Background
Villa grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri where he attended Mehlville High School from 1971 to 1975.
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Greg Villa
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Education
Villa attended Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Career
He earned eighteen caps, scoring five goals, with the United States men"s national soccer team between 1977 and 1980. He also played for the Busch Soccer Club as a youth player. In 1975, he scored 9 goals and assisted on 8 others
The next season he led the team with 14 goals.
Villa played for the Minnesota Kicks from 1977 to 1979. The Strikers traded Villa to the Tulsa Roughnecks only a few games into the 1979 season.
At the end of the season, the Roughnecks traded him to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers for the 1980 season. At the completion of the 1980 NASL season, he signed with the Saint Louis Steamers of Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL).
He played two seasons with the Steamers before trying out for Team America after being waived by the Chicago Sting without playing a game with them.
In 1983, the United States. Soccer Federation entered the United States. national team in NASL. Team America ended the season 10-20 and USSF withdrew it from the league at the end of the season. Villa played one more season with the Steamers in 1985-1986. Villa earned eighteen caps with the national team from 1977 to 1980.
His first game with the national team came in a September 15, 1977 victory over El Salvador.
Villa scored in the game, putting him in the company of about a dozen United States. players who have scored in their debut with the national team Villa went on to play nearly every national team game during the next three years.
However, due to President Carter’s boycott of the games, held in the Soviet Union, Villa did not play in the Olympics.
Membership
He also was a member of the United States. Olympic Soccer Team which qualified for the 1980 Summer Olympics.
