Mandy Haught exudes confidence. She’s just as comfortable on a midmorning zoom call as she looks anchoring the Utah Royals backline. Extremely technical and clearly passionate about all things goalkeeping, Haught is also quick to laugh, with a forward focused mentality. She agrees with the goalkeeping stereotypes, but you’re more likely to hear “we”, “the team” or “us” from her then any "I" statements…unless it’s about what she wants to improve on for the sake of the team.
The 25-year-old goalkeeper played every position on the field as a kid before falling into goal around age 10. Part of the appeal was the way being a goalkeeper set Haught apart from the team by providing her with a unique job on the team. Ultimately drawn to the role because of how different it was, being a goalkeeper made her feel like a superhero.
A superhero is exactly how Gotham F.C. and now Utah Royals fans might describe Haught. She won a championship with Gotham in 2023, keeping a clean sheet in the quarter and semifinal matchups. In the famous championship match with OL Reign, Haught allowed only one goal before the chaotic finish that saw her sent off for handling the ball outside of the penalty area. Gotham F.C. won, and ultimately the incident only served to make the game more memorable.
Now, a year and a trade later, Haught is holding down the backline on the Utah Royals, the new expansion team reactivated under different ownership after a hiatus from the league.
“I thought it would be a really cool part of my career to help build something from the ground up,” Haught said about the trade.
As expected of an expansion team, and particularly with a team as young as the Royals are, the results have been less than spectacular and Utah sits last in the NWSL standings. What has been spectacular? Haught’s 52 saves on the season, as well as the continued evolution of her game.
Playing with a style of goalkeeping Haught describes as “very energetic,” with an emphasis on “natural leadership from the back,” it only takes a second for Haught to turn the conversation around to her teammates.
“I just want to set my teammates up for success,” she says.
Her goal is to help her teammates ensure that the ball never gets close to her, mostly through effective communication.
Haught settles on “really bold and brave” as the hallmarks of her goalkeeping. Those are the characteristics she embodies in possession, out of possession, and positioning. The goalkeeping role oftentimes comes with the responsibility of starting the attack, so Haught adds that being comfortable and confident with the ball at her feet is crucial.
Part of her role is to be a playmaker, with or without the ball. For her, the image of a playmaking goalkeeper involves breaking lines, having high impact, and high percentage passes to enable the team to get further down the field. She points out that you have to be a playmaker out of possession too, making the saves that you’re supposed to make.
"Make the saves you’re supposed to make, then pull off one or two crazy ones if you can,” Haught added. The confidence comes from doing “the simple things, [then] the harder ones will come.”
Constantly checking positioning and what-ifs, even without the ball, means that Haught has a full plate every game. She jokes that she doesn’t stop talking once during a match. That communication helps her stay focused, where the goal is for Haught not to touch the ball.
When asked about a stat she wishes she received in games, Haught took a second before answering, “Maybe how many words I say per game,” she said with a laugh.
Haught’s in-game responsibilities include keeping track of the opposition’s forwards, their runs in behind, and communicating those forwards' positions to her center backs. She also notes the space that the opposition wants to attack.
"[It's] one of the hardest areas of goalkeeping right now, defending that space in front of you, behind the backline,” Haught says.
She points out that it's an area of growth for her—something she’s constantly thinking about.
If the ball gets through, then she’s focused on her ball line and her positioning. Can the forward score? If yes, then Haught is tight to line, if no, then she might be a little more aggressive. Throughout all of this, Haught is directing her defenders in the box.
Really though, for Haught it all boils down to positioning. That can be asking questions like: How high are you? How wide are you? Can you intercept the ball in a wide channel? Can you recover very quickly to defend the goal? All of these which Haught runs through constantly during a match. It’s also something that she considers difficult to calculate or reduce to a stat line. “It’s a discussion,” she points out, “it’s not really like you did this right, you did this wrong. You could do this, you could do that.”
