MY ACCOUNT
Sam Kerr can fire Chelsea to the top of the Women’s Super League this week having just scored the decisive goal in the FA Cup final.
The Blues are a point behind leaders Manchester United but have a game in hand away at West Ham, which will take place on Wednesday night.
If the club can win the WSL they will do the double after the Australian striker scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Wembley over the weekend.
Ahead of Chelsea’s crunch clash with the Hammers, we turn the spotlight on Kerr’s prolific career so far and look towards a very important summer.
Award criticism
Kerr is a goal machine. Since joining Chelsea from Chicago Red Stars in late-2019, the forward has scored 88 goals in 113 appearances for the club.
Some 27 of those strikes have come this season in 35 appearances. As impressive as those numbers are, she has not been quite as prolific as in her first two full campaigns in London.
Last week, the Aussie was named as the FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year for the second time in a row.
This drew some criticism, with both Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly and Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw outscoring her in the current WSL campaign.
Yet both of these players will end the season without medals, while Kerr will likely win two.
Though her tally of ten league goals has been fewer than would be expected, she has been absolutely deadly in the cups.
Cup specialist
Scoring regularly is one thing, but some of the best strikers struggle to do so on the big occasion.
Not so Kerr. Chelsea’s victory over Manchester United was their third successive FA Cup win and the 29-year-old has found the net in all three of the Wembley showpieces.
This season, 18 of her 27 goals have come in cup competitions, helping Emma Hayes’ side to reach the League Cup final and the Champions League semis, before tasting glory over the weekend.
That is reassuring for a Chelsea team who effectively have three cup finals to play as they attempt to retain the WSL.
Though Kerr has not been prolific in the league, she has scored in both the home and away fixtures against title rivals United and Arsenal.
This happy habit of scoring when most needed, is not just a boon for Chelsea, but also for Australia on the international stage.
Record scorer
Australia will co-host the World Cup this summer with New Zealand and much will be expected of Kerr.
The Matildas’ all-time record goalscorer with 63 goals from 120 appearances, will captain her country when they open the tournament in July against the Republic of Ireland.
Kerr recently scored and assisted in a 2-0 friendly win against an England side that had just won the Finalissima showdown against the South American champions Brazil.
Drawn in Group B of the World Cup, Australia’s main opposition is likely to come from reigning Olympic champions Canada.
The performance of Kerr and her team-mates at the 2020 Games will give encouragement to the nation.
Scoring six times in the competition, the striker had a goal controversially disallowed in the 1-0 defeat to Sweden in the semi-finals. With home advantage, Australia will hope to reach the latter stages.
Any team with Kerr in their ranks has a chance of glory. Always ready for the big occasion, we are bound to see her trademark celebratory backflips plenty of times before the end of summer.
