Whether it was in Chicago’s ethnic leagues, in the glitzy North American Soccer League of the 1970s, with the U.S. National Team or in the Open Cup, Willie Roy usually found the net he was aiming for.
A native of Germany whose family emigrated from Treuberg to Chicago in 1950 when he was 10, Roy was a natural athlete. A state wrestling champion at Reavis High School, he also played football, ran track and was a quick study at baseball in the Windy City’s local sandlots. In college he earned All-Big Ten and all-America honors in wrestling at the University of Illinois.
He didn’t start playing organized soccer until he was 16. But when he did, it was a thing to behold. In 1965, Roy went on a tear in the local Chicago National League and in the league’s annual indoor tournament. That same spring, he also made his U.S. National team debut, netting twice in a game against a Bermuda All-Star team during preparations for 1966 World Cup qualifying.
“I just loved scoring and punishing goalkeepers,” said Roy, still sharp and full of smiles at the ripe old age of 81. “I was happiest when they had to pick the ball out of the back of the net.”
Roy didn’t play in the 2-2 World Cup Qualifying draw with Mexico in Los Angeles, but he made his World Cup qualifying debut in front of 57,000 fans in Mexico City. He would go on to represent the United States 20 times in the 1960s and 70s and became the first U.S. player to score in Mexico’s Azteca Stadium.
He also – and almost single handedly – carried Hansa, a member of Chicago’s National Soccer League, to the 1965 U.S. Open Cup Final.
Selection to the U.S. squad seemed to spark Roy’s goal-scoring in Cup play. Hansa easily got through the first two local rounds with a 4-1 win over Red-White and Green and a 3-1 win over Maroons. In the state semifinal against the Kickers, Roy scored twice in a 4-1 win.
When the competition first moved beyond the Windy City, Roy was one of three Hansa scorers, along with Cornel Krieger and Horst Gringel, to find the net as the Chicago side jumped out to a 3-0 first-half lead and claimed a 3-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in front of 1100 fans.
Back on the home turf of Oak Brook Park, Hansa dismantled 1957 Open Cup winner Kutis SC of Saint Louis4-1, Roy leading the way with the first of two consecutive hat-tricks. A few days later, playing for a Chicago area selection (pictured above, in stripes), Roy scored in an exhibition game against West Germany’s Hanover 96 at Soldier Field.
It had been nearly a decade since a Chicago-area team reached the Final of the Open Cup (Schwaben S.C. lost to the fabled Harmarville Hurricanes in 1956). To match that feat Hansa would need to beat two-time and defending Open Cup Champs, the Los Angeles Kickers (now dubbed Kickers-Victoria after a merger with another club).
Roy – true to form – lifted the Chicagoans on his shoulders.
He scored his first goal, following up on an initial shot that was blocked by K-V goalkeeper Volker Bauerle. A few minutes later Roy was brought down in the penalty area by Kickers defender Eddie Mata and Herb Treichert converted the spot-kick to put Hansa up a pair inside the first 20 minutes of the foul- filled game.
The LA squad, playing on the familiar turf of Wrigley Field, a baseball stadium built by the same chewing gum magnate whose name adorns the famous Chicago ballpark, pulled one back when they won a free-kick. Hansa goalkeeper Helmut Golambeck punched out Warner Mata’s initial effort, but it fell to the feet of Steve Bester, who put in the rebound.
Hansa went up 3-1 before the half, when Treichert looped a free kick into the area and Roy headed it past Bauerle. Roy’s third goal turned out to be the game-winner. Breaking past his marker and making a 40- yard run, he finished with a shot into the far corner early in the second half.
With rough play continuing from both squads, the Californians made it close by converting two second-half penalties for a 4-3 final.
Seeking to become the first Chicago team to win the U.S. Open Cup since the Falcons in 1953, Roy gave Hansa an early advantage in the first leg played at Ukrainian Field in Flushing, Queens – not far from where Major League Soccer outfit New York City FC have broken ground on their new stadium.
Ukrainians goalkeeper Nelson Yables was whistled for handling the ball outside his penalty area as he tried to beat Roy to a loose ball. Roy blasted the resulting free kick into the net at the 13-minute mark for a 1-0 lead. “I remember that one like it was yesterday,” Roy said. “It really swung right in there.”
Aided by the wind, a stellar defense and solid goalkeeping by George Dera, Hansa held the slim lead until the 87th minute, when Jose Cap netted the equalizer.
“We had them at 1-0 and time was really running out,” said Roy, recalling the fading moments of the game. “Then they got a corner-kick really late, seconds to go I think, they scored and that’s just the way things go sometimes.”
It seemed Hansa would have the edge to capture the Open Cup, with the second leg played back home in Chicago in front of 3,434 at Hanson Stadium. Once again, Roy staked them to the lead, scoring on a free-kick from just outside the box early in the second half.
The New Yorkers answered in the 70th minute to tie the score, then got three more goals in overtime to grab a 4-1 win. Among the members of the winning team were future hall of Famers Joe Machnik, Gordon Bradley and the outstanding Walter Schmotolocha. “The field in Chicago was so much better than ours in New York,” said Schmotolocha, who went on to be capped multiple times by the USMNT. “With that nice green grass in Chicago, we could really play the game the way we knew how.”
While stats are incomplete, Roy had at least 11 goals in Hansa’s 1965 Open Cup campaign. And while he and his mates from Chicago came up just short of the prize, it was a campaign to remember.
Roy’s play as a 21-year-old was so impressive that Chicago area soccer official Al Kazmarek made this comparison to Chicago Daily News columnist Harvey Duck: “I have seen Pelé play and Willie, right now, is the closest thing to him. And he’s six years younger.”
While Roy’s career certainly didn’t match that of Pelé, by American standards of the time, it was an excellent one. As President and General Manager of the Chicago Spurs, Kazmarek signed Roy to a contract for the 1967 season of the National Professional Soccer League (which would join with the United Soccer Association in 1968 to form the North American Soccer League). His 17 goals and five assists earned him All League and Rookie of the Year honors.
He holds his time with Hansa, vying for a national championship with his humble local team, as a cherished memory. “It was a day out for the people,” said Roy, among the very best American players of his generation.
“There wasn’t much to do in those days but all the ethnic clubs had their own clubhouse. We had the St. Pauli Bar and we really looked forward to practices on Tuesday and Thursday and the games on Sunday,” he told usopencup.com in 2017. “After the games, we went to the clubhouse – It was all a part of it.”
Roy went on to play with the Kansas City Spurs, St. Louis Stars and Chicago Sting in the NASL. At the time of his retirement following the 1975 season, his 42 goals and 29 assists placed him sixth on the league’s all-time scoring list.
When Roy earned his 20th and final cap for the USMNT, in 1973 against Israel, his nine career goals were tops all-time for the Stars and Stripes. Six of those goals came in World Cup qualifiers.
After his playing days, Roy served as first assistant coach and then head coach of the Chicago Sting, leading them to North American Soccer League championships in 1981 and 1984. He later coached at Northern Illinois University.
Roy was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1989 where his name lives on, as it should, among the best of the best of American Soccer.
Charles Cuttone is a writer/author, historian and three-time winner of the National Soccer Coaches Association writing award. Additional reporting by Jonah Fontela, editor-in-chief of usopencup.com.