Sam Kerr celebrates successful return from calf injury, Joe Motemurro puts stamp on Matildas, Asia Cup preparation
Sam Kerr might have only played 45 minutes in her return to international football but her joy at joining the Matildas on home soil was evident as was coach Joe Montemurro’s stamp on the team.
The smile on Sam Kerr’s face as she looked at Joe Montemurro gave an insight into how her so-called grumbly calf was feeling.
After her first Australian match on home soil in two years and three weeks since her most recent game for club or country, the Matildas captain was hoping to play longer than only the opening 45 minutes of Tuesday night’s friendly against New Zealand at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Instead, the decision was taken out of the 32-year-old superstar’s hands.
“I’m looking at Joe, but it wasn’t his fault – it was the medical team’s fault,” Kerr said with a laugh.
“(The calf) feels good, that’s why I wanted to keep going.
“The right decision was probably made.
“I would’ve probably played and who knows what would’ve happened.
“It’s a bit of a weird one, such a small injury, but I guess you have to be cautious with it, especially with where I’ve come from the last 18 months, unfortunately.”
Kerr’s football return from more than a year-and-a-half on the sidelines recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament rupture was interrupted by what she called a “bad luck” calf injury that showed no signs of occurring.
The striker said that before it happened, she planned to play 90 minutes in both of the past week’s friendlies against the Football Ferns – the Matildas’ last matches before next year’s Asian Cup.
But “a couple of days” after her first full game since December 2023 – Chelsea’s 6-0 Champions League thumping of Austria’s St Polten on November 11 – she suffered the “little hiccup”.
The injury kept her out of the Matildas’ 5-0 triumph over New Zealand in Gosford last Friday night.
“If the game was Saturday, I probably would’ve played, I just hadn’t had enough sessions underneath me,” Kerr said.
Everyone was left guessing until just over an hour before kick-off whether she would play this time.
She started and insisted she was always going to play in Adelaide.
Any rust, in what was her third game for Australia since her ACL injury, was left in the UK.
Kerr’s deft passing in or around the box was so often one-touch, including a delightful backheel to Alanna Kennedy, and she linked up beautifully with Hayley Raso and Caitlin Foord.
It showed the skipper had lost none of her incisiveness.
“I felt good tonight and when I did get the ball, I thought I did well with it,” said Kerr, whose two other Matildas appearances on the comeback from her knee injury were 60 minutes in the 2-1 win over Wales on October 25, then 70 in the 3-0 loss to England three days later.
“I think the Wales game away last camp, I was a bit rusty, a bit nervous, I was feeling a bit on edge.
“In the England game, even though we went down to 10, I felt a bit more like myself.”
Kerr said having another three months before the Asian Cup would make a huge difference for her.
Australia opens the home tournament against the Philippines in Perth on March 1.
“Come February, I hope to back up 90 minutes again and again, and again,” she said.
“Regardless of the performance (on Tuesday night), it was just nice to be back on home soil and have the crowd behind us, and be here for preparations for the Asian Cup.
“Sometimes we lose sight of why we play football.
“Tonight felt like one of those moments where I could just go out there, enjoy it and have fun.”
JOE’S WAY
Tuesday night was just Montemurro’s eighth match in charge since taking over in mid-June.
Kerr said the team was already feeling the change.
“It’s all been based on football, all based on the little details and I think we’ve really needed that as a team,” she said of a coach who had won women’s league titles in Australia with Melbourne City (twice), England with Arsenal, Italy with Juventus and France with Lyon.
“It’s been really enjoyable and fun.
“The way he’s told me he wants us to play is free-flowing up there.
“Tonight it ended up being me in holdup play in the pocket, but other times it’s me in behind, so the freedom to roam in and out … I think it really suits our team, especially our forward line.”
Montemurro praised his team for being “risky and proactive” against a New Zealand side that set up deeper with a denser midfield than last Friday night.
A 4-1-4-1 formation made it more difficult for Australia to work its way through.
Playing more assertively helped the Matildas record a 19-7 shot disparity and 70 to 30 per cent possession differential.
It also gave the visitors scoring opportunities in transition after Matildas defenders had been left one-on-one.
Montemurro described such scenarios as “risk-reward scenarios”.
The Football Ferns could not convert.
Better teams might.
New Zealand is ranked 33rd in the world, compared to Australia at 15.
An important cog to Montemurro’s game style could be Alanna Kennedy, transformed from a central defender to holding midfielder under the new Matildas manager.
She started in that position against England, only to be red-carded 18 minutes into the contest, ruling her out of last week’s friendly.
On Tuesday night, Kennedy opened the scoring with a flush, right-footed strike after finding herself inside the box, 19 minutes in.
It was just her second goal in the past 12 months and first for the Matildas since the Paris Olympics last July.
The 30-year-old’s role change allows overloads in midfield, extra security for the back two and Australia to break lines a little higher up the pitch.
“I’ve always liked her as a more proactive defender or player in front of the back four or back two because she has all the passing weapons: long, short, into feet, combinations,” Montemurro said.
“She just needs to find the rhythm to do it now because she’s playing sporadically at London City.
“The beauty … is we’ve now elevated the squad holistically, in a big way, where we’ve got a good group of players that can fit into all different areas and come into all different situations understanding the style we’re trying to put in.”
Steph Catley’s switch from fullback to a central defensive role – where she earnt a Ballon d’Or nomination as a key cog in Arsenal’s Champions League glory – was another success after also impressing in that position in the first friendly.
WHAT TO MAKE OF IT ALL?
If the defeat to England was a worry, the past fortnight was a confidence-booster.
Seven goals scored, two clean sheets – a far cry from having just three shots and conceding 29 in that meeting with the Lionesses.
But it is difficult to know just how much to read into the form given there will be far more difficult opponents at the Asian Cup.
Australia’s group includes South Korea, ranked 21st in the world.
If they progress, the Matildas will expect to meet China (16th), North Korea (10th) or Japan (eighth) later in the tournament.
The first match against the Philippines is in just 88 days and unlike the Olympics or World Cup, there is no lead-in camp because players are not released from their clubs until a week before the competition.
What Australia can count on is experience.
Montemurro has resisted any external calls for squad overhauls and backed in a lot of the veterans who spurred the Matildas’ magical run at their home World Cup in 2023.
The only two players from the starting XI in that tournament’s fourth-place playoff loss to Sweden that were missing on Tuesday night were Mary Fowler (injured) and Clare Polkinghorne (retired).
Goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold was an unused substitute during the second friendly.
In all, 15 of the 23 World Cup squad members played against New Zealand.
It would have been 17 if not for Fowler and Charli Grant being sidelined with knee issues.
The starting line-up at Hindmarsh Stadium featured six players aged 30 or older (Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, Emily van Egmond, Kennedy, Hayley Raso, Kerr).
Each of them have more than 100 international caps.
Of the newcomers since the World Cup, Portland fullback Kaitlyn Torpey played the full 90 minutes, Melbourne City forward Holly McNamara replaced Kerr and Calgary attacker Kahli Johnson came on for the final seven minutes.
Montemurro made six changes to the line-up from Friday night to Tuesday.
Australia is hopeful star attacker Fowler will be available for the Asian Cup as she recovers from her own ACL injury.
“It’s a really big tournament, we want to go as far as we can,” Kerr said.
“Being part of that home World Cup was special and something we’ll never ever forget.
“We’re kind of hoping we can replicate that feeling at the Asian Cup.
“To go fourth at the World Cup is a pretty amazing achievement for an Australian team … but it’s a whole new tournament.
“It’s going to be tough.”
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