Sam Kerr’s sporting idols were all men, except for one. Cathy Freeman.
and in countless other big tournaments for the Matildas. Now she has to do it again, in the biggest of them all.“I love pressure. I love being in a moment where one or two moments can change the path, your career really – and I think this World Cup is one of those moments.”
“She’s Cathy Freeman-like, with her ability,” said Alistair Edwards, one of Kerr’s former coaches at the WA National Training Centre, where her path to greatness really began. Kerr was born into a sporting family and looked up to her brother Daniel, a former AFL star for the West Coast Eagles.Kerr was devastated, but they encouraged her to go and play soccer instead with her cousin at the Western Knights club – again, in the boys’ team. She hated it. “To make matters worse, my family didn’t like soccer,” Kerr wrote in her book. “They didn’t understand the rules, and thought it was a boring, low-scoring game.” So did she, at the start.
“The key aspects for a striker are to be fast and have the ability to score goals. Sam had both of those abilities,” he said. Being charitable, the goal itself was a happy accident. Kerr knew almost nothing about it, and was only credited with the strike because the ball was whacked right into her by a Korean defender, who was trying to clear the threat posed by Kate Gill’s header from an attacking corner kick.
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