KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Twelve months ago, Tim Melia was enduring Chivas USA's woeful final MLS season. He’d signed with the now-defunct club in 2012, spending two-and-a-half years in Southern California before parting ways with the team halfway through 2014.
At 28, unsigned and with only a handful of MLS appearances to his name, Melia became a league pool goalkeeper, training and waiting for a call from a club – any club – temporarily in need of a backstop.
Sporting was the first of three teams to summon him, bringing in Melia in August as an emergency backup for third-string ‘keeper Jon Kempin after starter Eric Kronberg and reserve Andy Gruenebaum went down with injuries. He made enough of an impression to be offered a contract in the offseason when Sporting let Kronberg and Gruenebaum go, and now, he’s fresh off the first victory of his six-year MLS career, quietly happy for the opportunity that brought him to Kansas City last season.
“It was an awkward situation, to say the least, but I was glad to come to a club like this year because it gave me a new lease on life with soccer,” Melia said 1714587272" tabindex="0">on Sunday, after making three saves in a 1-0 home win over the Chicago Fire. “Because Chivas was a grind, and anybody who knows anything about Chivas knows that. So coming here just helps you mentally, and it was a place I wanted to be.”
Melia didn't play for Sporting last season, but was in the 18 behind Kempin – currently on loan to the NASL's San Antonio Scorpions – for four matches.
“It's hard to think back to when he came last year, because he was a pool goalkeeper,” center back and captain Matt Besler told reporters after 1714587273" tabindex="0">Sunday's match. “It's hard when those guys come in for them to really be a part of the team, because they don't know how long they're going to be here. So that Tim and the Tim who came in for preseason this year are totally different players, confidence-wise and person-wise. Tim came in and competed for the job from Day 1, and he's very confident back there.”
But even during that stopgap stint in 2014, manager Peter Vermes liked what he saw from Melia enough to bring him aboard full-time when Kronberg and Gruenebaum – the former now with Montreal and the latter retired to join Sporting's broadcast team – were let go at the end of Kansas City's disappointing season.
“It was a couple of things,” Vermes told reporters 1714587274" tabindex="0">on Tuesday. “It was the athleticism, explosiveness, power that he had as a goalkeeper. The other is that I thought he fit into the team really well, personality-wise. So from that point of view, it was good.”
Vermes especially liked Melia's even-keeled attitude, despite the ups and downs of his career – or, perhaps, because of them.
“Tim's got a really good personality,” Vermes said. “He's a humble guy. He's a hard worker. He kind of has been through a little bit, and that serves him well because when you've had to be through the ups and downs, you know how to react a little bit better in situations because you don't go to extremes quickly. You tend to be a little bit more of a calm nature and let time sort of give you a little better perspective on what you're doing.
“But you also learn to appreciate opportunities and things around you more when you've been through it, and you've been through a bad situation and you come into one that you now perceive as good, and it ends up being good. You appreciate it a little more, and you want to take advantage of it when you get that opportunity.”
For Melia, the chance came when Luis Marin – who was signed this offseason to be Sporting’s new No. 1 and had three clean sheets through Sporting's first six matches – conceded six times in two games, including four in a road draw at Houston on April 25.
“Sometimes it's good for a player – whether he's a goalkeeper or a player in the field; it doesn't matter – sometimes it's good for them to get a chance to sit back and watch and regroup and get refocused again,” Vermes said in his postgame news conference on Sunday. “But at the same time, that opens an opportunity for someone else.”
Enter Melia, who made the most of his chance – including two clutch stops in the first 20 minutes, one of them nominated for Save of the Week – as Sporting ended a three-match winless streak.
“That doesn't happen a lot, so I'm grateful for the opportunity that Peter gave me, to change the goalkeeper like that,” he said during the news conference, “because there are a lot of coaches who won't do that.”
Even so, Marin remains firmly in the picture and could be back in goal for Saturday's match at D.C. United (7 pm ET, MLS Live). And while Vermes was matter-of-fact about Marin's benching against the Fire, he also noted that the Chilean veteran is undergoing an adjustment period of his own after moving to a new league and a new country this winter.
“I think he hasn't been as sharp as I think he should be,” Vermes said later in 1714587273" tabindex="0">Sunday's news conference. “I think maybe he's not committed at times to that presence and confidence. He's had a couple of chances here lately that I think maybe, if you're watching the game, you think, 'Maybe the goalkeeper should make that save.' It happens sometimes. It's not as if he's a bad goalkeeper. It's not as if he has bad qualities. Maybe it's been a little much at this point.
“The bottom line is that that's why you have two or three players at each position, so if maybe somebody's not in form, or something's happening where they're injured or whatever it might be, you bring somebody else in.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
