'If The Ref Didn't Give Me A Shit Yellow, I Probably Would've Killed Somebody' - Chris Richards Is Becoming The Enforcer US Soccer Needed, Leading From The Front

Yesterday afternoon I blogged about how Pochettino has been showing US Soccer clips of fights from games to encourage them to play with heart. Love the move. We also saw it come to action last night against Australia. They beat the shit out of Pulisic for the short time he was on the field, before having to leave with injury

It was bullshit by Australia. It was even more bullshit by the ref to let them keep doing it before he finally showed a yellow card. But what I love, even more than the win, is this from Chirs Richards:

[Source] - There were other crunching tackles, too, late in the first half and later on, two of which resulted in scuffles. U.S. players rushed to stand up for teammate James Sands after he was taken down from behind in the 44th minute. Defender Chris Richards confronted the referee, who hadn’t whistled for a foul. Richards then argued with Aussie players.

“They’re lucky it was a friendly. I was ready to go,” Richards said after the match. “And if (the ref) didn’t give me a s*** yellow in the corner, I probably would’ve killed somebody.”

Love it. Need someone who is willing to kill opponents. I wish he didn't care about the shitty yellow card he got, go be the enforcer. Go lay someone out and deal with the eventual red card. Pulisic gets his ass kicked every game, especially when we play in CONCACAF, so we need someone to step up. Chris Richards has turned into 1) a leader on this team and 2) the go-to defender and a staple, I'd like someone else to step up, but it starts up top. Richards and McKennie last night were the leaders and it paid off. 

Went down early, lost Pulisic early, it didn't matter. It was a good win too, against a top-25 team in the world, a team who tries to muck it up, slow it down and then strike once to win. We responded and it's mostly due to Chris Richards. If that man is saying the entire country of Australia is lucky it's a friendly and he was going to kill somebody, he's going to do it. That's what we need. Wins and enforcers, we're close to being back to looking like we should.