The France defender tasked with stopping Caitlin Foord ... oh, and Sam Kerr
By Emma Kemp
“Does Sam Kerr have any individual weaknesses?”
Eve Perisset pauses, then shakes her head slightly and says something in French.
Then this, in English: “She is a very big player.”
Perisset knows Kerr well, having spent the past English Women’s Super League season playing alongside her at Chelsea.
That helps, because she has intel that could help her France team stop the striker knocking them out of the World Cup.
It is pure luck – or bad luck, depending on perspective – that Kerr’s return from injury has arrived in time for Saturday’s quarter-final.
Eve Perisset might just have France’s most important job right now.Credit: Getty
The Matildas skipper, who played her first minutes in the round of 16 against Denmark, appears on course for another – potentially longer – shift off the bench at Suncorp Stadium.
And Perisset is quite possibly the member of Les Bleues’ camp possessing the most intimate knowledge of how best to deactivate the bomb on a timer, waiting to explode.
Eve Perisset plays alongside Sam Kerr at Chelsea and against Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord.Credit: Reuters
“She is a threat because she has very good moves,” the defensive stalwart says through an interpreter at France’s hotel in Brisbane.
“She is efficient in the box, so this is something we have to pay attention to. She’s got a very good aerial game. I’ll give all the advice I can to my teammates, to try to play against her.
“I know her very well and am really happy she was able to enter in the last game. We need to be very careful of her.”
Perisset has another thing on her mind, too: the small matter of marking Caitlin Foord.
Combine those two tasks, and she might just have her country’s most important job right now (sorry Emmanuel Macron).
If Foord starts on the left wing, as she has in Australia’s past two games, Perisset – France’s right-back – will be running all over the joint.
Australia’s Caitlin Foord has been brilliant at this World Cup.Credit: Getty Images
“It’s difficult – she is very fast,” she says in English. And she should know given she has already had to mark the Arsenal flyer in club land.
The 28-year-old watched Foord race onto that Mary Fowler pass and score Australia’s opening goal in spectacular fashion in Sydney on Monday (“of course I did”).
“She is a very, very good player,” she says through an interpreter. “I play against her with Chelsea. She is very strong one-on-one in the duel, so I will try avoid giving her space. I know that will be difficult but I will do my best.”
Herve Renard’s France will have a nation against them on Saturday, just as all Matildas opponents have at their home tournament. And they are talking down the importance of their 1-0 friendly loss to Australia in Melbourne last month.
But the team also know well the feeling of intense home expectation, having experienced it at the 2019 World Cup in France, when they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by eventual champions the United States.
Perisset has noticed Kerr’s face in every city and at every stadium, and Kerr jerseys on the streets, and believes it is symbolic of a special kind of pressure only felt by a host nation.
“I played a World Cup at home and I remember – and I think – that you have more pressure when you’re playing at home because there is so much expectation around you,” Perisset says.
“The host country has more pressure, but we have seen that, since the beginning of the competition, it doesn’t seem to be a problem for the Matildas.
“For now they are doing very well with that. Let’s see what will happen on Saturday.”
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