Unlucky: A Season of Struggle in Minor League Professional Soccer

by Dave Ungrady

A new book chronicles the adventures of minor league soccer in a way that has never been done before. A Season of Struggle in Minor League Professional Soccer , follows the adventures of the Fairfax, Virginia-based Northern Virginia Royals, which made its debut during the 1998 season. The Royals played in the D3 Pro League of the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues, the lowest level of professional soccer in the U.S. Players in D3 can be paid, but the Royals players received no financial compensation for their efforts. Most worked full-time jobs while playing for the Royals. Author Dave Ungrady has written a behind-the-scenes and honest account of the struggles athletes endure at the minor league level. Most sports fans see the glory and excess that prevail in the top levels of professional sports today. In "Unlucky", the reader will be exposed to the grit and sacrifice a minor league soccer player must endure. Ungrady, a former collegiate soccer player and track athlete who turned 40 last year, also trained with the team the entire season with the hope of playing in one game. Part of the book documents his struggle to stay fit for a professional debut. Never before has anyone written about minor league professional soccer while training with a team. Ungrady lived the team experience, attending meetings and road trips and practicing up to four times a week while working full-time. "Close access and time commitment were important to understanding the motives of the players," he said. "When you train with a team, you become part of the team. It's the best way to fully understand what the players feel and how they play the game." Playing for the Royals helped Ungrady achieve a lifelong dream of becoming a professional athlete. "I wish it happened when I was a lot younger," he said. "But, as a writer, it was one of the most gratifiying experiences of my life."

Genres: Soccer

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 1998

Reviews

[Robert Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually read this book a long time ago and recently reread it when I found it buried in a box of soccer memorable that I had tucked away.

As I reread it, I remembered what I liked and didn't like about the book in the first place. Professional soccer had it's first big boom in the US during the 1970's but due to mis management and lots of other issues the NASL folded.

The United States Soccer League soon formed in it's wake and has undergone a variety of name changes and format changes, but still exists today as the USL. During the late 1990's and early 2000's another "boom" occurred and the hapless Northern Virginia Royals were part of that team.

Ungrady could have written a book about young players trying to make it as professional soccer players at a time when professional soccer was seen as a joke or as a fools errand by most of the United States. You had to fight for press coverage, you often played in front of a few hundred fans, and if you were lucky, maybe a few thousand on a good night.

This is a time when a players paycheck might bounce so you worked around your full time job and training. Chasing a dream that would seem crazy to most.

Instead he decided to concentrate on himself, a slightly better than average player in his prime who now is living out the fantasy of being a professional athlete somewhere in his early 40's.

In other words it becomes a book more about himself than it does the other players. It's still interesting in places but it falls into one of the issues I have with memoirs in general. It becomes an ego trip.

That being said, the book is easy to read and would be a fun romp for anyone that is interested in the "early" days of soccer. Or the current 2nd and 3rd divisions of soccer here in the United States (the USL) or just the lovable losers of minor league teams.