9 hours ago
1
She scored, and she celebrated, and then everyone just wanted to know if the backflip is still a part of Sam Kerr’s repertoire.
“Maybe later on in the tournament,” she said. “Just wanted to get that first goal out of the way. It kind of felt like getting the monkey off my back, maybe, my first goal for the national team again.
“Because I hadn’t scored in a while, and the two camps before I would have liked to have scored to get that feeling back.
“I feel like getting back into the goal-scoring mode with the national team. But the backflip’s still on the cards; everyone keeps asking me that.”
Sunday night’s Asian Cup opener in Perth was an occasion built for Kerr’s first international goal in 851 days, since her last against Taiwan in November 2023 - also in her hometown - two months before tearing her ACL.
And she laid down her watermark against a stubborn Philippines in an otherwise frustrating outing for the Matildas, albeit a 1-0 win to open their campaign before facing Iran on the Gold Coast on Thursday night.
Sam Kerr and Clare Wheeler enjoy the moment after the pair combined with Caitlin Foord for Australia’s 14th-minute winner against the Philippines.Credit: AP
But this was a classic poacher’s finish worth the wait: a header too hot to handle for the Philippines goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel, and the clearest sign yet that this post-rehab version of Kerr is just how we remember.
The build-up was impressive, too. Clare Wheeler lashed a cross across the face of goal that found Caitlin Foord’s head at the back post, and the Arsenal forward was eyeing Kerr in the middle before the ball had even reached her.
“I knew Caitlin was going to head it back across,” Kerr said. “She’s normally not one to do a great header from there.” And then everyone is laughing, and she has to qualify her comment.
Loading
“On goal,” she clarified. “I knew she was going to pass it because she wouldn’t get much power. So she did really well, to be fair. And Wheels put in a great ball.
“That’s something we had scouted before the game, that they were weaker in the back-post position. Great header across from Foordy, and I knew it was going in once I seen it coming back, because that’s kind of a classic goal for me.”
So much guesswork has surrounded Kerr’s slow, setback-laden return from the knee injury sustained in January 2024. Would the Chelsea forward, now 32, restore herself to the kind of player able to engineer that solo wonder goal against England in the 2023 World Cup semi-finals? Or would her unfortunate run of injuries leave her blighted until retirement?
There is so far no evidence of the latter. To the contrary, Kerr’s output over a full 90-minute shift appeared very much like the pre-ACL Kerr, in a promising sign at the outset of a critical home tournament.
“Hopefully [the goal] starts me off on a good goal-scoring run for the rest of the tournament,” she said. “But no, when I scored that goal, I probably thought we’re going to go on and score a couple more. You don’t think it’s going to be the only goal. The most important thing is that we got the win, but I’m really happy on a personal level to be able to score.”
Most Viewed in Sport
Loading
