Fowl Play: Chris Richards' Lucky Rubber Chicken Joins USA On World Cup Tour

SEATTLE STADIUM — Mexico and Scotland have their ducks, but the USA has its chicken, thanks to Chris Richards.

Paxo, a rubber chicken, made an appearance at the World Cup on Friday in Seattle with Richards’ parents, Ken and Carrie. Paxo found his way to Richards after he picked the chicken up on the field after Crystal Palace won the UEFA Conference League last month in Leipzig, Germany.

Richards told me after the USA's 2-0 win over Australia on Friday that Paxo is now joining the World Cup ride.  

"I just kind of ran with it and had a few pictures with it in the Conference League trophy," a laughing Richards said. "And so now it's kind of making the U.S. tour as well, right?"

This isn’t the first time an animal has emerged as an avian mascot for a team at the World Cup, although the other two birds were real. Mexico has embraced Merlin, while Scotland fans also adopted their own duck (named Dawn) while marching through Providence, Rhode Island.

Has Richards' USA teammates seen the chicken yet? When I asked defender Auston Trusty about it after one of the most famous wins in the American men’s team’s 113-year history, he looked perplexed, "A chicken?" he said. "That's the first I've heard of it."

Richards laughed again when asked if he'd make an introduction at some point. "Not yet," he said. "We'll see."

Richards didn’t play in that UEFA Conference League final as he recovered from the ankle injury he suffered on May 17 in a Premier League game against Brentford. He missed Palace’s final game of the season against Arsenal, as well as the USA’s two World Cup tune-ups against Senegal and Germany before returning to the lineup in the tournament opener against Paraguay.

"I was pretty devastated. I feared the worst," Richards, who missed the 2022 World Cup due to injury, said when he arrived at the Stars and Stripes training base in Southern California a couple of weeks ago. 

Now it’s two wins in two World Cup games for Richards with Paxo stateside.

Richards is also thriving on the field, leading a USA defense that snapped a streak of 10 straight games without a clean sheet with a shutout against the Socceroos. After making history by completing all 83 of his pass attempts against Paraguay, he went 91-of-95 against Australia.

Richards has now completed 97.8% (175-of-179) of his passes at the World Cup. That’s the second-best accuracy for a player who has attempted at least 100 passes since 1966. The only player with a better percentage was Romania’s Gheorghe Popescu, who was 122-for-124 through two matches in 1994, according to OPTA.

Richards and the rest of the USA defense will be especially thrilled to have finally gotten a clean sheet.

"One clean sheet sounds great," goalkeeper Matt Freese said. "Two, three, four clean sheets sounds a lot better."

Richards’ path to the World Cup is one that has taken him from his native Birmingham, Alabama, to mighty Bayern Munich and Crystal Palace. He was originally rejected by MLS club FC Dallas at the age of 16. He eventually made it to the FCD’s academy the following year. He was only there for one year, though, before joining Bayern and making his pro debut there. He made his maiden appearance for the USA in November 2020, and has earned 38 caps for the team since.

Now he's the undisputed anchor of USA's back line, which is clearly at its best when he's in the lineup.

"He has a presence on the field," USA teammate and fellow defender Mark McKenzie said, while veteran winger Tim Weah called Richards "one of the most important players on the team."