Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia continued to show his remarkable prowess in stopping penalty kicks last weekend, pushing aside an attempt from Marco Fabián of the Philadelphia Union in the 41st minute of a 2-0 victory at Children’s Mercy Park.
Since the start of the 2016 season, the East Islip, N.Y. native has saved eight penalty kicks among the 18 spot kicks he has faced – the most of any goalkeeper in Major League Soccer.
PK FACED | PK GOALS | PKS SAVED | |
Tim Melia | 18 | 10 | 8 |
Nick Rimando | 15 | 9 | 5 |
Zack Steffen | 12 | 8 | 4 |
Andre Blake | 16 | 13 | 3 |
Tim Howard | 17 | 12 | 3 |
Melia, a graduate of East Islip H.S., has saved eight penalty kicks over his 10-year MLS career,fourth-most in league history. The all-time leader is still Real Salt Lake’s Nick Rimando, who has made 24 saves among the 88 penalty kicks he’s faced (56 of those goals, with eight off-target).
But Melia’s save percentage of better than 38 percent of all penalty kicks faced is the best of any goalkeeper in league history (among goalkeepers with at least five penalty kick saves).
PK FACED | PKG | PK SAVED | SAVE % | |
Nick Rimando | 88 | 56 | 24 | 27.3% |
Kevin Hartman | 57 | 41 | 12 | 21.1% |
Joe Cannon | 53 | 41 | 11 | 20.8% |
Tim Melia | 21 | 13 | 8 | 38.1% |
Matt Jordan | 22 | 13 | 7 | 31.8% |
Sean Johnson | 35 | 25 | 7 | 20.0% |
Tim Howard | 27 | 19 | 6 | 22.2% |
Luis Robles | 39 | 30 | 6 | 15.4% |
Melia and Sporting have a busy week. It hosts Independiente of Panama in a second leg of its Concacaf Champions League quarterfinal series Thursday night before visiting the Colorado Rapids in MLS action Sunday.