More than a journeyman: Zac MacMath has found a home with Real Salt Lake
After playing every minute of the 2022 MLS season, the 31-year-old goalkeeper has signed a contract extension through at least the 2024 season (and more likely, 2025).
HERRIMAN — When Zac MacMath looks back on his career as a goalkeeper in Major League Soccer, “journeyman” may or may not be the word chosen to best describe it.
But the definition certainly fits.
The former No. 5 overall draft pick by the Philadelphia Union back in 2011 signed a two-year contract extension with Real Salt Lake last week, with a club option for the 2025 season, that would ensure Salt Lake City as one of the longer stops in his professional career.
The St. Petersburg, Florida native spent the first four years of his pro career, and the better part of a fifth, in Philadelphia and broke out toward becoming one of the league’s shining stars in goal before trouble sent him to Colorado. But after three years in the Mile High City and one more in Vancouver, MacMath has found a home on the Wasatch Front — one that would be a home for the MacMath clan for five years, if RSL picks up his last option.
After becoming perhaps the first goalkeeper to be supplanted by two big-money signings in MLS history, stability may be the one thing MacMath valued as much as any other in his career.
“Through COVID and the pandemic when I first moved here, it was pretty rough for everyone and hard for a very young family. But after being here for three years, we’ve really enjoyed Utah,” said MacMath, who has two kids with his wife. “We’ve enjoyed the project of new ownership, of Pablo (Mastroeni), of the locker room and my wife being able to hang out with other wives and the children.
“That relationship that we’ve all built together has been awesome. That isn’t everywhere in the league; it’s not everywhere with other teams around the world. I think we’ve kind of built that into our culture, and it helps us do our jobs a lot easier. I think that was very important for me and my family to stay here for three years, and hopefully continue to build our family.”
Through trial and error — and the help of a pandemic that limited travel — MacMath has become a backbone of a new RSL generation, one that at times struggled to find itself following the retirement of institutional legends Nick Rimando and Kyle Beckerman.
No one would compare MacMath to Rimando. But he’s set out becoming his own goalkeeper, and earning his own accolades, in his own way: he became the first-ever true “Iron Man” in RSL’s 18 seasons a year ago, playing all 3,060 minutes of each game in the club’s 34-game regular-season schedule (as well as 120 minutes in playoff appearances via the penalty showdown at Austin FC). He made a career-high 102 saves, registered 10 clean sheets, and upped his total to 48 matches in three years with RSL to get to over 190 in his career of 17,000-plus minutes.
But like any goalkeeper, MacMath defers credit to his teammates — and the bond he’s forged with a new group of RSL diehards in the locker room.
“We’ve all been here through the pandemic, through the ownership change, through those do-or-die playoff games,” MacMath said. “I think that’s built a lot of trust with each other, and I think that radiates throughout the locker room.”
There were plenty of leaders that developed in that locker room. But MacMath stands out among the best of them.
“I think everyone’s excited to have Zac back,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “I thought he really gave us a lot of confidence in our build with the ball. There’s probably a handful of games where he was just standing on his head, denying opportunities. But being a player who has traveled quite a bit, I think his last best stint was when we were in Colorado, before Tim Howard came; that was another unfortunate situation.
“I think he’s waited and been prepared for this opportunity that is before him, to lead this group from the back and to lead this group from the back and to be here for the next few years. Any time you can have that kind of consistency, I think it brings a sense of ease to everyone in the group.”
After joining the Union, the University of Maryland graduate earned his first start in September 2011 in place of injured goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon. MacMath made 103 appearances from 2011-2015 between the sticks for the Union.
But his time in Philadelphia may be best known for the way it was cut short, when the Union brought in half-million dollar goalkeeper Rais Mbolhi in what many regard as the worst signing in club history.
The younger MacMath was loaned to the Colorado Rapids in 2015, then signed a full-term deal a year later before going on to make 28 appearances in the Mile High City.
Again, the reliable backstop was supplanted by a big-money signing when the Rapids brought in former U.S. men’s national team starter Tim Howard from Premier League side Everton. Two years, $100,000 in targeted allocation money and a deal for Nicolas Mezquida later, and MacMath found himself serving a one-year stint with the Vancouver Whitecaps.
He made 28 appearances in British Columbia before RSL traded for him Dec. 17, 2019, passing on $50,000 in TAM to the Whitecaps. And it may have been the best $50,000 the club has spent.
MacMath came in initially to provide a proven leader and mentor to rising star David Ochoa. But off-the-field drama eventually led to Ochoa’s transfer to D.C. United, and MacMath is now approaching his 50th regular-season cap with the club.
“After David left, I thought I had a real chance at extending here and trying to make this my spot for the next few years,” said MacMath, who had offseason surgery but plans to report to preseason training in the next few weeks. “I’m very happy to get that done, and continue this culture that Pablo and new ownership have built.”