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Kerr clinic highlights need to truly unlock her brilliance

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19th June, 2019
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There was no viral soundbite from Samantha Kerr after her match-winning performance against Jamaica on Wednesday morning.

Compared to her fired-up post-match performance in the aftermath of Australia’s dramatic and crucial 3-2 win over Brazil, in which she told the haters to “suck on that one”, Kerr was almost angelic in assessing her role in the 4-1 win over the Jamaicans.

Of course, there probably is not much of a need to do a whole lot of talking after you’ve become the first Australian to score a hat-trick at a football World Cup, plus an extra goal just to help your team finish second in the group.

Almost single-handedly, Kerr produced the sort of ruthless goal scoring performance she has become known for in the W-League with Perth Glory and the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States.

This time, Kerr did all her talking with her feet (and her head) to confirm her spot as one of Australia’s greatest ever sportspeople and drag the Matildas into the knockout rounds with her, avoiding the likes of Germany and France in the process.

Serious concerns remain around the Matildas as they plot their path to Nice where an impressive Norway awaits, but in Kerr, Australia boasts a bonafide superstar of the game who can inspire her team to victory.
Despite the scoreline, Australia was wasteful in midfield and leaky in defence.

The result should certainly be celebrated, but the performance leaves a lot to be desired.

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The enormous contribution of Kerr over the course of the group stage has thus far papered over many of the cracks.

She might not have scored against Brazil, but her movement in the front third certainly caused the Brazilians plenty of headaches, causing uncertainty among the Brazilian defenders (even if the referees didn’t judge her to be actively involved in the crucial third goal) which contributed massively to the second and third goals on the day.

Her role was a more active one against Jamaica, as she ruthlessly exploited a nervy Jamaican defence over and over again.

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She outjumped her markers, avoided them all together and harassed them into two mistakes for the easiest of tap-ins.

This really was the Sam Kerr show.

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Only the Italians have coped with Kerr so far this tournament, and even they could not do so without dragging her down to give away a penalty.

In Kerr, Matildas coach Ante Milicic has a weapon which is truly the envy of almost every other team in the competition.

His problem is finding new ways to find her in goalscoring positions.
It was only against Jamaica that the Matildas tactic of getting the ball wide and into the penalty box had any real joy.

Successes in the final third against Brazil were somewhat fortunate, while there was almost no success in these ventures down the wing against Italy.

Kerr might boast a tremendous leap, but she has better feet and it is hard to imagine her having the freedom of the penalty box to run into against a much more organised Norwegian team.

Sam Kerr celebrates scoring a goal.

Sam Kerr. (Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images)

It is also worth noting that, while no one wants to take the gloss of Kerr’s supreme efforts, she was the third player in as many games to score a hat-trick against the Jamaicans.

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As the Matildas progress to tougher challenges in the match (hopefully matches) to come, the one-dimensional attacking approach of the Matildas needs to be urgently addressed by Milicic and Co.

There’s nothing wrong with relying on a mercurial talent like Kerr to score the goals you need to win a World Cup, but if that’s Australia’s route to glory, then Milicic’s team will need to find a more reliable route to Kerr and a more efficient system for keeping goals out at the other end.

Manage that and Kerr will handle the rest.

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