EXCLUSIVE: A verbal beatdown in South London forced Richards to realize he needed a mindset change to reach his potential, dreams
ST. LOUIS – "I just have a lot to say."
Chris Richards has found his voice. Not that it was ever lost, to be fair, but it was a bit more muted, maybe a bit more timid. Not anymore. Richards is himself, but louder. He's the same player, but more confident. He's Chris Richards, but a different version, one whose goal is no longer to break into teams, but to lead them.
That applies for both club and country. He lifted one trophy this year with Crystal Palace, where he was fueled by the hardest conversation of his career, right on through to an FA Cup. He has a chance to lift another on Sunday with the USMNT, having stepped into the spotlight in the absence of many of the team's stars. Despite several veterans missing this Gold Cup, there has been no leadership void – in large part because Richards has been eager to fill it.
That's by design. All of the interviews, press conferences and media availabilities? That's him taking responsibility. All of those moments on the training pitch? That's him using his experience. And all of the crucial moments that propelled the the USMNT to the Gold Cup final? Well, that's just Richards being Richards, establishing himself as one of the most vital pieces in this USMNT – with a World Cup on the horizon.
"Honestly, I'm just me," Richards tells GOAL. "It's not something where I have to step out of myself and do extra. I'm myself, but just a little bit more vocal. I've also gotten to a point where I can just be a leader and be more vocal rather than letting a captain do it. There can be three or four captains on the field. That's what makes a great team – more than one guy stepping up to the plate.
"I understand I'm a leader and I want to act like it. Regardless of who's on the team at the World Cup next year, I still want to be that person. I came into this summer with the confidence to say, 'Man, I'm doing my own f*cking thing and I’m going to be me'. Like, I'm going to earn my spot, but I'm also going to try and be captain or whatever the case may be. That's been my No. 1 goal this camp."
Richards finding his voice isn't a new development, though. His path towards leadership didn't begin this summer. It began with a verbal beatdown back in South London, one that forced him to reckon with the fact that he hadn't yet become the player he always wanted to be.
Getty Images Sport'What do you want to do?'
It was in the late fall, Richards recalls, when he was sitting right where he had been for some time: on the fringes. It's where he spent the first two seasons of his Crystal Palace career. Richards was a center-back in the Premier League but, as of this fall, he hadn't really yet proven himself as Premier League quality.
There's a difference, of course, and Palace assistant Paddy McCarthy knew it. He was a Championship player during his career, save for one solitary appearance in the Premier League. Richards is better than McCarthy ever was at every single facet of the game, but he wasn't the player McCarthy imagined he could be. The American needed a push – and a hefty one.
"He asked me, 'What do you want to do?'" Richards recalls. "He was like, 'Do you want to captain your country? Do you want to play in the World Cup or do you just want to be a guy on a roster?' No, I want more. But he said that I need to prove it. He fully believed in me. 'Do you just want to be a guy that plays every few games, or do you want to be a captain?' I want to be captain, and he said, 'Well, show me'.
"It hurt, but it was something I had to learn. I'm glad I had that conversation because I don't think I'd be where I'm at now if we didn't. I don't know where I'd be right now."
Richards immediately took it to heart. It was an attitude change, yes, but also a hyperfocus on the little things. McCarthy drilled Richards repeatedly on them. For example, the Palace coaching staff saw Richards as a top-level progressive passer. All too often, though, he was getting jammed up, largely because he was playing too high.
Drop off, McCarthy said, and find those extra five yards. Then, on the defensive end, Richards was told to "be more like a monster." The staff thought he was afraid of throwing his body around, despite his obvious size. Not anymore.
"With Chris, I think he's finally coming into his own," USMNT teammate Tyler Adams said after Richards' recent goal against Saudi Arabia in the Gold Cup. "I'm just like 'Dude, go and win the ball, you're huge.' He's continuing to find that balance and be a threat for us."
Richards, meanwhile, puts it more succinctly: "Sometimes you just have to blow someone up and say 'F*ck it'.
With his mindset changed, he went on to lock down a starting spot at Palace, forming a fearsome back three alongside Frenchman Maxence Lacroix and England international Marc Guehi. Behind that trio, Palace went on to make history, winning an historic FA Cup to bring the club to new heights.
Now, months later, Richards can admit it: he doesn't know if they would have won that trophy if he hadn't taken McCarthy's criticism to heart. At the very least, he wouldn't have played a part in it. It was a wake-up call and a reminder that there are levels to this – which one did Richards want to find himself on?
"As men, we have to be able to take on harsh things and apply them," he says. "Especially when you see the best professional athletes, they've been told their sh*t don't stink their whole life and, at some point, someone has to have an honest conversation with them. From there, it's sink or swim. I've seen guys slip at the youth level because they weren't ready or willing for hard conversations."
Richards didn't sink, though. Instead, he rose to the top.
AdvertisementAFPLifting the FA Cup
Since winning the FA Cup, Richards has been asked about it almost daily. He doesn't mind. How could he not talk about it? When something means that much to so many people, it's a permanent part of life.
By defeating mighty Manchester City, 1-0, at Wembley in May, Palace lifted the first major trophy in the club's history. This is a club that was founded in 1905. It took 119 years for Palace to reach these heights and, Richards was a big part of it, going all 90 minutes to preserve a clean sheet against one of Europe's most fearsome attacks.
