Sam Kerr celebrates another Chelsea goal. (Chelsea FCW/Twitter)
Australians had big impacts, bigger wins and impressive highlights across Europe in the last week. The Inner Sanctum‘s Aussie Watch reflects on the impressive contributions of the Matildas and those who might be knocking on the door soon.
Ellie Carpenter
Asia’s best player was sorely missed against The Republic of Ireland but recovered from a thigh complaint to start for Lyon.
Given license to attack for the French giants, she took no time to make an impact. A cross in the third minute opened the scoring and Lyon were on the way to a 4-0 win over Guingamp.
Clare Wheeler and Angie Beard
In Denmark, newly capped Matildas Angie Beard and Clare Wheeler played full matches in Fortuna Hjorring’s 2-2 draw with HB Koge. Especially in light of the sad news that Chloe Logarzo has an ACL injury, Wheeler’s importance and form has been magnified for fans and coaches of the national team.
Teagan Micah and Charlotte Grant
Micah continued her strong form and started in goal for Rosegard in Sweden. A clean sheet evaded her but the club remain league leaders. Another recent Matildas debutant Charlotte Grant was on the bench for the current champions.
Jacynta Galabadaarachchi
In Scotland, Australian attacker Jacynta Galabadaarachchi began as a subtitute. With Celtic leading 1-0 she was brought on in the 69th minute against Hibernian.
Hibs levelled the scored with 12 minutes to play but Celtic snatched an injury time winner to keep them in touch with leaders Glasgow City.
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Sam Kerr
An action packed sunday evening saw Matildas feature prominently across the highlight reels.
Kerr kicked the night off with a dominant performance. In the opening 10 minutes she had created two chances for herself and set up one for Fran Kirby to tap in.
Kirby returned the favour with two assists for Kerr. Both were low crosses for the centre forward to finish at close range but the timing of the run from Kerr was perfection.
The Golden Boot winner now has four goals from two games this season. She is showing no signs of slump in form despite minimal time to rest or recover since the last season.
Chelsea ran out 6-1 winners against title contenders Manchester United.
Tameka Yallop and Mackenzie Arnold
The scorer of Australia’s first Olympic goal started in midfield for her first West Ham appearance.
After an excellent tournament in Tokyo and W-League season, the midfielder made an instant impact for her FAWSL debut.
In a role that allowed her to get forward and attack, she scored twice. The first opened the scoring in the 26th minute. She raced onto a pass from Kate Longhurst and finished emphatically. Her second to seal the 4-0 win was a flicked header after beating the offside trap.
Mackenzie Arnold started between the posts and kept a clean sheet in a strong West Ham performance.
Steph Catley
The star left back started for Arsenal in a 5-0 thrashing of Alanna Kennedy’s Manchester City.
The Gunners had too much class and too many weapons for the injury plagued Manchester club.
Caitlin Foord remained on a very deep Arsenal bench with Lydia Williams. Hayley Raso missed the game for City with a shoulder injury.
Emily Gielnik
In perhaps the highlight of the week for Australian players, Emily Gielnik scored her first Aston Villa goal.
It was as strike of remarkable athleticism and skill. She gathered the ball at halfway and drove at pace into the penalty area.
As the keeper approached Gielnik lofted the ball above and beyond her outstretched arms.
The brilliant solo goal was enough to secure a 1-0 win to Aston Villa. Gielnik has needed no time to adjust to the English league.
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