Ninety minutes before kickoff Sunday in Portland, Sporting Kansas City defender Saad Abdul-Salaam walked to the goal and tapped the left post. He strolled across the white line before reaching the right post, and he briefly placed his hand on that, too.
Ten months before, Abdul-Salaam watched a potential game-winning penalty kick clank off both those posts in a match that eventually would end Sporting’s 2015 season — such a memorable moment in Portland that Providence Park named a bar after the miss.
Sporting KC departed Portland with another sour feeling Sunday.
Portland handed Sporting a 3-0 defeat Sunday afternoon, tightening the postseason race in the Western Conference.