Chris Richards exclusive: A Copa America homecoming after World Cup 'heartbreak' (2024)

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If there is pressure on the USMNT to perform at Copa America on home turf over the next three weeks, then Chris Richards shows no evidence of it.

Instead, he views it as a chance to make up for the “heartbreak” of missing out on the World Cup in 2022 due to injury.

Richards has always presented as positive, easy-going and laid back, but that was tested when a hamstring tear ruled him out of the tournament in Qatar.

Back then, he had made only three appearances for Crystal Palace after joining from Bayern Munich that summer for $12million (£9.5m) — that fee could rise as high as $18million — and had yet to establish himself as a first-choice centre-back with the USMNT.

Now, 18 months on, the 24-year-old has accumulated another 36 appearances for Palace and 10 more international caps as he prepares to start alongside Tim Ream in a home tournament. His country’s opening game against Bolivia on Sunday comes in the familiar surroundings of Dallas, the city in which he spent the latter part of his teenage years.

“It’s been good to be here in Dallas — just driving around and seeing the same streets that I lived near, going to some of the same restaurants, seeing some of the same people,” Richards tells The Athletic.

“I was driving around Frisco in north Dallas, seeing the older part I used to live in and going to my friends’ family homes. They still live there. Then going to the high school I went to. It’s just seeing little things like that, like the gas station we stopped at every day before we went to school. It’s been kind of nostalgic.

“It’s been really refreshing. Even though we’re in season, it’s kind of felt like a vacation in a sense where I can just switch off after training and feel like that 18-year-old kid again.”

He senses soccer fever is burgeoning in the U.S. given this tournament and the 2026 World Cup will both be staged on home territory. “That was the whole plan — for this to kind of spark a new generation of people who want to play,” he says. “I hope this is definitely the push that everybody needs.

“A few of my friends played college soccer. A few of them play overseas and are home for a few days. So it’s been good to see the influence of that and see our journeys throughout the years.”

Part of his own journey has involved coping with disappointment, first waiting for an opportunity at Palace and then missing out on the World Cup. But it has also taught him patience, “which is hard (to accept) when you’re young”.

Finding out he would miss the World Cup hurt. Briefly, tantalisingly, hope had flared that he might recover in time, though that was dashed at the last. Looking back, he describes that optimism as “delusion”.

“Every kid dreams of playing for their country,” he says. “I woke up and I was fully ready. I felt like I was prepared. Then one unlucky injury and a setback in rehabilitation completely killed it for me. Even though I got healthy towards the middle of the World Cup, it was just a delusion because I was like, ‘Oh, I can do it, I can do it’. To know I missed it by two weeks was heartbreaking.

“It was hard. My family came over (to England) because they’d taken time off work to go to Qatar. They were there for me. It was good for them to be there because I don’t think I could have done it without them. The biggest thing was just having people around me who were, you know, trying to love on me the whole time.”

It is behind him now. He has played seven times alongside Ream, his USMNT centre-back partner — the Fulham defender is 12 years his senior — and fitness, form and discipline permitting, will continue to do so throughout the Copa. It is a relationship he believes is bearing fruit already.

“He’s got a lot of experience and he’s a good guy with a lot of knowledge. He’s like a teacher, it’s crazy; like a coach on the field. Picking his brain little by little has been really good and I’ve learned a lot.

“I give him a lot of crap for being old, but he’s definitely helped me out a lot.”

Ream’s eventual departure from the international stage will leave a gap of leadership at the back, with Richards convinced he can fill the void. “I could always take on more of a leadership role. It’s something I still struggle with, but I’m working on becoming a leader, regardless of who else is back there.”

If he has learnt from Ream at the international level, then at the domestic level he has struck up a relationship with Marc Guehi at Palace. “Our lockers are right beside each other, so we chat pretty often,” he says of his club-mate, who is excelling at Euro 2024 with England. “He’s a quiet guy, but I try to get some words out of him.

“He’s definitely wise beyond his years, so I pick his brain. We call him ‘Uncle Marc’.”

Richards, who played 2,091 minutes in the Premier League under two managers, can look back with pride on what was a breakthrough campaign at Palace.

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It took time, but an achilles injury sustained by midfielder Cheick Doucoure against Luton Town in October saw manager Roy Hodgson ask Richards to step up and operate in an unfamiliar role. It began a run of 16 unbroken starts, the majority of which were in central midfield — a position he had never played before — before he returned to centre-back after Guehi suffered his own injury.

