSL.

Another event influenced Roy’s future football career. The NPSL merged with the United Football Association in December 1967 to form the North American Football League. That same year, the Spurs moved to Kansas City . Roy spent one season with a new team. He experienced a career slump in 1968, playing 15 games, scoring 6 goals and giving 4 assists. Nevertheless, the team played well, losing only Atlanta Chiefs in the play-off of the semifinal.

Roy left the Kansas City Spurs in 1971 to join the St. Louis Stars (NASL) in 1971. For three years with the "Stars", he scored 18 goals and made 16 assists. In 1972, the team went to the NASL Championship finals, losing the New York Cosmos there (2: 1).

After leaving the team, Roy continued to play professionally for several more years. In 1975, he joined his last team, the Chicago Sting . He played one season with Sting, statistically the worst in his career. Roy did not score a single goal and made 3 assists in 14 games. He quit football at the end of the season.

In 1965, Roy made his debut for the US team in a qualifying match for the 1966 World Cup against Mexico in Mexico City (0: 2 loss). He played his second match in nine days against Honduras , where the USA lost all chances to qualify for the final part of the World Cup.

Roy enjoyed relative success with the national team in 1968. He played eight games, scoring six goals. In these eight matches, the team lost only once. More importantly, four of these games were qualifying matches for the 1970 World Cup . In these three games, Roy scored 3 goals. The following year, he played only one game with the national team against Haiti (2-0 loss). This game, in combination with the second loss in Haiti in a month, meant the end of another hope for the US World Championship. Roy did not play for the national team until the qualifying matches for the 1974 World Cup began.

In 1972, Roy played four matches for the national team, all the qualifying matches of the 1974 World Cup. The United States never won without reaching another world championship. Despite the gloomy performance of the team, Roy scored in three games in a row, in the end - a record six goals in the qualifying matches for the World Cup. No one was able to repeat the achievement of Roy until Kobe Jones did it in 2000 ^[1] . Roy's record was held before Ernie Stewart scored his seventh goal in 2001 in the qualifying round for the 2002 World Cup ^[2] .

Roy played five games for the national team in 1973. In that year, he scored once, ending his career in the national team with a result of 20 matches and 10 goals, one of the best ratings for performances for the national team among all US players.

MISL started its activities in 1978, and it achieved success in the first two years of its existence, since most of the teams from NASL went there, avoiding a financial collapse. NASL tried to replicate the success of MISL in 1981, spending a showball season in the winter from 1981 to 1982 after the end of the 1981 season of classic football.

Roy's “Sting” did not succeed in his first season in showball. The situation improved during the 1982/83 season. NASL did not conduct the closed season the following winter, so Sting played in MISL, where it took third place in the Eastern Division. Roy and "Sting" still added during the 1983/84 season, already in NASL. They took second place in the standings, losing only the "New York Cosmos" in the playoffs of the semi-finals.

In 1976, after retiring, Roy became an assistant head coach at the Chicago Sting. He spent two seasons in this position before moving on to the head coach position in 1979. In 1981, Roy coached "Sting", leading him to victory in the Soccer Bowl , he received the title of Coach of the Year NASL.

In the summer of 1984, Roy received his second such title at NASL as Sting coach. This was the last NASL championship, since the league was disbanded in the fall. After the death of NASL, Sting became a full member of MISL.

Roy coached the Sting for two more seasons. The team lost to Cleveland Fors in 1985, and failed the quarter-final playoffs in 1986, ending with a highly controversial result. Roy ended his tenure as Sting coach on December 23, 1986 ^[3] .

During his time with Sting, Roy did more than win two championships. He had a great influence on football, which went beyond his team, he coached the former coach of the Dutch national team, Dick Advocaat and the coach of the US women's national football team , Greg Ryan. Ryan later said that it was Roy who had the strongest influence on his development as a player and coach. Ryan said: “What distinguished Willy was his skill on the field, as a player he was a strong opponent, so he wanted to educate his players, and he succeeded. If he brought up people who did great things, it was thanks to them because they learned to work hard and fully devote themselves to their work. ”

In 1985, Roy became the coach of the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team ^[4] . In 1990, Huskis showed the best results in the Summit League and Roy was selected as coach of the year.

On February 18, 2003, the school announced that they would not renew Roy’s contract after three consecutive Huskis defeats. He left the team, winning two championships of the conference ^[5] . During his time on the team, he was known for his high academic standards, which Roy set for players. Although his last season with the team was crowned with mostly draws, Huskis is still in the top twenty.

In 1989, Roy was included in the National Football Hall of Fame.

He currently owns and manages a mini-football arena in Chicago, named after him, and contains Dolton Bowl, a bowling club next door.

In 1979, he wrote the book "Training victorious football."