Kerr’s golden chance against Jamaica

Sam Kerr has a chance to get back in the race for the Golden Boot in Australia’s clash with Jamaica.

Sam Kerr celebrates with Ellie Carpenter after victory over Brazil last week. Picture: Getty Images

Sam Kerr’s boots are used to being golden.

In the past two years those prolific Nike numbers have procured four topscorer awards across two continents and hold the National Women’s Soccer League all-time record for a single season.

Their reputation has rightly rendered their owner one of the pre-tournament favourites to win the Women’s World Cup golden boot.

And yet the Matildas’ leading lady will have to engineer a few more celebratory backflips to make it a reality, because the race is already heating up and she’s not near the front.

United States co-captain Alex Morgan leads the count after scoring a record-equalling five in last week’s 13-0 embarrassment of Thailand.

And that’s after only one game, with America due to have played Group F opponents Chile early this morning.

Right behind Morgan is Brazil’s second all-time leading scorer Cristiane, who netted a hat-trick against Jamaica and added a fourth against the Matildas.

And Italy’s Cristiana Girelli has thrown her hat in the ring with her own hat-trick against Jamaica.

If this Group C pattern is anything to go by, the Matildas’ third game against the world No 53 Reggae Girlz could be the ideal scene to kickstart Kerr’s catch-up.

Not that she really minds who does the business, so long as it gets done.

“I don’t really care who scores the goals, if I score none and we win the World Cup,” Kerr said.

In that vein, Caitlin Foord and Chloe Logarzo’s goals against Brazil demonstrate that Australia boast a breadth of scorers if they’re on song.

So too do the world No 1 US, and Morgan’s quintet is all the more impressive when considering that Germany’s Celia Sasi won the 2015 golden boot with six goals.

Michelle Akers still holds the record for most goals at a single tournament, having tallied 10 in China in 1991.

It’s a target that could be smashed in France, and there are several dark horses chasing the pacesetters.

Dutch sensation Vivianne Miedema wrote her name in the record books on Saturday with a brace in the Netherlands’ 3-1 win over Cameroon to become her country’s all-time topscorer.

The 22-year-old Arsenal forward’s 60 international goals moves her one ahead of the ­retired Manon Melis.

France’s Eugenie Le Sommer is also among eight players with two goals to their name, including Italy surprise packets Barbara Bonansea and Aurora Galli.

The highest-scoring tournament was 2015, with 146 goals over 52 games in the first instalment of an expanded 24 teams.

The highest rate of goals came in 1999, with an average of 3.84 goals per game in a 16-team tournament.

So far in this edition, 65 goals had been scored from 22 games as of Sunday morning, France time.

Kerr is hellbent on adding to it, but not for her own personal glory.

“I feel like I just put so much pressure on myself that I don’t want to let the team down,” she said.

“I don’t want to not score for them, and ultimately that’s my job. Football is a game of opinion, so really you could score three goals and people could still think you played bad.

“But the biggest thing for me is that I hate when I leave a ­locker room and you almost feel awkward to face your teammates because you’ve let them down.

“So for me and most of the team, the biggest pressure we feel is from ourselves.”

The Daily Telegraph