Once an MLS pool goalkeeper, the 31-year-old has put such instability in the past to become the shot-stopper behind the league's stingiest defense
Tim Melia's path to MLS prominence doubles as a tour of the American soccer pyramid, dotted with ambition, persistence and no shortage of quirks.
One such oddity? His 2014 stint as an MLS pool goalkeeper — a hired gun of sorts, kept on retainer by the league in case any club needed a shot-stopper on short notice. For five months, Melia's career amounted to the antithesis of his sport. He was a loner, by definition, playing for himself in a team game.