Unlucky: A Season of Struggle in Minor League Professional Soccer

Quick disclaimer: I've met Dave Ungrady, though I did so after reading the book. I also write about soccer myself.There are many who NEED to read this book if they haven't done so already. This would include anyone who has a strong opinion about organizing soccer in the U.S. Ungrady's book just might turn your impression of lower-division soccer on its ear. "A Season of Struggle" is an apt subtitle. It's a tough life lived only by those who absolutely love the game.For everyone else -- it's simply a good, fun read. You don't even have to be a big soccer fan. He keeps a light touch through his anecdotes, interjecting his own experience but not turning into the "me, me, me" digressions that often drag down books of this type.Enjoy.

As an English soccer fan, it was very interesting to read about the travails of minor league soccer in the United States. Major League has problems competing with the three leading sports, but these are compounded for Minor League. Ungrady provides a compelling picture of the struggles of the North Virginia Royals to establish themselves. The book is given added interest by his own attempts to get into the team, not helped when he manages to take a large segment of the team to entirely the wrong town. This is a very well written book: it kept me absorbed on a flight from Seattle to Pittsburgh. I can recommend it to anyone interested in soccer or sports more generally.

This is a terrific book about the struggles of becoming a soccer player and creating a soccer team. Ungrady is certainly soccer knowledgeable and writes with a good sense of humor. It was great to get an insider's view of professional soccer in America. The book reminded me of Friday Night Lights and has been a quick read!

After spending a winter reading about spoiled basketball players being "dissed" by five million dollar a year contracts, it was a pleasure to learn about true athletes who love their game. The author brings their experiences to life for those of us whose athletic careers ended with high school graduation but who have always wondered what it would have been like to have "played on."

A book any athlete or sports fan will love, it's a vivid, often funny, personal rendering of the hard work, thankless hours, and highs and lows that low-profile minor league athletes endure in an effort to make it big and advance their sport. It's Paper Lion crossed with Bull Durham. Check it out.