If her positioning is something that you can’t calculate about her, so too is the interplay of instinct versus in-game analysis. So much of what Haught looks at in a game can be calculated, as can much of her own movement. But, at the same time, part of being a goalkeeper is relying on instinct, built up from experience. Just like how keepers are creative in their own ways in how they go about making a save or playing out of the back, they also have to change between instinct and analysis. Haught’s internal monologues are “analytical, analytical, analytical, and then you’re balanced and let all the years of work and muscle memory take over.”
Goalkeeping is a chess match of "if I do this, can I make the opponent do that?" But there’s also a chess match in balancing creativity with the rigid form of a tactical system and balancing on the field analysis with instincts. Haught starts and stops plays in the same movement, with say a diving save and then a long ball distribution in the span of two seconds. It’s all part of the unique goalkeeping toolkit that drew her to the position in the first place.
But there’s more to being a goalkeeper than the litany of responsibilities and analysis Haught has already named. When asked about her role on the team, Haught doesn’t hesitate before to name being both a leader and voice on the backline. She adds that it’s also “to keep the ball out of the net the best I can, and start the attack whenever I can.” For her, the goalkeeping role is one of setting the rest of the team up for success by staying organized and finding ways to break lines.
Part of what drew her to the Royals was building something. If the expectations for the first year were that it was a startup and everyoneneeded to get their footing, then Haught has leaned into using her experience to help guide this team as best she can. Being a goalkeeper requires utilizing effective communication, and Haught has transferred that into her everyday leadership. Especially on the backline, Haught has been coaching younger players and helping them excel.
With the on and off the field leadership required, as well as position specific responsibilities, one has to wonder how Haught stays grounded both in game and during the season.
Outside of soccer, Haught likes to do yoga when everything’s a little overwhelming. Phone calls, walks, relying on her support system are also keys to maintaining an indemnity outside of soccer.
She even says the team is very together outside the field. Doing things as a team to create, maintain, and embrace friendship connections makes Haught feel more like a person with friends, not just a soccer player with teammates.
Between the dry heat and a surprising amount of snow (and Haught made sure to point out that she was in Jersey and could handle that snow), there’s also plenty to do outside of training. “It’s beautiful, I’m loving the nature,” Haught promises, having just finished laughing about figuring out how to manage the dry heat with her leggings and long-sleeve undershirt. Besides taking advantage of the scenery with team hikes, she also hypes up the farmer’s markets in the area.
When stepping off the pitch isn’t an option, Haught slows a game down, choosing one moment at time with an eye constantly towards the future. A big thing is “connect your first pass,” Haught stresses, reiterating the advice a former coach gave her, “then you’re 100% right there.”
Keeping things simple and reducing the complexity carries over to how Haught stays grounded during the season, focusing on one game at a time. “I take what I can from the past result, but I don’t dwell on the past result,” she asserts. Pre-game she’ll listen to a four-minute or so goalkeeper motivation YouTube video, but otherwise Haught doesn’t have a set routine and she’s quick to laugh that she’s not superstitious. Goalkeepers often appear able to see into the future, but with Haught it’s clear that the future-oriented vision is a choice for staying in the moment and focused on the task at hand, whether that’s an in-game pass or the next opponent up.
And although the results haven’t been going the Royals way, Haught has the utmost confidence in her team. One of the most unexpected parts of this year, and the expansion experiment as a whole, was “how good this team can be.” Describing the first time all 24 new players trained together, Haught, voice brimming with excitement, recounted “we can all play with each other. We have some exciting things to build off, for sure.” That synergy has been shown in glimpses this season, with attacking creativity or the win against North Carolina that showed their defensive abilities.
“There’s core values and traits that this team has,” Haught promised.
Fans can see that promise and the growth the team has already demonstrated when the NWSL returns to action tonight, with the Royals taking on Bay FC at 9:30 p.m. EST. This first season might be full of unexpected moments, but Haught is embracing them all and leading through her calm confidence on the backline, one of the Royals superheroes.
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