"People keep asking me what the best part of winning the cup was," he says. "I think it was what it meant to the generations of Palace fans. I love winning trophies – who doesn't? But I was looking into the crowd and seeing 80-year-old men crying their eyes out because even their parents hadn't seen Palace win a major trophy. That's what meant so much more."
There was no distance between Richards and those fans in the stands. He lives among them. He's often stopped in South London, partly because of his trademark hairstyle, he admits. He's made friends and, while they may not have been on the field, it's always felt like they've been along for the ride.
"I have a good friend who works at the store that I love," Richards says. "I've been going there ever since I got to Palace. He said he'd love to take his grandad, who has been a Palace fan since he was a season ticket holder in the '60s, with his dad. He asked me for tickets to the semifinal game because his granddad hadn't been in 40 years. I surprised him with two tickets to the final and said, 'Please bring your grandad because we're going to win this today.'
"Maybe you're at City or Liverpool and this stuff goes under the radar. Not at Palace. When you do something for the first time, and in the way we did it? It was perfect."
That momentum has carried right on into USMNT duty. Richards arrived in the U.S. with a smile on his face. It hasn't faded since.
Getty Images SportNo compromising with the USMNT
Mauricio Pochettino noticed a difference after Richards arrived in Chicago for camp last month. There was something new about him, a new confidence. This was the same Richards, but one who had a bit more to say.
"He's the type of player that can be a leader and step up with a performance," Pochettino said. "I'm happy for him because he's a great guy. I think it was fantastic for him, winning the FA Cup. And now he's trying to translate all of that experience to this team with his performances. At the same time, though, he's so humble, and that is what I like most. He arrived and is always very open to learn or talk."
Richards has done plenty of talking this summer, certainly more than usual. With familiar faces such as Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Antonee Robinson, among others, out of the team, Richards has been front and center.
He's sat at the podium next to Pochettino at pregame news conferences. He captained the U.S. in the opening friendly against Turkey. Every chance he's gotten, Richards has been front and center, smiling.
"It's authentic," he says. "That's one thing I don't want to do: switch things up. I don't want to be someone who switches when the cameras or interviews come. What you see is what you get. I'm the same way with my parents, with my girl, with the team. I'm the exact same.
"I am one of those veteran players in this camp, and I think a lot of guys are looking to me for guidance, leadership, whatever the case may be. I also try to be a breath of fresh air. I try to keep things light around here."
Not always, though. It isn't always light-hearted. Take, for example, the Costa Rica game. After Malik Tillman missed a penalty, members of Costa Rica were quick to get in his face and taunt him. Richards wouldn't stand for it. He, along with several others, darted across the field to start to stand up for their teammate.
Richard earned a yellow card for it. Worth it, everyone around the U.S. has said. It was the right thing to do.
It's something that multiple members of the USMNT have said has been lacking. Richards agrees. Sometimes, you need a good old-fashioned scrap to remind people of certain things. Sometimes, you need your huge center-back to dart across the field looking to send a message.
"You have to be able to fight," Richards says. "You have to be competitive and be intense in every game. I think, within the last year or so, we may have lost that because of, I guess, how easy CONCACAF games had kind of come to us. It's not to blame anybody, but I think March was the straw that broke the camel's back. I think that was a real chance for us to look in the mirror and ask each other 'What we we doing?'
"I think maybe we lost our way in the last year and became too friendly and nice to teams. F*ck that. We want to be the guys who, if you want to beat us, you have to earn it. We have to show teams that we're not anyone to mess with, whatever it takes. We stand up for each other. That's something that we should never compromise."
That unwillingness to compromise is something Richards is bringing to everything he does now. Hindsight tells him there were moments he did in the past and, knowing the consequences those led to, he has a very new perspective on his own journey.
GettyIgnorance and what-ifs?
It's been seven years since Richards was anointed as the USMNT's next great center-back. That title was handed to him when he first started to break through at Bayern Munich in the summer of 2018. His youth coach, Eric Quill, said that Richards was going to be the USMNT's starter at the 2022 World Cup. It didn't happen that way.
In that 2018 summer, people saw him in that famous Bayern red shirt. They, and Richards himself, didn't know how far away he was from being ready to wear it.
Before arriving in Munich, Richards had briefly spent time with the FC Dallas academy, having been cut from that very same academy at age 16. Before that, he was just a kid in Alabama, one who had no clue what he was signing up for when he made the move to Germany in 2018.
"Within two years, I went from playing in Alabama to playing for Bayern Munich," he says. "I almost felt a bit… ignorant? I felt like I was on top of the world at Bayern, but there's so much more that goes into being a full-time pro than just that. It was a lot to take in. Sometimes, looking back, I wish I maybe worked a little bit harder because who knows where I could be? I wouldn't change anything about my journey because it was my journey to take."
He wouldn't change anything, but he can acknowledge that there are some "what-ifs" in the picture. The biggest one? The 2022 World Cup. He missed out due to injury. Even if he had gone, there's no guarantee what that would have looked like. At the time, he had just eight caps. Could he have done, something, anything, to ensure he could have gotten a few in Qatar that winter?
"I missed that World Cup due to injury and when I look at it now, I was just a young kid," he says. "You know how your dad tells you you should stretch now so it's a natural habit when you're older? Those were things I could have done, that extra one or two percent more. Maybe I would have made the roster. Maybe I wouldn't have been injured.
"It sucks because I feel like I deserved the opportunity, but it makes me work even harder now, knowing that I did miss out. God's timing is perfect, and that's my motto. I was devastated, but I've been letting that fuel me to make sure I do everything right now."