{"id":324148,"date":"2023-08-17T01:24:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T01:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=324148"},"modified":"2023-08-17T05:00:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T05:00:45","slug":"england-coach-forced-to-deny-nasty-kerr-tactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=324148","title":{"rendered":"England coach forced to deny 'nasty' Kerr tactic"},"content":{"rendered":"

E\ufeffngland<\/a>'s coach and players steadfastly denied accusations of a deliberate strategy to rough-up Australia<\/a>'s superstar striker Sam Kerr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kerr was targeted throughout a brutal FIFA Women's World Cup<\/a> semi-final on Wednesday night, in which England commited nine fouls to Australia's one in the first half alone.<\/p>\n

It was the first time Kerr had started on the field for the Matildas, having only played limited minutes in two of the five games beforehand due to injuring a calf muscle on the eve of the tournament.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Sam Kerr's five gut-wrenching words after crushing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Every Matildas player's performance rated in World Cup semi-final<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> England coach's bold claim after thrashing Matildas<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Chelsea superstar showed her immense class with a brilliant long-range solo goal<\/a> in the second half to level the scores at 1-1, but later missed two chances on goal as the Aussies lost 3-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\ufeffKerr could be forgiven for feeling a little bashed and bruised after she was subjected to a series of strong challenges by English defenders earlier in the night.<\/p>\n

England player Keira Walsh stepped on Kerr's foot in the opening exchanges, then her teammates Alex Greenwood and Jessica Carter collided with the Aussie captain in separate incidents as commentators fumed at the treatment.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Greenwood very aware of who that was," former Matildas player Amy Chapman said after one challenge on Kerr.<\/p>\n

"That was a very nasty tackle."<\/p>\n

Optus Sport caller Catherine Cannuli noted, "number one on the list of tactics was 'kick Sam Kerr a couple of times'".<\/p>\n

\"Jessica<\/p>\n

When it was put to Lionesses coach Sarina Wiegman that their gameplan revolved around bashing Kerr out of the contest, she responded with an emphatic "no".<\/p>\n

"Of course Sam Kerr is an important player to them, but I think there are more players for Australia that are really good," Wiegman expanded.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, we had to defend really well, and be in possession to play well too."\ufeff<\/p>\n

England defender Lucy Bronze also denied the allegations when pressed by News.com.au.<\/p>\n

"We didn't have someone running around after Sam Kerr," Bronze said.<\/p>\n

"We know she's a fantastic player, but we've got 11 of those on the pitch.<\/p>\n

"We just had to play our own game and I think that's what we did tonight."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Savage<\/p>\n

Australian football legend John Aloisi believed Kerr was tiring in the later stages of the game, which led to her missing a header and then a regulation close-range volley in front of goal.<\/p>\n

It was the \ufefffirst time Kerr had been asked to play a full game since before the World Cup began.<\/p>\n

"I will put it down to fatigue with Sam," Aloisi said.<\/p>\n

"She came on last game and played longer than she expected to play. Her legs were probably gone a little bit. That is when you start snatching at things. The two chances she had she was snatching at them."\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E\ufeffngland's coach and players steadfastly denied accusations of a deliberate strategy to rough-up Australia's superstar striker Sam Kerr. Kerr was targeted throughout a brutal FIFA […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324148"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324154,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324148\/revisions\/324154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/324150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}