'That lifelong dream is done': USMNT's Richards puts World Cup heartbreak behind him

Chris Richards is the proud owner of a small flock of rubber chickens. The first member of the group -- Paxo Lacroix -- was adopted after Richards picked it off the Leipzig turf, thrown there by a fan amid the celebrations of Crystal Palace's UEFA Conference League final win over Rayo Vallecano in May. "It became my spirit animal," Richards told ESPN. "He's very well traveled now. He was my good luck memento in the World Cup." He found another rubber chicken on vacation after the tournament. It has become a pet project for his partner and daughter to continue adding to their collection. "We have a little chicken family now," he said. The chickens are memories from a summer in which Richards was a key part of the U.S. men's national team that captured America's attention in a World Cup on home soil. Since then, and the desolation of the team's 4-1 defeat to Belgium in the round of 16, Richards has been recalibrating. As a child, he outlined his soccer dream on a sticky note: play for the national team in a home World Cup. Job done, but football doesn't wait. There's another season to play, more goals to strive for, Europe to conquer. At 26, Richards is the senior man in Crystal Palace's defense. He's aware of the responsibility this brings and is ready to draw on the lessons learned from Bayern Munich, where he played from 2018 to 2022, and his time in the Premier League to embrace being a leader for both club and country. After the defeat to Belgium, Richards was distracted, memories of the loss frequently interrupting his train of thought. Gradually, pride diluted the disappointment, especially given at one stage, he feared his World Cup dream was to be snatched away from him before it ever began. In the penultimate match of Palace's 2025-26 season, Richards tore his ankle ligaments against Brentford. As Palace won their first European trophy with their 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League, he watched on. That was where he found Paxo Lacroix discarded among the red and blue confetti, but it was a strange experience. "Not being able to play meant it was a weird day for me because I've been a part of the team and those on the pitch are my brothers," Richards said, "but I also had a World Cup coming up and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to play because of the injury." Fortunately for him, by the time the USMNT played Paraguay in its opener June 12, Richards was healed. What followed over the next fortnight was a carnival of red, white and blue soccer euphoria. Hollywood A-Listers clamored for tickets. The USMNT was on the front page of America's biggest newspapers and the For You page of millions on TikTok. The USMNT had captured the nation's attention. "I've lived in London and Germany and you see how popular the sport is, and then you get back home and you don't quite feel the same emotion," Richards said in an interview arranged through his partnership with Stelo. "But then during the World Cup, everything felt intensified. "We were on ESPN, we were in Times Square. It was amazing for us and for our families to see that, because they know the sacrifices we make. It was an amazing moment for America to realize how big the sport is." The U.S. was optimistic heading into the round-of-16 match, despite the furor over the decision to overturn the red card Folarin Balogun was shown in the team's previous win over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Richards said the noise didn't disrupt the players' build-up but thought the commotion "put a bigger target" on the team's back. Still, the U.S. hoped to reach the quarterfinals, to continue this remarkable journey. But that optimism was soon extinguished. Richards struggled to contain Nicolas Raskin in the U.S. area, and the Rangers midfielder's centering feed allowed Charles De Ketelaere to tap in the opener. Richards' giveaway inside his own area in second-half stoppage time led to Romelu Lukaku finishing off the co-hosts by scoring to make it 4-1 at full time. The loss to Belgium was chastening and frustrating in equal measure. Richards went through his own journey of processing the disappointment. "I know for sure the days after the game for myself, I ... I couldn't," Richards paused to pick his next words. "I felt like I let myself down, let kind of my country down, let my family down, who all came to watch me. "As a defender you live by the sword and die by the sword. You make one mistake and ultimately that's the other team's game. I really took that heavily and it hurt." A couple of days after the defeat, he visited Tokyo with his family. "It was hard to enjoy the holiday as I was just continuously thinking, like, 'What if I had done X, Y and Z different in the game?'" he said. After Tokyo, they headed to New York and finished up their three-week break on the Algarve in Portugal. Having a nearly 2-year-old daughter keeps Richards on his toes, and family helped him heal the pain of the loss to Belgium. "My family called me -- when I say my family, I mean my mom, dad, and my little brother and little sister -- they called me and they were like, 'You know, this was an experience of a lifetime. Thank you so much for taking us. This has been more than enough seeing you live out your dream that you've had on your sticky note since you were 8 years old,'" Richards said. "A week later, I could look back on it as something bigger than the result. In Tokyo, people were wanting to take pictures. That was an amazing feeling, and I think that's when I really started to realize that it's more than a result, it's the inspiration you give people, regardless of if they're American or not. "So when you step back, when you step outside of what happened on the field, you think about all the positive changes and influences we've had on not just our country, but on hopefully this next generation of football players, we can hopefully look forward to one day the U.S. lifting a World Cup." The time off flew by, and then it was back to the day job: another relentless season in the Premier League to endure, a place in the national team to hold on to. For so long, Richards' north star was the World Cup; the day-to-day grind was all in service to arriving at that tournament in peak form and fitness. But once that moment passed, it left a void. "That's exactly what I spoke to my family about the other day: That lifelong dream of mine is done. It's now onto the next thing," he said. "Obviously it's running down to the next World Cup, but it's also making sure of everything I want to do in these next few months, years leading up to that. "I won a European competition last year. I want to do the same thing this year. I want to finish higher up in the table than we did last year. But also for me, it's just continuing to become a leader both for club and country." Richards' career started in the FC Dallas academy, but it took off at Bayern Munich, where he was brought through on tough love from the first team. In training sessions, he played within a group that expected success as perennial Bundesliga winners. "I'll never forget in one of my first training sessions we were doing a passing drill. Arjen Robben was the person in front of me, so that's who I was passing to. You had to be very precise. If it wasn't on his left foot, he didn't necessarily want it. Everybody knew to play to his, to his left foot, but me being the new kid, I didn't. So it was something I realized you really had to focus on." Palace picked him up in 2022. There, he has grown as a player and understood more about himself and what he needs to do to improve. Over the past couple of years, he has gone down several rabbit holes in the realm of recovery. He wears a Stelo glucose biosensor as a result, from which he has learned how his body would benefit from certain supplements before bed to aid recovery. "Physically, I'm always looking to find that extra 1%," Richards said. "It's always about finding the edge." The Palace he has returned to is different from the one he bid adieu to in May. It's a club in permanent transition. Seemingly every year, a world-class player leaves. Two years ago, Michael Olise left for Bayern Munich. Last summer, Eberechi Eze joined Arsenal. In January, Marc Guéhi went to Manchester City. This summer, Maxence Lacroix -- he of the similarly named rubber chicken fame -- signed for Chelsea. The Eagles also have a new manager to integrate this season, with Pierre Sage replacing Oliver Glasner. Richards is first-choice center back this year, alongside Chadi Riad (23), Jaydee Canvot (20), Takehiro Tomiyasu (27) and Axel Disasi (28). Palace have also added teenage American winger Zavier Gozo to their ranks, whom Richards will take under his wing. Amid the changing personnel, Richards remains a constant. He has played alongside and against some of the world's best players, but now he wants a shot at some of Europe's best clubs. And perhaps along the way, as Palace traverse the continent, he might add a few more chickens to his flock. "I haven't given [the others] names yet," Richards said. "I think the name will find them at some point, depending on which game I take them to. That's where they'll find their name."