Counting the true cost of Sam Kerr’s World Cup injury, as once in a lifetime Matildas charge ends
Although Sam Kerr played the whole game and scored a stunner, Australia’s World Cup semi-final loss to England was shaped by the injury that plagued her tournament, writes ADAM PEACOCK.
Sam Kerr sat in the hallway, staring through the floor into the abyss.
Katrina Gorry’s eyes could have burned a hole through concrete. Steph Catley was present but not there, her head a fog of what just happened.
And cruelly, echoes of English jubilation bounced off the walls.
“F--KING WORLD CUP FINAL!!!” screamed the Lionesses in their dressing room. A little less wholesome than what we’ve come to appreciate this tournament, but understandable.
On the losing side of the wall, numb Matildas shuffled through the corridors under Stadium Australia to talk into microphones about their once in a lifetime night.
Not one of them said England didn’t deserve to win, though you could see in their eyes the glumness was thanks to … dammit … those little moments.
Those damn little huge moments.
Sam Kerr’s late blaze over and header. Mary Earps’ incredible save from Cortnee Vine. Ellie Carpenter slightly unbalanced by a Lauren Hemp nudge, which quickly escalated into England 2, Australia 1.
The little moments that caused those stares.
Alessia Russo’s goal shortly after Kerr’s missed moments extinguished any hope the Matildas had of a miracle. 3-1. “F--KING WORLD CUP FINAL!!!”
With players still in boots, it wasn’t the time to contemplate the broad picture. Yet over the next few weeks, after players return to clubs, the Matildas coaching team and staff will sit in a room somewhere and evaluate.
That is what high performance is. It’s brutal but needs to be done. If it’s not brutal, and the truth is danced around, performance doesn’t get higher.
It’s hard to look past one particular moment: when Kerr’s calf went ping.
Kerr, after her late chances in the semi, put it succinctly: “If I trained more than five times this World Cup maybe I would have sunk that one, but I can’t put all the blame on myself.”
If Kerr was firing on all cylinders, would coach Tony Gustavsson have employed a stand-offish, conservative defensive set-up without the ball in the first half, which allowed England to play? While Kerr had energy to lead the second half change in approach, what if she could have done that for 90?
And if fully fit and totally sharp, does Kerr position herself that tiny bit better after 80 minutes of high intensity running, for the late header? Or adjust her left leg a few millimetres to be able to thwack that right-foot shot into the roof of the net and make it 2-2?
We’ll never know.
The following questions have been whispered, but buried, while the hope of winning a World Cup remained real.
How did the Matildas’ most imposing threat hurt herself the day before a home World Cup? Kerr had carried niggles through the season with Chelsea. Was she 100 per cent? Did she need to play 60 minutes against France in a friendly on a pitch harder than quarry produce?
But those discussions will be kept in-house, for next time.
Not that there’ll be a next time quite like this. Not for the team, and the millions and millions who were joyfully carted along on such a ride. Blessedly, even, at a time when wars and a cost of living crisis otherwise adorn front pages.
Brisbane on Saturday, the third-place playoff, is the perfect chance to celebrate a team now entrenched in the national consciousness.
Politicians have been talking about a parade for the Matildas. Here’s your damn parade, and the Swedes are invited, too. We’ll bring our one, Gustavsson, and we’ll chuck in a bronze medal for good measure.
It will be the last of seven nights sitting on the edge of seats, transported to a place of hope. The days between those nights have been filled with conversation among ourselves about a group of sportswomen we can’t get enough of.
The Matildas are rightfully on a pedestal now. It’s up to administrators at Football Australia to keep them there.
Legacy objectives can wait too, though.
This ride had been about more than that.
School uniforms will regain their uniformity, green and gold balloons will lose their air over the next week, and summer is nearly here. So Matildas scarves might just hang on doors but if we want to look around once in a while, there are plenty of happy distractions; as simple as a game of football, as complex as trying to win one.
Something changed with this team. For football. For sport. What it is will play out over the next generation.
All that’s left to do is stare at the floor for a moment, and be thankful for what just happened.
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