'Win-or-go-home': Chris Richards issues rallying cry as Crystal Palace star eyes Wembley trip | OneFootball

The Eagles are eyeing a first Wembley appearance in three seasons

Chris Richards perches at a table by the side of the training pitch at Crystal Palace’s Copers Cope Road training ground, facing directly into the sunlight. Training has finished, and it’s quiet around.

“It’s a win-or-go-home game,” Richards smiles. “The culmination of that mentality, on top of guys being ready to play again after two or three weeks off: there is a bunch of factors going into the game that will make tomorrow a bit scrappier.”

Palace have not reached an FA Cup semi-final since 2021/2022, the season before Richards joined.

His short-sleeved training kit displaying arm tattoos of Kobe Bryant, Muhammad Ali, Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr, Richards says: “It’s a good chance to prolong our season and a chance to be playing at Wembley.

Richards, a USA international, has never played at Wembley, but was in the stands to watch Arsenal beat Manchester City on penalties in the 2023 FA Community Shield.

“Since I came to Palace, [I felt] it would be fun to have another run and play at Wembley,” he admits. “When I went to watch that game there, I felt the atmosphere.

“I hear everybody speaking about playing at Wembley, about that atmosphere — the stadium is completely full with more fans than can even fit in our stadium [Selhurst Park] and that’s only half of [Wembley].”

Return: Jean-Philippe Mateta is back for Crystal Palace

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The 25-year-old acknowledges Fulham will be tough to beat after a “good season”, but Palace can unleash Jean-Philippe Mateta, set to return following almost a month out after having 25 stitches in his ear from the kung-fu-style tackle he received in the last round against Millwall.

Richards says Mateta is “the exact same” as he was before, but perhaps “enjoys the attention a bit more”.

Mateta will wear a protective mask against Fulham. “He’s got that bionic ear now,” Richards jokes, admitting he and his Palace teammates have spent the week likening Mateta to a wrestler or to the American headband-wearing tennis player Francis Tiafoe. When Richards once needed a mask following a broken nose, he “almost felt like Batman”. Time will tell whether Mateta can prove Palace’s superhero on Saturday.

“Once we started seeing results in the FA Cup, we started seeing results in the league — they go hand in hand. It’s been impressive. We really aspire to make history here at Palace.

“But it’s another game. We don’t make it bigger than it should be.”

Easier said than done when Palace are just three games away from their first-ever major trophy. How would it rank among Richards’s career achievements with Bayern Munich, Hoffenheim or the US if he got his hands on that 154-year-old trophy?

“I went from playing at left wing in Alabama to playing as a centre-back in Germany in two years. I’m still learning. Especially to do it at a club like Palace, it would probably be the biggest thing I’ve done so far.”