Willy Roy

Willy Roy (born February 8, 1943) is a retired American soccer forward and coach.

He played for several teams in the National Professional Soccer League and the North American Soccer League in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the United States national team from 1965 to 1973.

He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

When Roy was six, his family moved to the United States from Germany, settling in Chicago.

After attending Reavis High School in what is now Burbank, Illinois, he began playing semi-pro soccer in the Chicago area.

In 1964, he joined Hansa of the National Soccer League of Chicago.

In 1965, Roy made his debut with the United States national team in a 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Mexico in Mexico City, a 0–2 loss.

In 1966, Hansa won the Peter J. Peel Challenge Cup as the Illinois State Champion.

The year prior, the team lost to the New York Ukrainians in the National Challenge Cup.

The year 1966 saw a series of events that had a major impact on Roy's future career.

Three separate groups decided to form a professional league in the U.S. Through various negotiations, two of the groups merged to form the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL).

While the USSF and FIFA refused to recognize the NPSL, it gained a television contract with CBS, thereby guaranteeing some element of financial stability.

Up to this point, Roy played almost exclusively with local Chicago minor league teams and the U.S. national team.

Once again, external soccer events impacted Roy's career.

He earned his second cap nine days later in a tie with Honduras which ended the U.S. attempt to qualify for the 1966 World Cup.

The NPSL merged with the United Soccer Association in December 1967 to form the North American Soccer League.

That year, the Spurs also moved to Kansas City.

Roy moved with the team and spent one season there.

Roy experienced a sophomore slump in 1968, playing 15 games, scoring 6 goals and assisting on 4 others.

However, the team played well, losing to the Atlanta Chiefs in the playoff semifinals.

Roy enjoyed relative success with the national team in 1968.

He played eight games, scoring six goals.

In those eight games, the national team went 4–3–1.

More significantly, four of those games were qualifying matches for the 1970 FIFA World Cup.

In those three games, the U.S. went 3–1 with Roy scoring 3 goals.

The next year, he played only a single game with the national team, a 2–0 loss to Haiti.

That game, combined with a second loss to Haiti a month later spelled the end to yet another U.S. attempt to qualify for a World Cup.

Roy moved on to the Saint Louis Stars (NASL) in 1971.

In his three seasons with the Stars, he scored 18 goals and assisted on 16 others.

In 1972, the team made it to the NASL final, losing to the New York Cosmos 2–1.

After retiring from the national team, Roy continued to play professionally for a few more years.

In 1972, Roy played four games with the national team, all 1974 World Cup qualifying matches.

The U.S. went 0–3–1, failing to reach yet another World Cup.

Despite the team's dismal showing, Roy scored in three consecutive games, giving him a record six goals in World Cup qualifying matches.

Roy would not play for the national team again until it began playing qualification games for the 1974 World Cup.

In 1975, he moved to his last team, the expansion Chicago Sting.

He would play a single season with the Sting, statistically the worst of his career.

He scored no goals and made 3 assists in 14 games.

He retired from playing at the end of the season.

The next player to score in three consecutive matches did not come until Cobi Jones did it in 2000.