Northern Virginia Royals
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| Full name | Northern Virginia Royals |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Royals |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Stadium |
Hellwig Memorial Field Stadium Manassas, Virginia |
| Capacity | 5,000 |
| Owner | Mo Sheta |
| League | USL Premier Development League |
| 2014 | 6th, Mid Atlantic Playoffs: DNQ |
| Website | Club home page |
Northern Virginia Royals is an American soccer team based in Woodbridge, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1998, the team plays in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the South Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.
The team plays its home games at Hellwig Memorial Field Stadium in nearby Manassas, Virginia, where they have played since 2010. The team's colors are blue, gold and white.
The team has a sister organization, the Northern Virginia Majestics, who play in the women's USL W-League, and fields a team in the USL’s Super-20 League, a league for players 17 to 20 years of age run under the United Soccer Leagues umbrella. Throughout their recent history, the Royals have enjoyed minor league affiliation with D.C. United, the nearby Major League Soccer franchise.
The Northern Virginia Royals joined the USISL D-3 Pro League as an expansion franchise in 1998, and ended their first season in 7th place behind Delaware Wizards in the Atlantic Division with a 5-12-1 record. Their second season, 1999, was a major improvement, with the team winning 10 of their 18 regular season games, and finishing fourth in the Atlantic Division behind Charlotte Eagles, with striker Tim Prisco scoring a team-leading 14 goals. The team also qualified for their first US Open Cup campaign in 1999, but were upset in the first round by Florida PDL side Cocoa Expos, losing an 8-goal thriller 5-3. In the playoffs they beat divisional rivals South Carolina Shamrocks 2-1 in the first round before falling 4-0 to Charlotte in the conference semi final, but the progress on the field seemed to bode well for the future. The 1998 season and the Royals were featured in the book "Unlucky: A Season of Struggle in Minor League Professional Soccer" by Dave Ungrady, who trained and played briefly for the Royals as well. The book was highly critical of the teams ownership and the USL as a whole.
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