USMNT fans receive update on Chris Richards’ fitness of eve of World Cup
The USMNT defender has been recovering from an injury and has been absent from the pre-World Cup games.
Five thousand five hundred smiles appeared in unison, and probably a few more from the bench, as Chris Richards jogged out in front of fans at the USMNT’s open training session at Great Park ahead of their highly-anticipated World Cup campaign.
Richards, the standout defender in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, was a full participant in the session, marking a first in their mixed bag of pre-tournament preparations.
“Today, [it’s Richards] first time with the team,” U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino told reporters. “It’s good to have nearly everyone ready to be selected for the [Paraguay] game.”
“Connections and communication can solve a lot of problems”
Whether or not he will be fit to start of even feature for a limited number of minutes remains to be seen; Richards has been out since May and has not played in a competitive fixture since suffering the ankle injury against Brentford in the Premier League.
Ahead of the World Cup, the US have faced both Senegal and Germany. Two tough tests have gone either way, with a win over the African side being followed up by a stumble against the 4-time world champions. However, the latter performance was a much-improved version of what fans witnessed in the first game, with their competitive spirit clear to see.
While there were plenty of positives to take from the game against Germany, the difficulties at the back were glaring. In the aftermath of the loss to Germany, team captain Tim Ream said he was “not happy” with the defending and that “connections and communication can solve a lot of problems,” hinting perhaps at a lack of organisation that must be tightened up before the test against Paraguay. “We’ll look at video over the next couple of days,” he promised, “we’ll look at areas and make sure that everything’s buttoned up.”
The USMNT begin against Paraguay on Friday, June 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, before facing Australia on Friday, June 19 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Lumen Field in Seattle. Mauricio Pochettino’s side then return to Los Angeles for a final group-stage showdown with Turkey on Thursday, June 25 at 10:00 p.m. ET, again at SoFi Stadium.
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