“Frustration” was his overriding emotion at having to wait for his chance. There were potential opportunities to move away from Palace in search of regular game time, but he was determined to make his case at the south London club.

“I knew that, once I was able to get into the team, I would eventually be able to show why I might deserve to stay there,” he says. “Playing with guys like Joa (Denmark’s Joachim Andersen) and Marc in training really taught me a lot. It helped me elevate my game much further.

“I think that’s why I was so successful on the back end of the season.”

He smiles when it is suggested he thrived in the midfield role, giving away the impression that was not how he viewed it.

“Thrive is an interesting word,” he says. “It was definitely a challenge. When I got the call that I was playing as a No 6, they said, ‘We’ve seen you in training. We know what type of player you are, so just go out there and give 100 per cent. We know you’re going to be successful’. They said to bring the physicality I had at centre-back.

“That was an early sign of confidence from the coaching staff, even though it was a position I’d never played. It was good to be on the field, regardless of where it was. They could have put me as a striker and I would have tried my best. It was also really good knowing the coaching staff and the guys around me believed in me.

“I thought it went well. But ‘thrived’… when you’re playing that position, it seems so much harder than it is. It was a learning opportunity and I could have still done a lot of things better, like contributing a bit more going forward.

“As a centre-back, you know that you’re just defending the space in front of you. But as a centre-midfielder, you’re defending in front of you and behind you. The biggest thing was, when the ball goes over your head, there are still four or five players behind who you have to help defend.”

He feels most suited to playing on the left of a back three but says he is comfortable playing anywhere across the defence.

It was on the right of a back four under Patrick Vieira where he enjoyed his first standout moment for Palace. In a 1-1 draw against Manchester United in January 2023, he won a foot race from the halfway line against Antony and summoned a perfect challenge to dispossess the Brazilian. The Selhurst Park crowd were raucous in their appreciation, with Richards describing it as “dope”.

“I was s****ing myself. Vieira was screaming at me on the halfway line. He was saying: ‘Just clean him out’. I knew I could take him. Once he kept going down the line, I knew I had to get a tackle in otherwise he’d be in on goal. Vieira was probably happy I didn’t take him out. I wanted to show I deserved to be there.”

Vieira was the first of three managers Richards has played under at Palace. The latest, Oliver Glasner, has impressed him.

“It was refreshing — he came in playing a more aggressive style of football,” he says. “He wanted to focus on winning the ball higher up the pitch and trying to score from there. He’s pushed a lot of guys, including me, knowing that if we were going to high press every game we needed to get fit. That was number one. It was a new mantra, but we thrived from it.

“The biggest thing he did was instil confidence in everybody. ‘If you win the ball, go at your player. I don’t care if you lose it, the guys behind you will back you up’.”

Away from football, Richards is enjoying life in London. He has made a habit of exploring the city’s coffee shops, with his order typically an iced vanilla latte from EL&N, which has several shops across the city.

“They have a warm pistachio Spanish latte. I don’t like pistachios, but it’s fire. It’s been good to just get lost in London. Probably 90 per cent of the time, though (when he’s not training), I’m laying around watching Netflix, playing Call of Duty with my boys back home or just relaxing with my girl.”

His Netflix programme of choice? Season three of period drama Bridgerton. “I love it. My mom watched it a long time ago and I thought it was trash. Then me and my girl, we’ve been watching a lot recently.”

But he also spends time with the Palace For Life Foundation, the club’s official charity, which has been working with the south London community for more than 25 years. Richards was recognised as one of the Professional Footballers’ Association (the players’ union) Community Champions at the end of the 2023-24 season.

“Community means a lot to me,” he adds. “They say never forget where you came from, so even though I can’t necessarily contribute to the community back home in Alabama, I like to contribute to the people around me because these are the people you see every day. It’s good to reach into the community and (work with) schools and kids. I was once just like them, aspiring to be someone.

“The Foundation has been a good opportunity for me to get stuck in and make London feel like home. I left home at a young age and everywhere I’ve lived has felt like a pit stop. But London has felt really homely for me.”

Now, though, his focus is on making up for lost time with the USMNT. The Copa awaits. Beyond that, the World Cup looms large.

“Any opportunity to play in the World Cup is amazing, but especially one on home soil. It’s just amazing every time to put on the jersey, to see the people in the crowd, the flag and to hear the anthem.

“I don’t think you can replicate that feeling.”

(Top photo: John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)