Kerr’s noggin holds key to Matilda’s World Cup hopes

Sam Kerr has mastered a skill that has eluded many a budding footballer.

Australia’s Sam Kerr gets her head to the ball ahead of Jamaican opponents during the Matildas’ 4-1 victory yesterday. Picture: AP

Lionel Messi is remembered at his Rosario primary school for always arriving with a ball at his feet. You imagine a young Sam Kerr being the same sort of kid, keeping a ball under her desk in her Perth classroom before scoring four goals at recess and perhaps another four during lunch.

At some stage, Kerr has learned to master a skill that eludes a lot of junior footballers. The header. Watch any under-age game and most of the little darlings are ducking and weaving away from headers as if they’re about to be whacked in the face by a shovel. They flinch and they squeal. They jam their eyes shut and hope for the best. They’re scared they’ll get donked on the nose. If they try one and it comes off the top of their skull, they stumble and mumble about how much it hurts. Good players become proficient at it.

Great players develop it as a weapon — and now Kerr’s noggin holds the key to Australia’s World Cup hopes as their tour of France heads for the finish line.

Scored four, wanted more. She’s being feted by everyone except Marta, probably, as the greatest female player on the planet. Elevation, in every sense of the word. Pele scored a hat-trick at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Cristiano Ronaldo did it in Russia in 2018. But not even those two goal thieves netted four in a World Cup match. Messi’s never scored more than two. The New York Times has written a lavish profile under the headline: “Sam Kerr Can’t Stop Scoring.” The story reads: “She isn’t on the United States national team and she’s never been named the FIFA player of the year. You might not know who she is — but this World Cup, you should.”

A perfect cross from @EGielnik and a stunning header by @samkerr1 to open the scoring! #FIFAWWC #WeAreMatildas pic.twitter.com/lqL8Y0YSd9

— Matildas (@TheMatildas) June 18, 2019

Here’s a heads up — there’s more to it than meets the naked eye. Kerr zigzags around the penalty box, shaking off defenders, finding space. She leaps but, while she’s mid-air, that’s when the real work begins. She bends her back, arches her neck, swivels her body, flapping her arms like a seagull hovering over a chip. Hang-time befitting the West Coast Eagles’ No 1 ticket holder. She coils and releases at the moment of impact, as if the ball is still on her forehead while she changes direction, thrusting her head forward like Mick Jagger at the crescendo of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

“The way we’re playing, there’s a limited amount of opportunities,” SBS commentator and ex-Socceroo Craig Foster says. “Most of our opportunities come in the air. Sam’s absolutely critical to this way of playing. She is the absolute key. There’s so much into the box in the air, we’re going to need her at her best and, of course, she’s going to take immense confidence out of tonight.”

Tim Cahill’s been king of expertly clanging one off his head. His junior coach, Jim Doyle, has previously explained Cahill’s art thus: “His first run is a dummy run. If he goes to the far post on his primary, he’ll then check, over onto the other shoulder, and sometimes he’ll include a third check. He then leaps out of cylinder, which means he jumps with a slight slope towards the defender. You crash into the body of your opponent, and at that same moment, the opponent’s body raises you slightly into the air. There’s also arm movement, called tanking, which means you come in with an extra auxiliary force at the moment of impact. It’s not cheating. It’s just common sense. It all comes from kinesiology, the transference of weight.”

Doyle adds: “He has to be able to turn his centre of gravity in the air, to where he can make the best contact with the ball. When he leaps, he will do a rotation in the air, his arms will tank, and his final position is not where he initially jumps. As you turn and point your centre of gravity towards the ball, you get not just acceleration on the ball but accuracy, too. It’s not an accident.”

For Sam Kerr, the moment of the #FIFAWWC has not been her four goals tonight, nor the epic comeback against Brazil...

It is the pride and emotion from Thailand after their goal on Sunday. Respect 👏#PlayeroftheMatch presented by @Visa @VisaAU | #JAMAUS pic.twitter.com/8pBdmPZbJR

— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) June 18, 2019

Kerr’s four-goal romp against Jamaica is started by two headers. In the 11th minute, Emily Gielnik crosses from the right flank. Kerr’s leap takes her head and shoulders above the defence. She’s about 15 metres from goal, a long way when the ball isn’t at your feet. She’s side-on to the goal, nearly with her back to it, to keep facing the ball throughout its approach. The timing is meticulous. She snaps her body in the direction she wants the ball to go. She flicks her head up, too, to chip it over Jamaican goalkeeper Nicole McClure, who’s crept off her line. It’s like a chip off her eyebrows. It finds the top right corner of the net. She’s made something incredibly difficult look extraordinarily easy. One-nil, Matildas.

In the 42nd minute, Katrina Gorry crosses. Pause the video. Kerr is running and leaping, she’s flying, while every other player has their feet on the ground. Miles of room. She nods it home with consummate ease. Two-nil, Matildas. They’re ahead thanks to their captain. The skin on her forehead has turned bright pink. No header comes without a jarring impact. Two-nil, Matildas, lifting themselves into the knockout phase. Kerr’s remaining goals are a left-footed tap-in and a toe-poke from close range. No one likes a smart arse but with Kerr you don’t always want her feet planted firmly on the ground.