Sam Kerr: Matildas star steering Chelsea towards the summit of women’s football
Some doubted whether Sam Kerr could make it when she flopped in England's Community Shield - she's proved them wrong...and then some.
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In a week when European football tore itself apart in an ugly fight between domestic and continental ambitions, Australia’s most impressive sporting export in a generation has been busy taking care of both.
Sam Kerr’s 21st goal in a season in which she has dominated the sport in its spiritual home saw Chelsea place one hand on the English Women’s Super League title.
Kerr opened the scoring with a trademark bullet header in a 2-2 draw with Manchester City on Wednesday to maintain their two-point lead at the top of the table with just two matches to play, before being hauled down in the box for a penalty converted by Danish star Pernille Harder.
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Harder is the world’s most expensive female player in the most cashed up league on the planet. It is the company Kerr keeps now. And rarely looks out of place besides.
A first-leg, semi-final clash at Bayern Munich in the Champions League, in the early hours of Monday morning, offers the next step on her club’s search for the holy grail of a first continental title. And with it confirmation – if it were still needed – of Kerr’s place at the very summit of the world game.
Her no-nonsense coach, Emma Hayes, knows she has a player born to perform in the vital moments on the biggest stage.
“Sam was the difference for us,” Hayes said following the result in Manchester. “She was just relentless. She’s a wonderful athlete and a wonderful human being.”
NEW BEGINNINGS
Kerr has been an unstoppable force in her first full WSL campaign, forming a lethal partnership with England striker Fran Kirby, with the duo scoring 45 goals between them in all competitions.
The local media labelled the 27-year-old’s arrival as the biggest signing in WSL history after she signed a two-and-a-half-year deal to join in January 2020.
Her talent was never in doubt. But any player moving to a new environment is forced to prove herself all over again. The pressure that came with the huge price tag, the big name expectations, and COVID hitting the UK harder than almost anywhere else in the world, made for a challenging introduction.
Kerr made her WSL debut against Reading on a bitterly cold January afternoon last year and was substituted 15 minutes from time shortly after missing a golden opportunity to score from close range in a 3-1 win.
Her first goal came in her third match — a 4-1 win over Arsenal — but with matches being postponed because of the freezing weather and the UK plunged into lockdown due to COVID-19, the WSL season was abruptly cancelled before she could get a run of games under her belt.
Chelsea were declared league champions by virtue of a points-per-game system, but their hopes of winning the league and FA Cup double were scuppered by Everton, who sealed a shock 2-1 quarter-final win at Goodison Park last September when the competition recommenced – with Kerr a largely peripheral figure throughout.
That result came a week after she endured a nightmare performance in the Community Shield at Wembley – the traditional curtain raiser to the English domestic season — against Manchester City, where she missed a hatful of chances and was substituted 20 minutes from time.
Questions were raised in the local media about her patchy form and she revealed during a Matildas camp last year that she was finding the transition to a new city in a new country difficult to deal with.
Kelly Smith, widely-regarded as England’s greatest female player, admits she had expected more from Kerr and was surprised by her initial struggles in front of goal.
“There was a lot of pressure on her, with her name, the global star that she is, everyone expected her to come in and take the league by storm and score goals for fun,” Smith said.
“I think you have to hold your hands up and say that the pressure got to her in those first couple of months. Watching her in the Community Shield she fluffed her lines a few times when clean through on goal and strikers like her normally put those chances away.”
But Smith, who was part of the Arsenal team that is still the only English team to win the Champions League, in 2007, said the Australia superstar is now fully justifying the hype.
“You see her now, she is smiling and looks happy,” Smith said. “She is really enjoying her football and the results are there for all to see. When you are more relaxed you are going to score more goals and she looks a totally different player from the first couple of months.”
Kerr and Kirby’s partnership, in Smith’s view, is one of the best there’s ever been and is the main reason why Chelsea can finally conquer Europe.
“The understanding Kerr has with Fran is really special,” she said.
“They don’t even have to look when they deliver a pass for one another because they know where each another will be when they make a run.
“It’s so special, you can’t teach it. It’s almost telepathic.”
KINDRED SPIRITS
Kirby, who only returned to action this season after debilitating virus sidelined her for much of last year, said her on-field chemistry with Kerr was formed thanks largely to the humour they share and that helped them click after only a handful of training sessions.
“I spent a lot of time out last season so I was able to watch her game, see how she played,” Kirby said. “It is a partnership where we just know where one another will be and I can just put the ball in the space for her to get it.
“I am really enjoying it and hopefully we can win some more trophies.
“Sam is a bit of a joker, a real personality around the place she always wants to get people up and smiling and laughing and loves coming out with jokes that are probably a bit inappropriate.
“She is great to have around and all the girls really enjoy having her here and we are really lucky to have her. Not just as a footballer but as a personality and a person as well.”
Kerr’s effervescent spirit and easy natural charm is almost as valuable to the Chelsea dressing room as are her goals. And allowed her to ride out the early jitters and return to form under an intense spotlight.
“She is a bubbly person, a great character and an amazing player,” Chelsea and England centre-back Millie Bright said.
“Sometimes there is too much pressure on these great players to shine straight away.
“You have to respect that they are coming into a new environment, a new country and need time to settle. But now she has, the results are for all to see and that’s why she is one of the best.”
Hayes credits Kerr for having the desire to keep advancing her game, maximising her talent and not resting on her laurels or past achievements in Australia and America.
“Sam’s goals speak for themselves,” Hayes said.
“This is probably the happiest, calmest and most settled she has been.
“The things that have impressed me most about her play, are the things she had to improve on. Her ability to link play, her hold up game.
“She so often gets the first goal for us when we need it and that is priceless, she just gets better and better.”
THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
In Hayes Kerr has one of the sport’s most progressive and gifted coaches helping her development. And a mentor who understands the journey the Australian is on and the pressures of her high profile status.
The 38-year-old Londoner cut her coaching teeth at Arsenal, helping the Gunners win 11 major trophies during her spell as assistant, before going on to enjoy success in America with NWSL side Chicago Red Stars — the club where Kerr won three golden boots during her record-breaking spell.
She returned home to take the Chelsea job in 2012 and during her 11 years at the helm has turned the club into one of the biggest forces in the European game. It is a match made in football heaven. And Hayes is reaping the rewards of what she believes is Kerr’s best football of her glittering career.
“The confidence in her play right now is the best I have ever seen from her,” she said. “She delivers the fatal blow whenever the team needs it. That is what makes her so exceptional.
“She pounces, catlike, gazelle-like at the right moments. That confidence and intelligence from her is growing every week.
“She is a ‘darl’ as I call her, the ultimate team player who will do anything for the team to do well. She will sacrifice herself if necessary, she doesn’t care, as long as there is harmony as long as there is spirit and everyone is together.”
It is a shared sense of purpose Chelsea will need when they take on German powerhouse Bayern this weekend. The Matildas suffered a chastening 5-2 reversal to the German national side earlier this month. Such is the form she is in, however, few would back against Kerr striking a return blow, albeit this time in club rather than national team colours.
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Originally published as Sam Kerr: Matildas star steering Chelsea towards the summit of women’s football
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