Sam Kerr’s World Cup goal gives Australia moment to remember even in defeat | Jack Snape

In the culmination of the best month of football the country has ever seen, the Matildas’ biggest star blazed a trail into history

Sam Kerr’s hands were on her knees. At the other end of the pitch she had just witnessed Alessia Russo score England’s third goal to end Australia’s dream of winning the Women’s World Cup. The feeling of responsibility was obvious. Just 72 seconds earlier, she had missed a chance from close range that would have levelled the match.

For Kerr, it looked like torture. The worst thing that could happen to a striker, a captain, the leader of a footballing nation. The kind of pain that never leaves. The story written entirely the wrong way.