Tim Melia

Tim Melia (/ˈmiːliə/; born May 15, 1986) is an American soccer player who currently plays as a goalkeeper for Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer.

Tim Melia
Personal information
Full name Timothy Melia
Date of birth (1986-05-15) May 15, 1986
Place of birth Great River, New York, United States
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Sporting Kansas City
Number 29
College career
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2004–2005 Oneonta Red Dragons
2006–2007 Lynn Fighting Knights
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2007 Long Island Rough Riders 7 (0)
2008–2009 Rochester Rhinos 13 (0)
2010–2011 Real Salt Lake 0 (0)
2010 → Charleston Battery (loan) 16 (0)
2011 → F.C. New York (loan) 4 (0)
2012–2014 Chivas USA 6 (0)
2015– Sporting Kansas City 167 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of November 13, 2020

Youth and college

Melia was born in Great River, New York. Melia attended East Islip High School and played two years of college soccer at the State University of New York at Oneonta before transferring to Lynn University in 2006, where he played his junior and senior years.

Melia played for the Long Island Rough Riders in the USL Premier Development League in 2007.[1]

Professional career

Melia signed with the Rochester Rhinos of the USL First Division on April 30, 2008.[2] An injury to veteran goalkeeper Scott Vallow resulted in increased playing time and a number of starts for Melia during the 2009 season, and he became known for his accurate long balls from goal kicks and dead ball situations.

After trialling with Real Salt Lake during their pre-season, Melia signed with the club on March 16, 2010; he was sent on loan to USL2 side Charleston Battery in April. Following his clean sheet June 29 in a U.S. Open Cup win over MLS side Chicago Fire (Charleston won 3-0 on penalty kicks), Melia was named "Player of the 3rd Round" for the 2010 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.[3] Melia was waived by Real Salt Lake on November 23, 2011.[4]

Melia signed with Chivas USA in January 2012 and joined them during the 2012 pre-season.[5] During his time with Chivas, Melia made six league appearances for the club.

Sporting KC

In August 2014, Sporting Kansas City called Melia up from the league pool after two of the team's three goalies, Eric Kronberg and Andy Gruenebaum, were injured.[6] Melia did not make an appearance in 2014, but in December 2014, he signed with the club for the 2015 season.[7]

After beginning the 2015 season as the understudy to starter Luis Marín, Melia emerged as the starter in May and was the primary goalkeeper for the remainder of the season. For his breakthrough efforts, Melia was named MLS Comeback Player of the Year.

Since earning the starting job, Melia has emerged as one of the top keepers in the league, and has led SKC to the U.S. Open Cup titles in both 2015, where SKC prevailed in a penalty shootout, and 2017, a hard fought victory against the New York Red Bulls. Following a 2017 season where he allowed a record-low 0.78 goals per game, Melia was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year,[8] and also earned a spot on the MLS Best XI.

Honors

Club
Charleston Battery
Sporting Kansas City

Individual

References
  1. 2007 Long Island Rough Riders Archived 2011-06-10 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Welcome to Lynn University - Lynn University, Florida". www.lynn.edu.
  3. "2010 US Open Cup Third Round: Tim Melia of the Charleston Battery is Player of the Round - TheCup.us - Full Coverage of US Open Cup Soccer". thecup.us.
  4. "Players waived as teams begin to shape rosters for 2012". MLSsoccer.com. 23 November 2011.
  5. "Angel, Smith among faces at Chivas training camp". 16 January 2012.
  6. Kovzan, Sam. "Sporting KC Weekly Update: Aug. 13, 2014". SportingKC.com. Sporting Kansas City. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  7. "Sporting KC signs goalkeeper Tim Melia". Sporting Kansas City. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  8. McDowell, Sam (November 16, 2017). "Sporting KC's Tim Melia takes unlikely path to MLS goalkeeper of year award". Kansas City Star.
  9. Hainkel, Alan. "2017 US Open Cup: Tim Melia of Sporting KC voted TheCup.us Player of the Tournament | TheCup.us - Full Coverage of US Open Cup Soccer". thecup.us.
  10. Stejskal, Sam (16 November 2017). "Sporting KC's Tim Melia named 2017 MLS Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year". MLSsoccer.com.
  11. "Tim Melia voted Sporting KC's 2017 Most Valuable Player". Sporting Kansas City.
  12. "2017 MLS Best XI revealed: Who was the best in 2017?". MLS Soccer. 30 November 2017.
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