The co-hosts have never surpassed their third-place finish achieved in the very first iteration of the tournament, way back in 1930 – the closest they have come being the quarter-finals in 2002 – but have made an impressive start to this year’s competition.
And Richards, who played in the 4-1 opening win over Paraguay and subsequent 2-0 win over Australia – before being rested, on a yellow card, for last night’s defeat to Turkey – feels the swell of national pride, as well as his experience of winning trophies with Crystal Palace,
Speaking to popular channel Men In Blazers, Richards – who missed out on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar through injury – explained: “It makes me proud.
“Again, after missing out on the last one, I think all the emotions hit me when I walked out of the tunnel [against Paraguay] and heard the national anthem for the first time and saw my family in the stands. That was probably the proudest football moment that I've had in my life so far.
“I feel like we knew that we had it all along, it was just a matter of getting the right people on the field at the right time. And I think maybe going into the game, we still hadn't ever looked as solid as we did in that Paraguay game.
“But I think after the first five minutes, we were like: ‘OK, this is something special. Let's keep it up.’ And that's what we did for 90 minutes. It was just a matter of timing and no better time than the World Cup.”
