High-flying Kerr now living up to her X-factor billing
Hayes hails striker after hat-trick shows how Australian is coping with the physical demands of the English game
After Sam Kerr slotted in her first goal 87 seconds into the League Cup final, a Chelsea team-mate called down to her from the stands: “What about the celebration, Sam?”
“Next time,” Kerr replied with a chuckle from the centre circle as Bristol City restarted play. Just eight minutes later – to her team-mates’ delight – Australia’s top striker was cartwheeling away from her second goal, before backflipping through the air with her arms outstretched.
It is her signature celebration, for which she became known in her national team shirt and while breaking scoring records in the Australian and American leagues for fun. But yesterday was her first in a Chelsea shirt – and caught manager Emma Hayes off guard. “I’m shaking my head because I’ve waited 12 months for that, she could have given me a heads-up,” Hayes said, before adding some tongue-in-cheek analysis: “But the second half of the flip was very sloppy. It would’ve been a 4.0 at the Olympics.”
However sub-par Hayes deemed it, the celebration, and Kerr’s casual confidence that she would have another goal to celebrate, show just how comfortable she has become.
Images of Kerr 14 months ago, face-planting into the turf on her Women’s Super League debut, led some to suggest the then-most expensive women’s player would have some adjustments to make in order to thrive in the physical nature of the English game.
In late February 2020, when Chelsea won the League Cup in just
her seventh appearance, she was still fulfilling mostly substitute cameo roles before the season was halted.
But just over a year on, as Chelsea defended their trophy with ease, Kerr imprinted her name in the history books. She became the first player to score a League Cup final hat-trick, in a season in which she has come good on all the hype that followed her signing in 2019.
None of her three tap-ins were as spectacular as her tumbling tricks, but the way she carved up City’s defence was a showcase of her speed, expert positioning and the clear joy with which she is playing.
She was helped in no small part by Fran Kirby, who assisted all three of her goals, and Kerr’s flourishing at Chelsea has been in many ways down to the partnership they have forged. Of Kirby’s 11 league goals this season, three have been assisted by Kerr; four of Kerr’s 12 thanks to passes by Kirby. Their clinical finishing and selfless distribution dismantled City on the counter-attack, with all six goals involving England forward Kerr. “I thought the connection between her and Sam … just everything came off today – it was a brilliant performance,” Hayes said. It was against opposition they were expected to beat, but the pair have scored similar goals in crucial matches against close rivals too. The routine way they keep doing so has made them forces of nature against any defensive line. While there were no backflips at full-time, as Maren Mjelde’s nasty injury muted Chelsea’s celebrations, Kerr’s form is worth jumping up and down about.