On an evening in mid-April, Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., provided the setting for a career-best performance from Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia. He stopped six shots, one of them a penalty kick off the foot of the league’s top scorer, serving as the catalyst for a 2-0 victory.
Some 167 days later, the result remains Sporting Kansas City’s most recent road triumph.
The relevance: With only four games left in its MLS regular season, the team’s playoff hopes will almost almost certainly be decided outside of Children’s Mercy Park.
Sporting KC occupies the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.